Everybody loves Adam Miller Toy and Bicycles and Herbly Wonderful. Today we have gift certificates from both popular stores valued at $12.50 each, which we're selling for HALF OFF, $12.50, plus a $1 service fee.

Adam Miller is located on Center Street and features a fine line of vintage toys and games, models and a range of bicycle styles.

Herbly Wonderful a great local source of teas, herbs, flowers and more. It's located on Pearl St.

For more information on each of these businesses, click on their ads on the right side of this page.

Rules: The gift certificate must be used by within 30 days of purchase. It is not valid with other offers and has no cash value.  People who have won a certificate in the past 30 days are not eligible to win a certificate from the same business as before.  By state law, gift certificates cannot be used for alcohol purchase.

How to Win: Purchase using the PayPal "Buy Now" button below. After the first person to hit the "buy now" button completes the purchase, PayPal will let you know that the item has been sold. Ideally, the winner will arrange to stop by my office on Main Street before 5:00 p.m. (today or tomorrow) to pick up gift certificate. Mail is an option, but it would be better to hand you the gift certificate. 

If you want to be notified via e-mail of future Deals of the Day, sign up for the Deals of the Day e-mail list by clicking here.

Merchants: If you would like your business featured in Deal of the Day, call Howard Owens at 260-6970.

Adam Miller Toy and Bicycles

SOLD

Herbly Wonderful

SOLD

An Oakfield couple was allegedly found last night to posses a substantial amount of crack cocaine after the Genesee County Drug Enforcement Task Force obtained a search warrant for 26 S. Pearl St., Apt. 2.

Investigators reportedly found $300 in crack cocaine and $300 in marijuana during the search of the residence and related vehicles.

Taken into custody were Dennis "Dookie" R. Lloyd-Butler, 27, and Mandy Lloyd, 29.

Investigators reportedly found marijuana in the glove box of Mandy Lloyd's car.

Lloyd-Butler was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, a felony, and criminal possession of marijuana. Mandy Lloyd was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana.

Lloyd-Butler is being held in Genesee County Jail without bail. Mandy Lloyd was issued an appearance ticket.

The Sheriff's Office reports additional charges are pending.

Assisting in the investigation were the Genesee County District Attorney's office, City of Batavia's Emergency Response Team, Genesee County Sherif's deputies, New York State Police officers and K-9 "Jay."

Patrick W. Collins, 46, of Batavia, is being held on $2,500 bail after allegedly attacking his wife. Collins reportedly threw his wife against a wall, put his hands around her neck and threatened to kill her. He is charged with menacing in the third degree. The alleged incident occurred last night around 11:30 p.m.

Martin G. Pacer, 29, of Corfu, allegedly violated an order of protection by punching another person in the face Wednesday night around 11 p.m. The incident occurred in Pembroke. He is charged with criminal contempt and harassment. Pacer is held in Genesee County Jail on $5,000 bail.

Just after midnight, the Le Roy fire department was called to a structure fire at 8484 E. Main St. Road where upon arrival they found the house fully engulfed, according to reader Gary Spencer.

Lorie Longhany also e-mailed reports of the fire.

Neighbors from across the streets dog barked, woke owner up, he crossed the street and alerted the homeowners.  The husband went back in after car keys and he was burned and taken to the hospital -- wife and daughter also taken in for smoke inhalation.  House is a total loss.

Longhany, who lives on Lime Rock, said units from Le Roy, Stafford, Caledonia, Bergen and Pavilion responded. Route 5 was closed and traffic was sent around York Road and Church Road.

Also from Lorie: 

The hero in this fire was a dog named Rocket that is no stranger to alerting danger.  A couple years back this dog was out of his yard and barking around our friends pool.  His owner was calling him to come home.  He wouldn't -- kept barking around the pool.  When his owner went to retrieve him, he found that in the pool was my neighbors and good friends dog, Buddy who would have drown.  Last night, from what my neighbors first hand account, Rocket's barking alerted his owners to the burning house across the street.  The neighbor saw the flames and ran across the street and woke up the homeowners.  That dog may have saved three lives last night.

That's all the information we have on the fire at this time.

UPDATE: Lorie sends along this note this morning:

We took a ride by this morning, and as I said, we kept away from the scene and stood in our friends driveway after being awoken to all the commotion, but it appears that the structure is heavily damaged, but not burned to the ground by any means.  The fire fighters did a tremendous job.  It is really amazing the organizational skills that these volunteers put into play as they are battling a fire.  We watched in amazement.  Probably a good many of them were there till the early hours and then had to get up and go to their paying jobs this morning.

Also, she "cautions" that her account of Rocket is third person, having been told by a neighbor who spoke with Rocket's owner.

