A high school senior was killed last Saturday night in a farming accident in the town of Gerry. Sheriff's deputies say they were called to the scene on 28th Creek Road about 6:30 PM. Officers say 18 year-old Alan Harding was operating a farm tractor when he had the accident... and, the vehicle overtuned. Officers say Harding was fatally injured. The Post-Journal is reporting that Harding was a senior at Cassadaga Valley High School. No one else was injured.
Three city residents are in the county jail without bail following two drug raids -- during which a loaded handgun was found -- at the Best Western Hotel in downtown Jamestown. City Police Captain Bob Samuelson says members city and county's drug task forces... along with the State Police C-NET Team... raided rooms on the first and third floors of the West Third Street hotel... just after 3 PM Friday. He says they found a lot of powder cocaine, and extasy in the rooms.Samuelson adds they found the loaded pistol in the first-floor room... along with two suspects... 36 year-old Larry Hicks... and, 26 year-old Johnee Thompson. He says both are charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon... and, third and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He adds the third suspect -- 39 year-old Dwight Leeper -- was found on the third floor with the 46 grams of cocaine and cash. Samuelson says Leeper is charged with third-degree possession.. and criminal tampering for trying to flush the drug evidence down a toilet. Anyone with information on the illegal trafficking of drugs in the city is asked to call the Confidential Tip-Line at 483-TIPS... that's 483-8477.
City police officials acknowledge that the simultaneous raids took place at a "public place..." but, say the "serious circumstances" involved led them to do the raid when they did. At 3:15 PM on Friday... JPD Captain Bob Samuelson says the hotel was still in "pre-check-in" time... and, there weren't as many people inside the Best Western. Samuelson says task force members tried to be as unintrusive as possible. There were activities going on across the street at the Jamestown Savings Bank Arena... with a children's hockey tournament going on. Samuelson says officials felt it was best to get the drugs being trafficked, and the loaded hand-gun, out of the hotel.
A Jamestown man is jailed for allegedly harassing another person... and, throwing them over the top of a car. City police were called to the scene at 111 West Second Street about 1:30 PM Saturday... and, arrested Eric Goodlow for the incident... which was reportedly the continuation of an earlier domestic incident. Officers say Goodlow is charged with aggravated family offense... second-degree harassment... Grand Larceny... and, criminal obstruction of breating and blood cirdulation. Goodlow was arrested without incident... and, is being held pending arraignment.
The New York pension fund for state and local government workers reports an investment return of nearly 3 percent for the quarter that ended December 31st with an estimated value of 178.3-billion dollars. That follows the previous quarter when the fund lost 4 percent, which Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli attributed to late summer volatility in financial markets. DiNapoli, sole trustee of the fund, says there was some recovery while markets remain challenging across all asset classes. As of December 31st... it had about 37 of its investments in domestic stocks, 15.3 percent in international stocks, and 21 percent in bonds and mortgages. The rest was divided among cash, Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, private equity, real estate and other investments. The fund holds assets for more than a million government employees, retirees and beneficiaries.
A lot of work went into the effort to land nearly 5.9-million dollars in Impact Funding for four area school districts that include portions of the Seneca Nation territories. The Seneca Nation was well represented at the announcement by Congressman Tom Reed late last week at Silver Creek Central. Trudy Jackson, Education Director for the Cattaraugus Territory, says the Tribal Council played an important role. That approval was unanimous. Christina Jimerson, a Tribal Council member, says they were glad to see the funding approved. She believes it will not only help taxpayers, but also the students who are served by the districts. Jimerson says they were also glad to see the cooperation involved in getting the applications together. The Silver Creek... Lake Shore... Gowanda... and, Salamanca City School districts will each receive a share of the funding.
Chautauqua County residents have saved just over 5-million dollars on their prescription medications through a discount drug program over the past nearly seven years. That from County Executive Vince Horrigan... who says prescription users have saved 10 to 20-percent on brand name drugs... and, 20-to-70 percent on generics using their ProAct Prescription Discount Card. Horrigan says the program was exclusively endorsed by Chautauqua County in December of 2009. Since the program was implemented... he says residents have filled more than 150,000 prescriptions saving an average of 50-percent... or 32-dollars-71-cents on each prescription they fill. For people who have no prescription drug insurance coverage... Horrigan says the program has provided them with "sizeable savings." For more information on the program... go on-line to NYRxDiscountCard.com... or call the County Executive’s Office at 753-4211.
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Congressional candidate Zephyr Teachout were headliners at the first gathering of the New York State Progressive Elected Officials Network. It's a new organization created to help liberal politicians work together... and, held two days of meetings last weekend at an Albany-area hotel. The coalition says the event gave elected officials from around the state the chance to discuss politics related to ``economic justice,'' education, climate change, housing and other issues. Nearly 100 officials attended. DiNapoli, a Democrat, was re-elected in 2014. Teachout, a Fordham University law professor, unsuccessfully challenged Governor Andrew Cuomo in the 2014 Democratic primary for governor. She is now running for the U.S. House seat in the Hudson Valley that Republican Chris Gibson says he's going to vacate to run for Governor.
