Two people from Jamestown are jailed without bail following a drug raid last Saturday night in which they were allegedly found with a "large quantity" of Crystal Methamphetamine in their possession...
City Police Captain Bob Samuelson says members of the Jamestown Metro, and Southern Tier Regional Drug Task Forces jointly raided the home at 12 Partridge Street shortly after 10 PM and, arrested 22 year-olds Jacob Komenda, and Loegan Morrison-Samples and, found about 2.2-ounces of Crystal meth.
Samuelson adds officers also found Komenda and Morrison-Samples in possession of a small quantity of powder cocaine, along with a shot-gun and stun gun, drug paraphernalia and, a quantity of cash. He says both Komenda and Morrison-Samples were arraigned in city court, and sent to the county lock-up. Samuelson says both face a preliminary hearing later this week. The JPD SWAT Team assisted in the raid. (**If you have any information about illegal drug activity in the city, call the Metro Drug Task Force at 483-TIPS or contact their Tips 4-1-1 app.)
Pennsylvania's highest court is striking down a provision of 2017's sprawling state law expanding casino-style gambling, saying a tax on higher-revenue casinos to provide cash grants to help market and improve lower-performing casinos is unconstitutional....
The state Supreme Court on Friday agreed with a challenge by Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, invalidating the tax and ordering the money repaid. Sands Casino argued the provision violated various parts of the state constitution and the U.S. constitution's equal protection and due process clauses. Based on 2017-18 revenues, Presque Isle Downs in Erie, and Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Poconos were to get $4-million dollars each, with smaller amounts going to three other casinos. Seven casinos wouldn't receive anything. Chief Justice Tom Saylor writes that the benefit received and the burden imposed make it unconstitutional.
While Chautauqua County lost 20 percent of its grape and dairy farms in the new Ag Census, there are some areas where agriculture is growing....
Katelyn Walley-Stoll, Farm Business Educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension, says beef farming is increasing, and the number of dairy farms adding beef has also gone up. Another area, that doubled in value from 2012 to 2107 is 'direct to consumer' production, up to around $3.5 million a year. That 'direct to consumer' marketing includes such diverse areas as baking bread for farmers' markets, having a sweet corn stand, or adding a colony of bees. A decade ago Chautauqua County had the most farms of any county in New York. Now with 1,228 farms, the county is third, behind Steuben and St. Lawrence counties. (Walley Stoll spoke on the Farm Bureau Radio Show this past weekend.)
A Jamestown man is accused of leading city police on a brief foot chase on the southside last Saturday afternoon when they tried to arrest him on a warrant....
Officers say they spotted 38 year-old Alberto Narvaez-Aponte in the area of Foote Avenue and Harrison Street about 5:30 PM and, went to arrest him. However, police say Narvaez-Aponte pulled away from them, and he tried to hit one of them. The suspect then ran off, but, was quickly stopped and taken into custody. Narvaez-Aponte was also found in possession of three Suboxone strips, which he did not have a prescription for. He was arrested for seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree obstruction, and resisting arrest.
The three-phased clean-up of a huge weed mass that inundated the Burtis Bay-area of Celoron on Chautauqua Lake late last Fall is to begin this week.....
That from County Executive George Borrello, who says members of the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance had hoped to begin lakeshore clean-up in that area before last Winter. However, that didn't work out. Borrello says leaders met at the end of March to further develop a clean-up plan. Burtis Bay resident Peggy Newell spoke at this past week's County Legislature meeting in Mayville.
Newell says Borrello told her just prior to the meeting that the official clean-up was beginning shortly. The executive says a combination of excessive floating aquatic vegetation and high water levels and high winds created the weed mass. He says the county worked with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to find a way to remove the weeds and, $73,000 in funding was secured for the project through contributions from the county, the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, and the Alliance.
Last Saturday morning's strong winds in Jamestown blew over part of a brick wall on a more than 100 year-old building in the downtown area.....
City Fire Battalion Chief Don Mowry says the gusty winds blew the brick facade off the side of the Coffee Exchange building at the corner of West 8th Street and Murray Avenue shortly after 9 AM. The winds were still gusting when we spoke with Mowry.
Mowry says the city's Department of Development and a contractor have been called to figure out how they can stabilize the building. He says an engineer was looking at the building late Saturday morning, and they were working to stablize the building until repairs can be made. Mowry says no injuries were reported. He says the building itself is still structurally sound. However, Mowry says a portion of West 8th Street has been blocked off in case any more bricks fall.
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is shrugging off her state's governor's endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign over her own....
Speaking to reporters after an event Friday at a bar in Nashua, New Hampshire, Gillibrand said, "Our governor can endorse whoever he likes, but I am the best candidate to defeat President Trump, and I will." Fellow Democrat and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he's supporting Biden, who formally launched his White House bid Thursday. Gillibrand said, "The truth is, this presidential election will not be won on the endorsements of powerful people." She later briefly played beer pong, successfully tossing a pingpong ball across a table and into a plastic glass of water, making her opponents take long swigs of beer.
