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WJTN News Headlines for Sept. 17, 2018

The Cuomo Administration has begun holding "listening sessions" across New York State on developing legislation to legalize the recreational use of marijuana...  
 
However, Chautauqua County's only alcohol and substance abuse prevention provider has announced that it opposes the legalization of marijuana.  Chautauqua Alcohol and Substance Abuse Council's Executive Director Melanie Witkowski says legalizing marijuana sends the wrong message to youth.
 
While Witkowski doesn't like the term "gateway drug..." she says there is evidence that marijuana users are more likely to use prescription drugs.  She says a recent news release states that medical marijuana users are more likely to use prescription drugs "medically and non-medically."  CASAC has also taken the position that while it supports keeping marijuana illegal, it does favors decriminalizing personal use.  Witkowski says decriminalizing is a public health approach that prioritizes treatment over incarceration.   
 
 
A Jamestown teenager has been accused of harassing a corrections officer at the Chautauqua County Jail earlier this month...  
 
Sheriff's officers say 18 year-old David Santiago was being held in the jail when he allegedly threw urine on the employee during an incident last September 7.  Deputies say Santiago was arraigned in Chautauqua Town Court on one count of aggravated harassment of an Employee by an Inmate and, returned to the county jail without bail.
 
 
A man wanted on murder and assault charges by authorities in Worcester, Massachusetts was located last week in the city of Dunkirk...  
 
Dunkirk Police worked with agents from the US Marshals Office in arresting 25-year-old Kennie Mota-Cruz.  Police Chief David Ortolano describes Mota-Cruz as a dangerous man, who was found in the area of Roberts Road and East 2nd Street.  Mota-Cruz was arraigned in Dunkirk City Court as a fugitive from justice and he was transported to the Chautauqua County Jail to await extradition proceedings.
 
 
The event put on by the Harmony Historical Society is called the 'Harvest Festival,' but it was more like full summer on Saturday and Sunday in Blockville...  
 
Lyn Nagle is the President of the Harmony Historical Society and was in full period dress as she showed how to weave with a loom.   She said the art was nearly lost due to the Industrial Revolution. However, she says it came back as a "therapy" for soldiers following WWI. 
 
Harmony's John Brown organizes the annual Harvest Festival, with the intention of taking people back to a specific time-- the 1800s.  Next year, the festival will celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the separation of North Harmony from the Town of Harmony.  
 
 
A judge is urging a government lawyer to clear the schedule of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for a day so he can be asked why he wants to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census...  
 
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman encouraged that step at a hearing last Friday even before he rules next week whether Ross must answer questions from lawyers.  Furman is presiding over lawsuits which claim Ross is acting improperly.  One of the lawsuits was brought by over a dozen states and big cities.  Plaintiffs say the citizenship question will discourage immigrants from participating, diluting political representation and federal dollars for states that tend to vote Democratic.  The judge also says a trial could start November 5.  A government lawyer says there is no need for a trial.
 
 
There have been several prison reforms in the 47 years since the 1971 Attica Prison uprising, but there is still a problem with mass incarceration in the United States...  
 
Those are the feelings of Civil Right's Historian and author Heather Ann Thompson, who spoke during a Fall Legal Seminar at the Robert H. Jackson Center this past week.  Thompson says improvements in visitation and corrections officer training has helped but, she says more alternatives to incarceration need to be looked at.
 
Thompson says the United States' criminal justice system incarcerates about seven-million people right now and, she says it's affected more than just the person who is locked-up.  It's affected those families involved in both black and white communities.  Thompson spoke at the Jackson Center about her 2016 book: "Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and it's legacy..." which took about 13 years to write as more records, and stories came to light.
 
 
After a night of silence, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made his first public remarks following his victory in Thursday's Democratic primary early last weekend....  
 
Cuomo appeared at his office in Manhattan to cite his big win over Cynthia Nixon as evidence that liberal voters want results, not rhetoric.  Cuomo, who did not hold an election night victory party and issued only a brief tweet on election night, spoke Friday with a tinge of bitterness in his voice as he chafed at Nixon's campaign message that he wasn't a true progressive.  He said voters had agreed with him, saying, "I received more votes in the Democratic primary than any governor in history."  Cuomo also dismissed the idea that established Democrats are in danger of being tossed out of office by young, leftist candidates.
 
 
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer is decrying proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's budget he says could seriously hurt the government's ability to obtain critical weather information...  
 
The New York Democrat says the agency's budget may be slashed by more than 20-percent.  He said Sunday that would be more than one-billion dollars of its overall budget.  Schumer says the cuts would include a reduction to a research budget from more than $510-million to $321-million.  He says the National Weather Service would also see an eight-percent cut, which includes a reduction in weather forecast positions.  Schumer says he's attempting to negotiate a bi-partisan spending bill to prevent the cuts.  He says there needs to be "high pressure" put on Congress to stop the "unwise cuts."
 
 
The U-S Department of Agriculture says Bob Evans Farms is recalling nearly 47-thousand pounds of pork sausage links because it might contain pieces of plastic... 
 
The items have establishment number "EST 6785" and were sold in New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.  The Food and Safety Inspection Service says there are no confirmed reports of any injuries.  The 12-ounce trays are labeled Bob Evans Maple Pork Sausage Links, Brown Sugar and Honey, Fresh from Meijer Maple Flavored Sausage Links or Giant Eagle Maple Pork Breakfast Sausage Links Caramel Color Added.  All have a lot code of 8213.  The sausage should be thrown out or returned to place of purchase.