Local News Headlines 4/5/13 4:49am
It's begun to feel more like Spring in and around the Jamestown-area. After three straight days of more Winter-like conditions... the thermometer is nearly reaching 52 in some parts of the region. The National Weather Service in Buffalo forecast for sun was right on. Forecaster David Thomas in Buffalo says the colder air that produced the unseasonably cold weather and snow the the recent days is loosening up it's grip. Winds are out of the south and southwest... helping to bring in that warmer air. Aside from today... he says the weather will be normal for this time of year. Thomas says temperatures will still be on the cold-side during the evening's and overnights... until Saturday. Lows will be in the lower 40s then. Thomas adds our next bout of precipitation will move in late in the coming weekend. He says a "slow moving frontal system" will be bringing some showers in by early Sunday. By Monday, though, Thomas says we'll be back in the mid-50s.
An Oklahoma man is jailed without bail after the top of a trailer he stole in Texas... and, was hauling... struck the concrete railroad bridge on South Main Street in Jamestown. City police were called to the scene shortly after 10:30 AM Wednesday... where the trailer... which was 13-feet high... had struck the Western New York and Pennsylvania bridge. The span is 12 feet above the road. Officers say the driver... 54 year-old Rudolf Fokumlah (FOE-Coom-lah) of Oklahoma City... was not hurt. However... further investigation found the trailer had been stolen on March 21st. Fokumlah was arrested on several charges... including third-degree criminal possession of stolen property... and, aggravated unlicensed operation. Police say the bridge appeared to be undamaged... but, it was to be inspected. Fokumlah was arraigned... and, sent to the county lock-up.
The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities' Yard Waste Site is being moved to a new location... not far from the current site. Restrictions on it's use will also be enforced through window stickers for BPU customers. That from General Manager Dave Leathers... who says the new site will open later this month. Leathers says the dump site is being moved from Fluvanna Avenue to 10-01 Monroe Street. He says it'll be at the 'dead-end' of the street.
Leathers says the move will allow the site to be away from a location on Fluvanna that's used by the city's Public Works Department. He says the other change is on restricting use of the site to only BPU Solid Waste Customers. He says users of the yard waste site will have to have a window sticker on the rear driver's side window of their vehicle. Leathers says there's been some misuse in the past. Leathers says the window stickers are available free of charge to BPU Solid Waste residential customers. But... he adds only ONE sticker will be provide to each customer account.
Advocates for campaign finance reform say the latest in a long string of political scandals shows the ongoing need to remove money from Albany politics. While acknowledging the bribery charges Tuesday against state Sen. Malcolm Smith involve his effort to run for mayor of New York City, which already has public campaign financing, the government watchdog groups say they included a promise of state money. They say Albany's ``pay-to-play'' culture must go. Karen Scharff of Citizen Action of New York says many legislators first get elected intending to work for their communities then learn they are in a system where money determines outcomes. Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters says New York also needs strict campaign finance enforcement and has no investigators at the state Board of Elections.
A federal bribery case has led to the arrest of one Bronx assemblyman and the resignation of another. Federal prosecutors say Assemblyman Eric Stevenson has been arrested in a bribery investigation. Fellow Democratic Assemblyman Nelson Castro cooperated in the probe and says he's giving up his seat in Albany on Monday.
Gas prices in the Jamestown-area have finally begun creeping down this week. The Triple-A's Fuel Gauge reports the average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded is now 3-dollars-92 cents. That's a drop of two-cents from last week. On the national front... the average price is also down two-cents this week to just under 3-dollars-64 cents. That price is also 12-cents less than one month ago. An increase in refinery production and lower oil prices in early March have combined to provide rare falling prices compared to recent years.
Pennsylvania's governor is suggesting that he's interested in a concept that combines an expansion of Medicaid eligibility for hundreds of thousands of uninsured residents by using federal dollars to buy private insurance plans. Tom Corbett says he's seeking information about the idea, a day after meeting with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. It was first broached by Arkansas' Democratic Governor Mike Beebe as a way to get his GOP-controlled Legislature on board with a Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
A Cattaraugus County teenager is facing burglary and petty larceny charges after a break-in at a lumber mill in Leon Wednesday. Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Deputies say 18-year-old Mahlon Gingrich allegedly broke into the Adams Lumber Mill... and, stole five cans of soda pop. Gingrich was arraigned... and, sent to the Little Valley jail on 2-thousand dollars bail.
