Another artic blast is hitting the Jamestown-area. The National Weather Service is continuing a Wind Chill Warning now through 10 AM Friday for all of Western New York. Forecaster Dave Zaff in Buffalo says temperatures took a nosedive overnight... with the coldest air reaching the area during the day today. There will be a brief break from the frigid weather pattern over the weekend. Temperatures will drop again by Sunday night. Forecasters expect the below normal temperatures to continue for the rest of the month.
Both lanes of the state Thruway westbound near the Lake Erie shoreline in western New York were reopened late last night after a crash involving a truck. The Thruway Authority says a tractor-trailer crashed around 6:30 AM Wednesday between Exit 58 and 59 in the Chautauqua County town of Sheridan. The right lane reopened around 10 AM... but, the left lane remained blocked until about 9:30 last night. State police say westbound traffic was diverted off Interstate 90 at Exit 58 at Irving while both lanes were closed, while all westbound tandem trucks had to get off the highway at Exit 57 at Hamburg. Troopers say one person reportedly suffered non-life threatening injuries in the accident.
Fire investigators have determined the cause of this past Monday's fire that destroyed the warehouse portion of a Lakewood-area manufacturer was electrical in nature. Lakewood Fire crews were called to Carving Masters at 47-18 Cramer Road just after 5:30 AM... and, found the back portion fo the building heavily-involved in flames. The Chautauqua County Fire Investigation Team, and Lakewood fire officials, searched for the cause... and, now say the blaze originated in the painting room... and, was caused by an electric baseboard heater. No one was hurt in the fire... and, officials say there was minor damage to the front portion of the facility.
In spite of a law passed in 2012... nearly 300 synthetic drugs are still available on the market that can cause serious health problems. That's starting to be seen with young people... including four school students recently in Batavia who became ill after ingesting "Cloud-9..." a stimulant also known as "bath salts." U-S Senator Chuck Schumer of New York... who pushed for the previous legislation... says he want's the U-S Drug Enforcement Administration to "pick up the pace" of outlawing many of those drugs that are still available, and causing kids to get sick. He made his push during an appearance in Jamestown earlier this week. Schumer adds that two other students went to the hospital after taking the drug in the Churchville-Chili District near Rochester. He says the problem is that synthetic drug-makers "skirt" the law by packaging and selling new combinations. However... Schumer says these drugs are starting to show up in local schools... and, causing health problems for students who take them. The Democratic lawmakers says taking the drugs can lead to health problems such as seizures... and, hallucinations.
A legislative ethics commission has sent a notice of delinquency to former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver demanding more information about his outside income. The Manhattan Democrat stepped down as speaker this month after being charged with taking nearly 4-million dollars in kickbacks and payoffs. He is keeping his Assembly seat... and, has said he will be exonerated. The notice of delinquency was sent this month by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which had previously asked Silver to provide more information about private legal work he did in 2011 through 2013. Silver did not comply. He could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines if he is found to have violated state ethics rules.
New York's highest court has ruled that state law determines where sex offenders can live in a community, not the growing number of municipal ordinances setting boundaries around parks, schools and other areas where children are likely to gather. The Court of Appeals ruled unanimously late Tuesday in a case out of Nassau County, saying New York's ``comprehensive and detailed'' statutes and regulations for identifying, restricting and monitoring registered sex offenders prohibit localities from enacting their own residency restrictions. Judge Eugene Pigott notes state law already prohibits offenders considered level three, or highest-risk for new offenses, from any public or private school grounds, or in a publicly accessible area or parked car within 1,000 feet. He notes that has been interpreted by courts as prohibiting them from living within 1,000 feet.
A new report says nearly a half-a-million tons of solid fracking waste from Pennsylvania has been dumped in landfills in New York state... and, it calls upon the Cuomo administration to take emergency action. Liz Moran with Environmental Advocates of New York authored the report "License to Dump... " which relies on Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection records to document what she calls a major toxic and radioactive threat to New Yorkers. Moran says New York currently has no system in place to track the potentially toxic and radioactive waste that has been dumped at seven New York landfills since at least 2010. Her organization is calling on the Department of Environmental Conservation to issue an emergency rule to classify waste from fracking operations as "hazardous."
A meteor moving at 45-thousand miles per hour lit up the sky over western Pennsylvania early Tuesday. NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office says the space rock measuring two feet in diameter... and, weighing roughly 500 pounds entered Earth's atmosphere above the Pittsburgh suburbs around 4:50 AM Tuesday. It could be seen in Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio.
