Weekend News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on March 13, 2021
Senators Schumer and Gillibrand along with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez are calling on Governor Cuomo to resign as the impeachment investigation into him goes into action and a 7th accuser has come forward. Jessica Bakeman said Friday that the governor used touching and sexual innuendo to stoke fear in female aides and reporters. She said that his actions are a textbook example of sexual harassment. Cuomo came out Friday with a blanket denunciation of the accusations, saying that he did not do the things he was accused of and that there are often many motivations for making allegations.
New York State is 40th in terms of percentage of the population who have had both doses of the COVID Vaccine with 10.7 percent. Alaska is number 1 in percentage with 17 percent of it’s population fully dosed. In terms of sheer numbers the Empire State is 4th with California in the lead. New York is also behind most of the rest of the country in the rate that COVID is declining. The rate of newly diagnosed cases per day is twice the national average as is the rate of hospitalization. Part of this could be explained by the fact that over half the new cases being diagnosed in New York City are new variants of the Coronavirus according to the New York City’s Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi. New York City also has it’s own variant, called b.1.526 which is more infectious.
A Rochester Music teacher has plead guilty to 61 counts of production of child pornography and 13 counts of possession of child porn. 43 year old Philip Close, owner of Close School of Music on West Ridge Rd and former teacher at another music school was accused of placing cameras in bathrooms and other locations throughout the schools and recording young girls while they were naked between 2012 and 1019. Hundreds of videos and 13 recording devices were discovered. The charges carry a minimum penalty of 15 years in prison, a maximum 2,090 years in prison, and a $18,500,000 fine.
COVID update from Friday night: Genesee county has 16 new cases and 24 people have recovered. Orleans County has 7 new cases and 7 people have recovered. There are 56 active cases in Genesee County and 37 in Orleans. 6482 people have had both doses of the Covid vaccine in Genesee county and 3230 Orleans county residents have had both doses.
In local basketball the Batavia Blue devils lost 55 to 56 to the Wayne Knights. Both teams had identical undefeated stats of 14 to 0 before the Sectional final game Friday night.
