A car has reportedly struck a pedestrian at the intersection of State Street and Alva Place, Batavia.

City fire and Mercy EMS responding.

The location is by Washington Towers, behind JCPenney.

UPDATE 3:54 p.m.: A pedestrian was struck by a car making a left-hand turn, but the person does not appear to be injured. Mercy medics are transporting the pedestrian to Strong Memorial Hospital for evaluation.

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An 81-year-old man from Medina who was a passenger in a sedan that rammed under the trailer of a big rig died just before 5 p.m. yesterday, according to State Police.

Purcil E. Buzard suffered severe trauma in the accident, according to sources, and was flown by Mercy Flight to an area hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The accident was reported at about 9:30 a.m. yesterday at the intersection of Route 77 and Route 63 in Alabama. A tractor-trailer that was eastbound on Lewiston Road was making a right-hand turn onto southbound Alleghany Road. A Mercury sedan driven by Donna L. Wolter, 69, of Medina, allegedly failed to stop at the four-way stop. The car went under the trailer and its roof was sheared off and then hit a vacant building on the southwest corner of the intersection. It bounced off the building and hit a sedan stopped on Lewiston Road.

Wolter suffered head injuries.

There were no other injuries reported as a result of the accident.

If Oliver Thomas hadn't had a warrant for his arrest for five months, perhaps he could have made bail today, but since he didn't turn himself in and continued to hide from police, Judge Charles Zambito wasn't persuaded that bail was appropriate in his case.

Thomas was wanted for his alleged role in a home-invasion attack on residents in a Central Avenue residence in October. A second warrant was later issued because of his alleged failure to register a change of address as a convicted sex offender.

On the bail evaluation worksheet, which judges use to help determine somebody's flight risk, Thomas scored a negative four, even though he's a lifelong Batavia resident.

Thomas was in court today specifically for a review of his bail status following his arrest in Le Roy and original arraignment earlier this week.

Assistant District Attorney Melissa Cianfrini argued that even with his lifelong residency, Thomas has proven he's really pretty transient with lots of options for where he can go and where he can hide.

"He's a significant flight risk," Cianfrini said.

His assigned counsel, Brian Degnan, argued that because of his roots here, and that he obeyed all of the rules of his prior parole, he deserved reasonable bail, such as $10,000 or $20,000 bond.

Zambito agreed that Thomas is a flight risk and ordered him held without bail.

The case of a 29-year-old man's sexual affair with a 16-year-old Genesee County girl turned a lot today on speculation about just how hurt the girl was by the affair.

Daniel Brown is from Ontario County and has already been sentenced to two years in state prison on his conviction of crimes stemming from acts between him and the girl in that county and this morning's hearing was to determine if he should get an additional year in prison for crimes committed locally.

He pled guilty in December to criminal sexual act, 3rd.

Assistant District Attorney Kevin Finnell argued that Brown deserved the maximum available sentence available under the plea deal, three years in prison to be served concurrently with his Ontario County sentence, notwithstanding a statement by the victim's mother in a letter to court stating that her daughter suffered nothing more than a broken heart from the affair.

Finnell said that even by his own admission, Brown knows he hurt the girl in ways that will have ramifications for her later in life.

"He acknowledged in his letter to the court that he knows her brain is still developing and that this can affect her later in life," Finnell said. "He knew that."

According to Finnell, Brown struck up a friendship with the girl while she was still 15 and would meet with her, text with her and even showed up at school at least once to watch one of her school activities and when questioned about his presence, he said he was at the school that day to interview for a teaching job, which, Finnell said, was a lie.

Finnell said the physical affair started as shortly after the girl turned 16 and that Brown knew what he was doing wrong all along both legally and morally.  

According to Finnell, Brown would pick up the girl at school and never drive far from the school so they could get her back to the school quickly if her mother showed up, ostensibly to help hide the affair. 

The maximum sentence was appropriate, Finnell said, because the affair started in Genesee County and Brown continued to pursue the girl in Genesee County, even if they also spent time together in Ontario County.

Public Defender Jerry Ader argued that his client shouldn't get any additional prison time because he's already received sufficient punishment in Ontario County, which besides the two-year sentence, includes 10 years on parole and 30 years on the sex offender registry.

Both Finnell and Ader referred to a claim by Brown, who has held steady jobs since his military service and has no criminal record, that he succumbed to temptation after being dumped by his fiancée. Ader said that isn't an excuse, but just like any hardship faced by defendants, it is a circumstance worthy of the court's consideration.

Ader took issue with Finnell's characterization of the girl's eventual mental state, that she will suffer down the road. Ader said without a statement from the girl, and no way of predicting the future, there is no way to judge how the affair will affect the girl in the future.

Judge Charles Zambito said he felt sorry for Brown's personal difficulty, but it wasn't a mitigating circumstance in his mind, before handing down a three-year sentence.

"This was all about you getting what you wanted and what you thought you needed," Zambito said. "You never said you cared for her or even expressed that you cared for her. This looks like you used her for your own purposes."

As part of Ag Literacy Week, Assemblyman Steve Hawley was at John Kennedy School this morning to read to a group of students from a children's book about a grape farmer.

An officer just received a walk-up complaint about a parrot. A citizen found a "lost" parrot and wants to help it. An animal control officer is going to the place where the parrot is located, no word on where that is, to get the parrot and try and find an appropriate rescue facility for it. "It's as big as a pigeon," says the officer.

UPDATE 12:30 p.m.: The officer who handled the walk-up complaint says the bird has been confirmed to be a cockatiel, not a parrot, and it's been turned over to animal control.

Batavia High School hosted the district’s annual Music in our Schools Concert last evening.  

Students from Jackson Elementary, John Kennedy Intermediate, Batavia Middle and High School, performed a collection of songs in honor of Mr. Jeff Langdon. 

Music Department Director Jane Haggett and Principal Paul Kessler gathered student musicians in honor of Mr. Jeff Langdon’s dedication, devotion and years of teaching music at John Kennedy Intermediate school to perform a collection of songs demonstrating his contributions to their musical development. 

For more pictures go to: Steve Ognibene Photography

A car has gone off the road into the woods on Main Road in Pembroke.

No injuries reported.

The location near the Pembroke Fire Hall, 630 Main Road.

Pembroke fire and Indian Falls fire along with Mercy EMS dispatched.

A driver is reportedly uninjured but trapped in her car after a rollover accident in the area of 6790 East Bethany Le Roy Road, Le Roy.

The car is on its side.

Le Roy fire and Le Roy ambulance responding.

While the State of New York is reporting its lowest unemployment rate in a decade, at 4.4 percent, Genesee County saw a slight uptick in its year-over-year unemployment rate, according to data released today by the Department of Labor.

The local rate is 5.8 percent. A year ago in February, it was 5.6 percent.

The state records 21,900 jobs in the county. This the third straight year the total number of jobs for February in the county hit 21,900. The highest February number over the past three decades was 22,400 in 2008.

Even at 5.8 percent, the jobless count is still lower than it has been over the past several years. with the exception of last year. The lowest local rate for February was recorded at 4.7 percent in 2001.

The February unemployment rate for the nation is reported at 4.7 percent.

A key indicator of the overall national employment picture is the prime-age percentage of the population in the workforce. It fell to 75 percent at the depths of the recession in 2010 and 2011. In February it hit its highest level since the recovery, 78.3 percent. Prior to the 2002 recession, it was as high as 82 percent.

The other interesting study that came out today, related to the national economy, is a report on what are called "deaths of despair" -- people dying of suicide, alcoholism or drugs, which rose dramatically among middle-aged whites from 2000 to 2014. According to the map, Genesee County was one of the few areas in the country that didn't see an increase in that statistic.

The Genesee County Job Development Bureau hosted a job fair today for area high school students. A total of 11 local employers and 13 vendors were on hand along with Job Bureau counselors.

Speakers attended from Genesee Valley Partnership, Genesee Community College, and Empire State College. They discussed vocational or educational goals with students.

There was also staff from the Department of Labor to review student resumes and offer tips. 

(Thanks to Tim McArdle for supplying photos of Le Roy students at the event. We had it on our schedule to cover but couldn't make it because of the accident in Alabama this morning.)

On Wednesday, Le Roy High School inducted 34 new members of the National Honor Society. These students have maintained an overall GPA of 90 percent and possess the five qualities of a model student: scholarship, service, leadership, character and citizenship. Sr. High Math teacher Mr. Zach Paley was our induction speaker and gave a great motivational message challenging students to learn through their failures. 

From Principal Tim McArdle: "This is a wonderful honor and accomplishment for our students and their families. I would like to thank Mrs. Qadiri for organizing with our officers a quality program for our students. We would like to congratulate the families of our new members. We all know, it takes a team to be successful!"

Photos and info submitted by Tim McArdle.

Top photo, Officer Peter Flanigan, Batavia PD, reads to students at Jackson School during the school's annual parents' night reading program last night, this year dubbed "Camp Read-A-Lot." The evening featured community members reading to students, games, activities and a campout with camp music in the school's gymnasium.

Press release:

New York State Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer has been appointed to two joint budget subcommittees: Education and Transportation. Subcommittees, composed of both members of the State Senate and State Assembly, will work this week to finalize the details of the 2017-18 State Budget.

“The Senate’s one-house budget makes a record level of investment in education, while committing more funding to repair local roads and bridges,” Ranzenhofer said.

“It is so important for Western New York to receive its fair share of state funding for our local school districts and local infrastructure projects. I will be advocating, as a member of these subcommittees, to get these two proposals in the final fiscal plan.”

Both the Senate and Assembly passed separate one-house budget resolutions last week. The Senate plan restrains spending growth, rejects new taxes and fees and delivers small business tax relief.

The highlights of the Senate proposal include:

• Rejecting $800 million in new taxes and fees proposed by Governor Cuomo;
• Expanding the existing Personal Income Tax exemptions for small businesses and small farms and reducing the Corporate Franchise Tax business income tax rate from 6.5 percent to 2.5 percent over a two-year period;
• Bringing ride-sharing services to Upstate New York.

The Senate budget proposal also makes a record level of investment in local infrastructure projects. Under the plan, state funding for the Local BRIDGE NY program would increase by $50 million for a total of $150 million. State funding for the Consolidated Local Street and Highway (CHIPS) program would be increased by $75 million for a total of $513 million.

Press release:

Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) spoke with pro-Second Amendment groups as well as a number of hunters, sportsmen, wildlife and fishing advocates from around the state on Wednesday at Albany’s annual Sportsmen’s Day.

Among the groups in attendance were the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association (NYSRPA), the New York State Crossbow Coalition, New York State Conservation Council Inc. and Sportsmen’s Association for Firearms Education (SAFE).

“I have always prided myself as being an outdoorsman and advocate for the Second Amendment,” Hawley said. “Things like hunting, fishing and target shooting are ingrained in Western New York’s culture and require consistent protection from downstate interest groups who seek to infringe on our rights.

"I was one of the first legislators to fight against the unconstitutional SAFE Act and have consistently advocated for hunting and trapping rights in the counties I represent. I enjoyed speaking with various statewide groups and was impressed by their knowledge, passion and commitment. I look forward to this event each year and thank those who came to advocate and participate.”

An 81-year-old passenger in a 2004 Mercury sedan suffered severe injuries this morning, according to State Police, after the vehicle went underneath the trailer on a big rig at the intersection of Route 63 and Route 77 in Alabama.

The roof of the sedan was sheared off and became lodged in the rear axel of the trailer.

The vehicle was driven by Donna L. Wolter, 69, who sustained head injuries. Her passenger was Purcil E. Buzard. Both are from Medina.

Both patients were transported by Mercy Flight to area hospitals.

State Police investigators believe Wolter failed to stop at the four-way intersection. 

The 2017 Kenworth tractor-trailer was eastbound on Lewiston Road and making a right-hand turn to head south on Alleghany Road when it was struck by the Mercury, which was on southbound Alleghany Road.

Wolter reportedly swerved to avoid hitting the cab of the truck and went under the trailer, then struck a vacant building on the southwest corner of the intersection, bounced off the building and hit a sedan stopped in the eastbound lane of Lewiston Road.

(initial report)

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NOTE: Story updated to correct the names of the officers involved.

The two men who allegedly broke into a home at 49 Swan St. at 2:22 a.m. Thursday told occupants of the house that they were police officers.

They then attacked the occupants and caused physical injury, according to police.

Kolton Cotter, 22, of Eagle Harbor Road, Albion (top photo), was charged with: robbery; burglary; coercion; conspiracy; criminal possession of a weapon; criminal impersonation; petit larceny; criminal mischief; assault; possession of burglary tools; unlawful imprisonment; criminal obstruction of breathing; obstruction of governmental administrationl; resisting arrest; and unlawful possession of marijuana.

Andrew Morris, 19, of Main Street, Attica, was charged with: robbery; burglary; coercion; conspiracy; criminal possession of a weapon; criminal impersonation; petit larceny; assault; possession of burglar tools; and unlawful possession of marijuana.

Officer Felicia DeGroot and Sgt. Eric Bolles were first to respond to the report of a break-in in progress and found Morris inside the residence and took him into custody. Cotter fled and was chased by Bolles and Officer Eric Foels. Also assisting in the apprehension of the suspects were Officer Jason Ivison and Officer Darryl Streeter.

Genesee County Sheriff's deputies also assisted at the scene.

Bolles and Foels caught up with him on Graham Street and one of them deployed a Taser to help subdue the suspect. Cotter was transported by Mercy EMS to UMMC for evaluation.

Batavia PD said Morris and Cotter identified themselves as undercover police officers in an attempt to steal property.

At one point, a suspect reportedly told the victims that at least one of them was armed. No firearm was recovered. The type of weapon recovered was not identified by police.

The suspects were arraigned in City Court and jailed without bail.

It might be nice to think that some bit of magic could just make the county share of Medicaid expense disappear, but somebody has to pay one way or another, said Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul during an interview with The Batavian yesterday about the Collins' Amendment to the GOP's health care coverage reform bill.

"It’s not a free gift," Hochul said. "You can’t say, 'oh, this is going to be great,' and have it work out. They have not thought through the ramifications for this."

Rep. Chris Collins convinced the House GOP leadership to allow his amendment to the American Health Care Act, ostensibly a replacement for the Affordable Health Care Act, pushed through Congress by the Obama Administration in 2010. The amendment affects only New York and blocks the state from taking county money to provide Medicaid coverage to residents.

County leaders have long complained that this unfunded mandate is crippling local budgets and forcing counties to cut other services.

"Year after year, Albany’s leadership relies on counties to foot the bill for New York State’s out-of-control Medicaid costs. Enough is enough," Collins said in a statement released when he announced the amendment. "This amendment will stop Albany from forcing its unfunded mandate down the throats of taxpayers, and help counties lower the property tax burden on hardworking families."

The cost shift won't lead to cuts in property taxes, Hochul predicted, but there would be other ramifications for New York's taxpayers. Those ramifications could include either the poor and middle-class families who rely on Medicaid having $2.3 billion in services cut or counties losing their share of sales tax collections.

"Here's what is going happen, and the counties need to be aware of this, there are going to be tough choices to compensate for the Collins' scam and one of them is to re-examine the assistance we give to counties now," Hochul said.

According to Hochul, when Medicaid was created, the condition set up by the state was that counties would pay for 25 percent of Medicaid coverage and to compensate counties for the cost, counties could keep a portion of sales tax revenue.

County Manager Jay Gsell isn't sure that is exactly the history of sales tax in New York and said he's researching it. The threat to take money away from the counties if the amendment goes through is in line with Gsell's prediction in a story we published yesterday about the amendment.

"The state is not going to go quietly into the night," Gsell said.

We had trouble getting in touch with Hochul or staff members before yesterday's story, so yesterday Hochul had her staff reach out to The Batavian to arrange an interview so she could address local residents directly about her concerns with the Collins' amendment.

"I want people to have a full perspective that if you take out the county’s share, there are still going to be consequences," Hochul said. "Either we cut services $2.3 billion or we raise taxes, and it just comes from another pocket in the State of New York to the tune of $2.3 billion."

Hochul has long positioned herself as an advocate for local communities, and she said she is, but it's also her job as lieutenant governor now to look out for all the people of New York and the Collins Amendment, she said, will be devastating for the state.

"The governor and I are very much aware of this cost on counties and that’s why the governor cut that share down to 13 percent and so now NY state counties are paying less per person than they did back in the year 2000," Hochul said. "In addition, we did two more things: we capped the escalation of these costs, so the state is picking up any increases in the Medicaid costs. That has been in place the last five years and the governor also in 2011 created the Medicaid redesign team to squeeze out saving out of this program; $34 billion has been saved overall, and a large part of that was savings for the counties."

There is some dispute over the history of how we got in a position where county taxpayers are helping to foot the bill for a program that is billed as a "state and federal" benefit for people who can't otherwise afford healthcare. New York is one of only 16 states that pass some of the cost onto county taxpayers and New York's county share is the highest in the nation.

"What they’re proposing is the unraveling of a deal that was put in place in the 1960s when, at the time, counties were picking up 44 percent of their residents' health care costs," Hochul said. "Then when Medicaid and Medicare were in enacted in 1965 there was the thought we could reduce that down for the counties to 25 percent and also allow them -- again, allow them -- to collect some sales tax to offset that cost."

Gsell's version includes 1960 with the Kerr-Mills Act, which created a program called Medical Assistance for the Aged. It gave states the ability to create a medical coverage program and decide on the criteria for eligibility. The Federal government provided matching funds to cover the costs. The act was a precursor to Medicaid.

The prior 1950s program, Gsell said, provided matching funds for state payment to medical providers on behalf of people on public assistance.

"Nowhere did I find that NYS counties were voluntary partners in these pre-Medicaid funding programs," Gsell said. "The Hochul quote about counties paying pre-Medicaid, pre-1965, 44 percent of elderly indigent care, which NYS reduced our 'burden' to 25 percent, maybe 'accurate' in regards to then cost sharing, but this 1965 to 2017 Medicaid program is not the same in terms of benefits, entitlement, number of recipients, with counties having no say in size, eligibility and an open-ended entitlement as back 52-plus years ago."

The Cuomo Administration has been in full attack mode the past few days over the Collins Amendment. Yesterday, The Batavian received at least a half-dozen press releases from the governor's office about the amendment, plus statements funneled through the governor's press release database from hospitals in the region attacking the amendment.

"The radical conservative ideology in Washington has declared war on New York with legislation that will devastate hospitals across the state and hurt New Yorkers," Cuomo is quoted as saying in one press release. "These massive cuts will cripple our hospitals and ravage the health care services on which New Yorkers rely."

The other bit of history that came out in news reports yesterday over the Medicaid spat is that Andrew Cuomo's father, Mario, when he was governor pushed for years for the state to pick up the county's share of the Medicaid tab.

Both Andrew Cuomo and Hochul have accused Collins of political pandering to try and secure more Upstate congressional votes for the AHCA, which is far from guaranteed passage. The reform, pushed as part of President Donald Trump's promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, would scuttle direct subsidies to people who purchase insurance through health care exchanges, as well as end the individual mandate to buy health insurance, and replace it with a refundable tax credit for all qualifying Americans.

Critics contend the bill would drive up the cost of health insurance while conservatives argue the bill doesn't actually repeal Obamacare.

A poll commissioned by The Economist shows strong opposition to the AHCA in several rural Upstate districts, including the NY-24 (33 percent support / 51 percent oppose), NY-23 (38/45), NY-22 (38/45), NY-21 (37/45), as examples.

In the NY-19, the district of John Faso, the cosponsor of the Collins' Amendment, 35 percent support and 48 percent oppose. The bill has a little stronger support in Collins' own district, the NY-27, with a split of 40/42.

"The reason that Representative Collins proposed this is to literally offer a bribe to on-the-fence Upstate Republicans who were starting to hear from constituents that decimating and destroying the Affordable Care Act, which benefits seven million New Yorkers now, is not something their constituents really want," Hochul said.

Cuomo has characterized the Collins Amendment as putting politics before people, and we asked Hochul about that statement, noting that really any decision about budgets, taxes, and spending is about people. For Genesee County, a cost savings of $9.4 million might not lead to much, or any, savings to taxpayers, but it could save critical programs.

This past year, the County Legislature went through a contentious budget debate that had some members of the Legislature even floating the idea of eliminating deputies from road patrols. The county will also likely be forced by the state to build a new jail in a few years, plus the county needs at least $15 million in road and bridge repairs. 

Meanwhile, New York's menu of Medicaid options is the most generous in the nation and the program leaves the perception of operating on an open checkbook. (Gsell provided this chart that shows county share of Medicaid expense across the nation and New York's is far and away the highest rate.)

"I disagree with your assessment that it’s an open checkbook," Hochul said. "The fact (is) that we shaved $34 billion off of it just in the last few years and the governor continues to have a Medicaid redesign team in place to make sure we’re cutting costs."

Hochul said if the ACA is repealed, it's just going to drive up costs for all New York taxpayers because the uninsured will be more likely to use emergency rooms for routine medical needs.

"They’re going to the ER and the cost is going to be dramatically higher," Hochul said. "Those costs are being picked up by taxpayers. People have to realize this is a united system and we’re going to continue as a state to cut those costs."

She said New York's costs are higher because we have a larger elderly, middle- and working-class population and our industrial past means we have higher rates of cancer. She recalled seeing as a child the pollution spewed by steel plants, for example, in Buffalo area.

"That is largely a way to explain why we have higher costs, not that we’re just throwing good money after bad," Hochul said. "We have a governor who is very tight-fisted with the state’s taxpayers' dollars. He’s very conscientious. That’s why we’ve cut middle-class taxes. We’ve cut business taxes. We continue to focus on creating jobs to put more money back into the local economy, more sales tax for the counties, more property tax revenue for house sales. It all works together. You can’t just pull out one piece of the puzzle and have that collapse and have the other part be picked up by everybody else."

She called the Collins' amendment a betrayal of the people of New York.

"The number one rule for doctors is 'first do no harm,' " Hochul said. "I think that should also apply to members of Congress. What Chris Collins is proposing will inflict harm and pain on the people of the State of New York and we have to get pressure on him to take this back and put it on the sidelines and realize this is a horrible mistake."

Late yesterday, Collins, who won the NY-27 seat from Hochul three years ago, put out a press release that characterized the Cuomo Administration's response to his proposed amendment as "a complete meltdown."

“Governor Cuomo and his sidekick are using doomsday predictions to scare everyday New Yorkers into allowing Albany to continue taxing them to death," Collins said. "It’s absolutely disgusting the governor would threaten the middle class with a tax increase while holding a $14 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund in his back pocket. As I have said before, if this Governor can’t find 1.5 percent to save in his budget, I am more than willing to find it for him.”