UPDATE II: WBTA reports:

The home was occupied by 54-year-old Rita Teeter, her 54-year-old boyfriend Daniel Bovee and her 25-year-old daughter, Jennifer Coombs.

Rita and Jennifer were treated at Strong Hospital for smoke inhalation and released.

Bovee was admitted to the hospital in satisfactory condition with burns to his face, head and feet.

Among Scott Doll's statements the night Joseph Benaquist was found dead in his Pembroke driveway, was: "I was there, but I didn't do it.," his defense attorney Paul Cambria said during a motions hearing today

Cambria is preparing a defense to explain away any statements that Doll might have made the night of the killing, Feb. 17,  that the prosecution could use as admissions of guilt.

Deputies found Doll walking along North Lake Road in Pembroke around 8:40 p.m. that night. According to initial reports, Doll was soaked in "fresh blood"  and "dressed all in camouflage" and carrying a car jack, a screwdriver and a lug wrench.

None of those items, however, were used in the murder, and among Cambria's other motions were ones related to the insufficiency of evidence that led to Doll's arrest warrant and warrants for the search of his vehicles, mobile phone and home.

The murder weapon has not been found.

Cambria made it clear during the hearing that he doesn't believe Doll killed Benaquist and opened the door to speculation that a third person was present at the time of the attack.

"There is no way anybody could testify that (only) my client was present at the time of the crime," Cambria said.

Outside of saying that Doll said "I was there, but I didn't do it," Cambria didn't share what other statements Doll reportedly made that night, but he's clearly concerned that some statements could damage his defense.

Among claims raised by Cambria during today's hearing was that Doll wasn't read his rights properly.

Meanwhile, while stating that the defense will not make any attempt to claim insanity or mental defect, Cambria is asking that an expert witness, a psychiatric professional, be allowed to testify who will  offer "an innocent explanation" of Doll's conduct and statements.

"We are not claiming at all (that Doll was mentally incapacitated)," Cambria said. "This is not a matter if 'I did it, however ... ' It's clearly a case of 'I didn't do it.'"

Cambria indicated that investigators improperly disregarded Doll's statement that he didn't kill Benaquist.

Due to the that statement not being fully considered, the timing and method of searches of Doll's van, as well as Doll's arrest without sufficient cause, call into question all of the warrants used in the case, according to Cambria.

The warrant application is "probably one of the most insufficient I've seen in my years," Cambria said. "It's kind of astonishing really that with no accusations in the warrant request that warrant could be issued."

First Assistant District Attorney David Gann took issue with Cambria's statements during his brief reply.

The warrant "provides numerous details that Mr. Cambria perhaps went by pretty quickly in his characterization of the warrant," Gann said. "It is lengthy and it is detailed."

Gann raised no issues of evidence or gave any indication of the prosecutions strategy during his reply to Cambria.

One of the defense's motions dealt with discovery and the issue of reviewing the medical examiners report. Gann said the report should be completed in three to four weeks.

County Court Judge Robert Noonan will issue a written opinion on all of the motions from today's hearing (many of them are routine and were submitted in writing only), but not until after a hearing, called a Huntly hearing, on the motion related to Doll's statements.

That hearing is scheduled for June 16 at 1:30 p.m.

UPDATE: Scott DeSmit obtained transcripts of Scott Doll's statements the night of the murder. Read his story for more details on Doll's statements.

An Angus calf has been roaming around Batavia-Townline Road for two days, according to Jonathan Lamb.

Lamb and neighbors have tried to capture the young animal, but it runs any time anybody approaches it.

"Maybe you remember Woody from last year -- I don't know if we have another Woody on our hands, but I've called all the neighbors and nobody knows who it belongs to," Lamb said.

The calf is wandering in a field near the road, Lamb said.

If anybody is missing an Angus calf, Lamb said the owner should e-mail him at jonathanl (at) lambfarmsinc dot net.

Today's deal -- enjoy a good meal at Larry's Steakhouse with this $25 gift certificate available today at half price: $12.50 (plus a $1 service fee).

Rules: The gift certificate must be used by within 30 days of purchase. It is not valid with other offers and has no cash value.  People who have won a certificate in the past 30 days are not eligible to win a certificate from the same business as before.  By state law, gift certificates cannot be used for alcohol purchase.

How to Win: Purchase using the PayPal "Buy Now" button below. After the first person to hit the "buy now" button completes the purchase, PayPal will let you know that the item has been sold. Ideally, the winner will arrange to stop by my office on Main Street before 5:00 p.m. (today or tomorrow) to pick up gift certificate. Mail is an option, but it would be better to hand you the gift certificate. 

If you want to be notified via e-mail of future Deals of the Day, sign up for the Deals of the Day e-mail list by clicking here.

