Weekend News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on July 25, 2020
Michael Tomaszewski
The Genesee county Sheriffs Office is investigating a body that was found in the garage of Michael Tomaszewski Funeral home and has been there for up to nine months. On Thursday Tomaszewski was charged with 200 counts of grand larceny, failure to deposit monies, and schemes to defraud among other charges. The body, believed to be that of Peter Vendetta was given to Tomaszewski for burial but never made it to the grave. According to Vendetta’s step daughter Ronda Grabowski, Tomaszeski never received instructions for the burial from a cousin so he just kept the body.
Governor Cuomo is wading into an ongoing debate about what is food and what isn’t and making it law. 2 food items in particular raised eyebrows all over western NY. Cuomo in his Friday news briefing declared that hotdogs are sandwiches, and chicken wings are not food. He said these things as part of his mandate to force bars and restaurants to serve food with alcohol. Cuomo stated that the mandate is to make sure that people are not congregating at bars or large outside gatherings with just drinks but that they are sitting down to substantive foods and not just finger foods.
New York Republicans including Assemblyman Steve Hawley and Senator Michael Ranzenhofer decried the new legislation coming out of Albany. The New York State legislature voted to allow people to register to vote through agencies such as the DMV and New York City housing authority but not the DEC which Ranzenhofer says is picking and choosing to try to curry votes with only specific voting groups. Another bill that passed would allow the state government to redistrict areas of New York which Hawley says will lead to Gerrymandering. The assembly also decided against removing Cuomo’s emergency powers, and blocked legislation to increase penalties for assaulting a police officer.
For the first time in more than 100 years, Buffalo will be the home of a Major League Baseball Team. Late Friday night Governor Cuomo announced that the Toronto Blue Jays will be coming to Sahlens field in Buffalo. The blue jays had to fly away from their home at Rogers Center in Toronto as the Canadian government would not allow them to travel back and forth over the border to the US because of Coronavirus. Pennsylvania would not let them play at PNC Park for similar reasons. The Jays were concerned about Sahlens Field as the lighting and Clubhouse amenities are not up to MLB standards. Their practice team will be going to Frontier field in Rochester.