Merchants: If you would like your business featured in Deal of the Day, call Howard Owens at 260-6970.

SOLD

Scott Doll, accused of murdering Joseph Benaquist in February, is on the docket today at 1:30 p.m.  The docket lists "oral arguments" as the reason for the appearance.

We plan on being there for the hearing.

Glowing report on the GLOW Democrats blog about their recent BBQ fundraiser. It sounds like almost all of the local elected Democrats where there serving food and talking with party faithful.

Russ Stresing reports the event was a sell-out and raised $1,000 for local Democrats.

The long arm of Illinois law enforcement apparently got its man with the help of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office yesterday afternoon when William John Riley was stopped for excessive window tint on the car he was driving on Lover's Lane Road in Batavia.

Riley is either 32 or 39, depending on which date of birth he uses, and was allegedly wanted in Illinois on a charge of home repair fraud in Pontiac, Ill.

Sheriff's Deputy Ronald Meides became suspicious of Riley during the traffic stop, so Riley, who has been living in Rochester, was brought into the Sheriff's Office for questioning.

During the conversation, Meides suspected Riley of giving false information about his identity.

Riley's finger prints were live scanned at the Genesee County Jail and a short time later, his identity was confirmed, according to a Sheriff's Office press release.

Riley is being held without bail.

He faces additional charges  for the window tint and for carrying a radio in the car that is capable of picking up police frequencies.

Trisha Boyd, 20, of Glendale, Nova Scotia, Canada, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Boyd allegedly left two children unattended in a car while inside the Shoe Dept. store on Veterans Memorial Drive.

All eight school budgets up for vote yesterday won in their respective districts by comfortable margins, according to results posted on WBTA's site.

Batavia's budget passed 323 to 131.

In the only contested school board race in the county, Terrence Krajewski beat out Jeanne Walton for a seat on the Alexander board of education, 137 to 120. Sixteen school board members were elected without opposition.

Elba approved a bus purchase, 121 to 27. Pavilion voters also passed a proposition to purchase a bus, 191 to 93.

Pembroke agreed to a contract with the Corfu Library (373 to 135) and passed a proposition to purchase buses, 377 to 134.

Le Roy also approved its library budget 424-106.

The Batavia Board of Education has put a lid on one of the most colorful events the city of Batavia hosts each year.

The Board cites the concern for the cost to other schools to bus their bands to Batavia for the three day event.  They cite concerns for the boosters who put in hours raising money for this event and for their participation during the event.  They replaced it with a poorly advertised Jazz competition which was already held.

I wonder if the Board will take those same concerns into consideration when it comes to sporting events.  The cost to the Board for the use of the stadium; the transportation costs incurred by other schools to bring teams here; the hours the sports' boosters log to support the team.

The Music program deserves better.  The children who studied under Neil Hartwick and Ken Hay received a life-long skill.  They have the ability to use that skill well into their golden age.  How many, on the football field, can say the same thing?  They deserve a showcase for their talent. 

How many readers remember marching in the Pageant of Bands?

The New York Power Authority -- which previously came under fire for denying power allocation to a planned data center in Albion for Google -- unanimously approved power for a similar facility for Yahoo! today.

Gov. David Paterson announced the decision and discussed details of the proposal in a teleconference this morning, according to the Buffalo News.

One site in Genesee County and two in Niagara County are under consideration.

The facility would cost $150 million and when completed would employe about 125 people with an average salary of $65,000.

Yahoo! has been negotiating with state officials for the past six weeks for an allocation of 10 megawatts of low-cost hydroelectric power in order to build phase one of the center.

If the Yahoo! Board of Directors accepts the state's deal, the company would move forward with the project. Phase two to complete the data center would be done by 2012 and Yahoo! would be allowed another 5 megawatts of hydroelectric power.

I came across a crew of News 8 out of Rochester on Main Street today interviewing Lynn Freeman, president of the Chamber of Commerce, outside the chamber's office. It sounded like they were talking about business development issues.

The Batavia Daily News seems intent on teaching City Manager Jason Molino a little lesson after getting scooped on Fire Chief Tom Dillon's resignation. The lesson: Don't fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.

Friday, Batavia's "paper of record" published an editorial slamming what they called City Manager Jason Molino's secrecy.

It was pretty harsh.

City administrator Jason Molino, isn't talking, and neither are ''his'' employees -- we say "his" because that is how he refers to them, even though taxpayers pay their salaries.

In the editorial, they say Dillon's resignation became public only because a help wanted ad was spotted in the Democrat and Chronicle. That's not, shall we say, accurate.

The Batavian broke the story and it had nothing to do with an ad appearing in the D&C. If you read the original post, you'll see, we didn't even know about the ad when we first posted our story. We got the story the good old-fashioned way -- by talking with sources.

Of course, the Daily can't give credit where credit's due -- that would violate Tom Turnbull's mandate that the newspaper never print The Batavian's name (well, they did have to take our LLC ad).

Yet, the staff there pays attention when we get stories before them, and the Dillon scoop seems to have particularly rubbed the "newspaper of record" the wrong way.

Today, the lead story is about the fire chief but it doesn't tell readers much new. We already know that Molino would handle interim administrative duties for the department and that the four captains turned down the interim position. That takes care of the first two paragraphs of the story. From there, we're treated to the details of the Daily trying to get more information from the city and Molino's unresponsiveness.

The Daily News had asked City Manager Jason Molino what the city's plan was in lieu of a chief. He did not return phone calls or e-mails. Cox forwarded questions from The Daily News to Molino, who then sent a reply to all councilmen. He still has not replied to The Daily News.

After explaining the 211 waiver situation (again, nothing new here), we get more back-and-forth on the Daily's attempts to get more information from the city. Then we read again the fiction that the public wouldn't have known about the situation if the Daily hadn't asked:

The Daily News had also sent an e-mail last week to all City Councilmen to find out why the public was kept in the dark about Dillon's departure. The news was publicized only after The Daily News asked Molino and Dillon about Dillon's employment status.

Now, I can certainly sympathize with the editorial staff's frustration at getting shut out of communication with Jason Molino and city staff. We've made those complaints public ourselves, and perhaps with a tad too much arrogance and pettiness, but some honest reporting is in order here. The Daily got beat. It happens in a competitive news town. Between the Daily, The Batavian and WBTA, we've all had our own scoops in the past several months, and we will all continue to develop our own sources and stories and get some of them first. That's the way it goes. Unless a source deliberately burns you, there's no point in getting upset with government officials because another news outlet did its job and got the information.

UPDATE: I just saw the print edition -- this story is banner headline on the top of the front page.  Meanwhile, Pagent of the Bands folding after 35 years, and the Daily put most of that story below the fold. That's a huge story in a community like this.  Nice scoop. Wish I had it.

There are a couple of places in Genesee County where you can go to get a passport, such as the post office or the County Clerk's office, so Rep. Chris Lee's indefatigable push to get a regional passport office in Western New York seemed a little over done.

Yesterday, I e-mailed County Clerk Don Read and asked him to clarify the urgent need for such an office.

Read explained that normal processing through his office can take 4 to 6 weeks, and eight weeks during peak periods. There is a process for expedited processing, but these options are either inconvenient or expensive.

June 1, The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative takes effect and it will require passports or passport cards for people traveling to and from Canada.

Read said the change in travel requirements will catch more people by surprise as unexpected trips arrive.  A passport office in WNY will make urgent acquisitions of passports easier.

"Many people are preparing for this by obtaining one of the acceptable documents, but there will be many whose travel to Canada will not be anticipated or routine," Read said. "These are the cases where a Passport Agency in Western New York will be extremely valuable and will provide our area with the same type of service which already exists in other areas across the norther border and also the southern border.  The Niagara Frontier is one of the busiest access points to Canada."

Lee's and Rep. Brian Higgin's constant attention to this issue seems to have paid off. On Friday, Lee put out a press release stating that the State Department has agreed to open a passport agency office in the Buffalo-Niagrara Falls region.

In a joint statement, the lawmakers applauded the State Department’s decision, while cautioning that it was not yet official:“The State Department has informed us of its intention to open a passport office in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region. This is great news for Western New Yorkers, who currently have to travel to New York City or Detroit to acquire a passport in short order, all while living just miles from one of the nation’s busiest border crossings. Of course, this is just the beginning of a process, but we are confident that at the end of the day, Western New Yorkers will have access to this one-stop shop for passports. In the meantime, we will continue to work with federal, state, and local officials to ensure the implementation of the next phase of WHTI goes as smoothly as possible for local residents and businesses.”

Donal Slubecky, 47, of Alden, was arrested for alleged trespassing for the purposes of hunting in Batavia. Slubecky was allegedly turkey hunting on posted land off of Kelsey Road. He was taken into custody this morning at 6:48 a.m.

(Photo submitted by Stacey Smith)

A vacant bungalow at 28 Hutchins Place was heavily damaged in a late-night fire that had crews from the city and town of Batavia on scene for more than three hours.

The blaze apparently started in the rear porch area and quickly spread to the main structure. The home was "well involved" by the time fire crews arrived, according to a Batavia Fire Department release this morning.

The cause is under investigation.

The home was owned by Nathanial Williams.

No injuries were reported.

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More photos from Stacey Smith: