The World Harmony Run passed through Batavia today.

The effort is a relay-run involving dozens of runners who have already traveled 8,500 miles on a 10,000-mile journey through all 48 continental states.

There are also running participants in 100 other countries around the globe.

Salil Wilson said the effort is intended to send a message that "peace and harmony starts with each person."

"It demonstrates," he said, "that there is far more that unites us as one human family than divides us."

The group, which includes runners from Germany, Hungary, New Zealand, Belarus, and, of course, the United States, stopped for refreshments at the Peace Garden before heading east.

Click here for a map of the route the group has traveled.

Top photo and photo below, Laszlo Szente, of Hungary.

A fire is reported on the front porch of 69 Maple Ave., Oakfield.

Oakfield Fire Department is responding.

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If you see anybody with a scooter that looks like this, Oakfield resident Lois Sutton is hoping you will contact the Sheriff's Office.

Sutton said this morning somebody stole her from Motofino scooter from her back yard. She thinks the look of the scooter is unique enough, and there are no local dealers, that it will stand out.

The Sheriff's Office can be contacted at 585-345-3000.

A 60-year-old female with diabetic problems is in need of rescue at the top of the falls behind the Log Cabin Restaurant -- on the opposite side.

"She is at the top of the falls ... she's approximately 30 feet down," says a responder.

The county Rope Rescue Team is on standby in case needed. Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments responded and gave her some insulin and medical aid.

The woman came to the attention of others because she "was not responding appropriately."

UPDATE 8:32 p.m.: A fireman on scene says her blood insulin level at this point is 43. "We will have to take her up manually unless we can get her blood sugar up higher." Medics are on their way.

UPDATE 8:37 p.m.: For those who don't know, the Indian Falls Log Cabin Restaurant is located at 1227 Gilmore Road in Corfu.

UPDATE 8:41 p.m.: The rescuers are going to employ a rope and a basket to bring up the woman. Her blood sugar is now reported to be 51. "We'll probably be taking her out of here -- unless it gets better real quick," says a responder. Other responders headed to the scene are requested to continue in full emergency mode.

UPDATE 8:45 p.m.: Rescuers are directed to the north side of the creek to assist with efforts under way.

UPDATE 8:47 p.m.: More rope is demanded "for those coming up and down to hold onto something." Assurance is given that it is on the way.

UPDATE 9:04 p.m.: At this point, "Everybody's topside." In other words, the woman has been brought to the top of the falls, as well as her rescuers, and is ready to be transported to the hospital via ambulance.

UPDATE 9:11 p.m.: Mercy Flight, which was on standby, is back in service and responders from Pembroke and Indian Falls are breaking down their light towers and equipment and returning to service. The patient is being taken to UMMC.

A car and bicycle accident is reported at the intersection of Clay Street and West Main Street, Village of Le Roy.

There is an injury.

The bike rider is out of the roadway.

Le Roy fire and ambulance responding.

UPDATE 5:11 p.m.: The car will need to be towed. "The window is just demolished and it's not driveable," an officer tells dispatch. 

UPDATE 5:15 p.m.: Route 19 is reopened. Le Roy fire back in service.

A Maple Street resident who admitted to welfare fraud will serve five years probation and must repay $11,341.18 after being sentenced in Genesee County Court.

Kerry Ackley, 39, admitted in May to a felony count of attempted grand larceny, 3rd.

She received benefits after failing to report her receipt of worker's compensation. She was originally charged with four counts of offering a false instrument for filing and the grand larceny charge.

Ackley is also barred from receiving food stamps.

A man who robbed a bank in Batavia in November 2007 entered a guilty plea in federal court on Friday, admitting to a total of five bank robberies in Western New York and Pennsylvania.

Michael Makolinski, 31, of Buffalo, faces up to 25 years in jail, a $1 million fine or both after pleading guilty to bank robbery.

“In his greed to steal the money of others, this serial bank robber thought he could prey upon banks located is some of our smaller communities, as well as in Buffalo,” said U.S. Attorney William Hochul. “As today’s convictions prove, the defendant’s belief was wrong.”

Besides the robbery of the Bank of America branch in Batavia, Makolinski, who appeared to display a gun in each robbery, hit banks in Erie, Pa., Irondequoit, Lewiston and Buffalo.

All of the robberies occurred between October 2007 and December 2007.

Sentencing is set for Nov. 13.

Temperatures are expected to hit the low to mid 90s today, with humidity driving the heat index into the high 90s.

The heat, the National Weather Service warns, has the potential of increasing the risk for heat-related illness.

The NWS recommends limiting exposure to heat outside if possible and drinking plenty of fluids.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is scattered thunderstorms in the morning, becoming more widespread with possible severe storms in the afternoon.

The storms, which could extend into the night, may produce large hail and strong winds.

A two-car accident with possible minor injuries is reported on Clinton Street Road, Batavia, in front of Terry Hills Golf Course.

The accident is blocking.

Town of Batavia Fire Department and Mercy EMS responding.

UPDATE 10:21 a.m.: One lane blocked. Debris in roadway. One person complaining of neck pain.

UPDATE 10:34 a.m.: One patient being transported to UMMC.

UPDATE 10:51 a.m.: Town of Batavia fire back in service.

A motor-vehicle accident with four people suffering minor injuries is reported at 7615 Clinton St. Road, just west of Jericho Road. Bergen Fire Department and Mercy medics are responding. All of the victims are out. The vehicle reportedly smashed into a pole.

UPDATE 9:10 p.m.: Because young children are involved in this minor-injury accident, a second Mercy ambulance is called to the scene. 

UPDATE 9:18 p.m.: Responders are asked to stop east of the incident and leave only one lane of traffic open, westbound.

UPDATE 9:37 p.m.: One patient is being taken to UMMC.

UPDATE 9:39 p.m.: Two patients are being transported to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.

During the execution of a search warrant Tuesday at a residence on Junction Road, Pavilion, investigators allegedly found a quantity of psilocybin mushrooms, a quantity of mushrooms and some drug paraphernalia.

The resident, Richard T. Bairton, 52, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the 5th degree.

The execution of the search warrant was handled by uniformed members of the Sheriff's Office and assisted by the Local Drug Enforcement Task Force.

Bairton was jailed on $25,000 bail.

Speaking of butterflies, Brian Schollard sent in these two pictures of an Eastern tiger swallowtail from his garden. He said "My wife and I planted two butterfly bushes last fall. They were, I thought, killed off this spring, but happily they came back and are working nicely!"

Press release:

City residents and those who work in the city are asked to provide input to the Batavia City Council through a Citizen Survey posted on the city’s Web site at www.batavianewyork.com.

Two years ago the city conducted a citizen survey to gauge how citizens perceive the quality of several city services. The survey also inquired as to whether citizens plan to remain in Batavia in five years and provided an area for general comments.

The data received from the survey was used to develop the city’s Strategic and Business Plan. Last year was an overwhelming success for our first year of implementation as the city achieved or exceeded nearly all of its identified performance measurements and key intended outcomes.

The results of the 2012 survey will again provide the city with information for its strategic planning process 2013 – 2015.

“This past year has been an enormous success for our city,” said City Manager Jason Molino. “It is important that we continue this planning process moving forward, and getting input from our citizens and workforce is vital to the planning success.”

The online survey can be viewed using any computer with Internet access. To find the survey, an individual will need to go to www.batavianewyork.com and click on the link labeled, “Citizen Survey.”

This link will take you directly to the survey which can be filled out online and submitted by the click of a button upon completion. All residents and those working in the city can take the survey, and the survey can be accessed more than once by eligible members of the same household.

For individuals without computer access, the Richmond Memorial Library is encouraging Batavia residents to utilize its free Internet service to take the survey. The library offers several computer terminals from which the survey can be taken. The service is free, however individuals must sign up to become a library member.

Membership to the Richmond Memorial Library is free and requires only a few minutes to provide some basic information. Summer library hours are: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday – Thursday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Residents can also pick up and submit a hard copy of the survey from the city clerk’s office at city hall.

Press release:

In an effort to better serve and protect the citizens of Genesee County, Sheriff Gary T. Maha in conjunction with more than 30 county sheriffs and the New York State Sheriffs’ Association are offering the Yellow Dot Program.

Yellow Dot is a free program available to individuals of all ages that was designed to help first responders provide lifesaving medical attention during the first “golden hour” after a crash or other emergency.

The program has launched in 30 counties across the state.

“When you can’t speak for yourself, Yellow Dot can speak for you,” said Peter Kehoe, executive director of the sheriffs’ association.

The Yellow Dot kit contains a medical information card and a Yellow Dot decal. Participants complete the card, attach a recent photo, place it in the glove compartment of their vehicle, and place the Yellow Dot decal on the rear driver’s side window.

First responders arriving at the scene of an emergency will be alerted by the Yellow Dot decal to look for the medical information card in the glove compartment.  

To obtain a Yellow Dot kit, contact Carolyn Della Penna at the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office at 345-3000, ext. 3510, or visit www.nysheriffs.org/yellowdot.

Yellow Dot materials will also be available at Genesee County fire departments.

The New York State Sheriffs’ Association, Inc., is a not-for-profit corporation, formed in 1934, for the purpose of assisting sheriffs in the efficient and effective delivery of sheriffs’ services to the public. It comprises all of the elected and appointed sheriffs of New York State.

Yellow Dot was started in Connecticut in 2002 by People’s United Bank. Originally developed for senior citizens, the program can be used by anyone of any age.

Deputies investigating suspicious activity last night reportedly found a pair of Attica men in possession of a loaded, sawed-off shotgun at a residence in Pembroke.

Both men reportedly have prior criminal convictions.

Charged with criminal possession of a weapon were Benjamin Lambert, 36, and Kayla Tyoe, 23.

Lambert and Tyoe were jailed pending further proceedings.

A motorcyclist "dumped his bike and has a shoulder injury" and he's sitting roadside at Route 5 and Boyce Road in Pembroke. East Pembroke Fire Department and Mercy medics are responding. The roadway is clear.

UPDATE 2:20 p.m.: He has a lot of road rash on his shoulder. There were no other vehicles involved.

A motorist is failing to stop for law enforcement, which has been trying to get him to pull over for several miles on different roadways. The speed is slow. He's northbound on Swamp Road. The car the guy's driving has a stolen plate.

UPDATE 1:12 p.m.: The older-model Ford truck has a red and silver tailgate. The driver is a white male with a baseball cap worn backward. There's no front license plate and one of the front tires "looks like it's gonna blow." Monroe County authorities have been notified.

UPDATE 1:16 p.m.: Now the pursuit is eastbound on Reed Road. State Troopers are also responding.

UPDATE 1:17 p.m.: The truck drove onto a laneway east of Root Road and the subject is now in custody.

On Memorial Day I took a minute to read the names on the World War I monument in Williams Park.

My assumption was, these where the names of people killed in combat, so when two, possibly three, names looked like the names of women, I was curious as to who they were.

I contacted Susan Conklin, Genesee County historian and records management officer, to see if she knew anything about the monument. She asked me to get the names, which I finally got around to doing for her earlier this week.

Here are the three names that got my attention:

Elva Springer, Florence Carney and Cecelia Cochran.

It turns about both Springer and Carney were men who served in the Marine Corps and Army.

The first name of Springer, a resident of 12 Fisher Park, is also spelled Alva. He was wounded in action some time prior to May 1, 1918. His death as a result of his wounds was reported locally Nov. 22, 1918.

According to a newspaper article from May 1, 1918, Springer was the son of John Springer, who by that time had moved to New York City. John Springer worked for the Batavia Rubber Company. His son had worked for him prior to enlistment.The article says "he was well known among young people here."

Carney, middle name Vincent, was among the first men drafted on Feb. 7, 1918.  He lived at 26 Russell Place. His death was reported Oct. 15, 1918 from pneumonia at Camp Aberdeen.

Miss Cecelia Josephine Cochran, the lone woman listed on the monument, was the daughter of Capt. and Mrs. Elliott P. Cochran of 17 Vernon Ave., Batavia. She had been a nurse in Rochester. She left Batavia Sept. 30, 1918 as a volunteer nurse for the United States Public Health Service. The family was notified Oct. 14, 1918 that she was quite ill with pneumonia at Army Hospital in Huntsville, Ala.

The family held a private funeral Oct. 21, 1918, at home followed by a service at St. Joseph's officiated by Father Gilhooley of East Pembroke.

Cochran was buried with military honors at the Catholic Cemetery in Le Roy.

A press release from Kathy Hochul's office, dated 1 Aug., had this headline:

"HOCHUL CAMPAIGN RESPONDS TO CHRIS COLLINS’ PUSH FOR MORE DEFICIT-RAISING TAX CUTS FOR MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES"

Hochul's Campaign Manager Francis Thomas cites a report issued by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities [CBPP] stating:

"Economists say that cutting taxes for the richest Americans would raise the deficit by “nearly $1 trillion” and give the most benefits to people making more than $1 million per year."

Thomas goes on to cite a [CBPP] article dated 7/19/2012 that poses the proposition that maintaining the Bush Tax Cuts for those in the upper 2 percent would, in fact, add deficits of more than $1 trillion to the 2013 budget.

"According to the nonpartisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP),
just 2.5 percent of small business owners face top tax rates. In a July 2012 study, they wrote 'allowing the top two marginal tax rates to return to pre-2001 levels as scheduled next year would affect very few small businesses, a recent Treasury Department study found. The study shows that only 2.5 percent of small business owners face the top two rates.' ” [CBPP 7/19/2012]

Although the CBPP does, in fact, claim to be "nonpartisan" on its Web site, further reading clearly disputes this claim. On the page titled "Experts" on the CBPP Web site, my research shows that all but one of those listed on the page have held positions with the Democrat Party. Of the 46 names listed in various positions, not one has held a position in the GOP or any other conservative or moderate think tank of a similar nature. Below are four examples selected from the Federal Fiscal Policy Section.

Jared Bernstein (Senior Fellow) is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden in the Obama Administration. Bernstein is considered to represent a progressive, pro-labor perspective.

Indivar Dutta-Gupta (Policy Advisor) was involved with Amnesty International USA, as a member of its Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Advisory Group and in other volunteer positions. After graduating from the University of Chicago in June 2005, Dutta-Gupta came to D.C. to work with a nonprofit Democratic consulting firm on political campaigns, food and hunger, international development, energy and national security issues. While in college, he interned at the Chicago office of U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL).

James R. Horney (Vice President for Federal Fiscal Policy) was a deputy Democratic staff director at the Senate Budget Committee from 2001 through 2004.

Chuck Marr is the director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He served as economic policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Further, the report cited by Thomas has come under fire from nonpartisan and conservative tax policy organizations like the TaxFoundation and the Heritage Foundation.

"While we applaud the CBPP's obvious success at bringing attention to the budget, it paints an incomplete picture to place only certain budget items in a graph of the deficit, as if that demonstrates causality. Why not throw entitlement spending in the deficit category, or defense spending, or certain initiatives from the Clinton years? Better yet, why not simply show the entire budget, and in a larger historical context?

"Indeed, the CBO report on which the CBPP analysis is based does just that. A closer look at the CBO report will help illustrate the relative importance of tax cuts and spending (including spending through the tax code) in creating the projected deficits." The Budget Debate, taxfoundation.org

Clearly the issue is not so black and white.

Complete Hochul press release after the jump (click on the headline to read more).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 1, 2012

HOCHUL CAMPAIGN RESPONDS TO CHRIS COLLINS’ PUSH FOR MORE DEFICIT-RAISING TAX CUTS FOR MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES

Extending Tax Cuts for the Richest Americans Would Raise Deficit, Almost Entirely Benefit Millionaires

Clarence, NY – Today the Hochul for Congress Campaign responded to Chris Collins’ call for more tax cuts for the rich, a move that would disproportionately benefit the wealthy and add nearly $1 trillion to the deficit. After ignoring Representative Hochul's calls to join together to support the middle class tax cuts, Collins continues to pursue tax cuts for the wealthy.

“Chris Collins’ call to add nearly $1 trillion to the deficit to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires shows just how out of touch he is with the 27^th District,” said Campaign Manager Frank Thomas.  “Kathy has always been an advocate for keeping taxes low for the middle class while we work to cut spending and balance the budget.  That is why last week she called on Chris Collins to join her in supporting a package that extends tax cuts for the middle class. If we're going to have a serious conversation about addressing our deficit, we will have to get serious about cutting spending and ask the rich to pay their fair share.”

Economists say that cutting taxes for the richest Americans would raise the deficit by “nearly $1 trillion” and give the most benefits to people making more than $1 million per year. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities wrote:

Extending the tax cuts on incomes in excess of $250,000 would add nearly $1 trillion to deficits over 2013 to 2022, but benefit only about the highest-income 2 percent of households.  The biggest benefits would flow to the very highest-income people…more than 80 percent of the value of the upper-income tax cuts would go to people who make more than $1 million a year. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 7/19/2012]

Hochul has a strong record of cutting wasteful spending.  She crossed party lines to vote for the Balanced Budget Amendment, joined Republicans to vote for a bipartisan effort to cut the deficit by more than $2 trillion, and voted multiple times to cut foreign aid to  countries like Pakistan.  According to Fox News, “the [Budget Control Act] will initially cut spending by $900 billion, it also tasks a new committee with finding another $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction by the end of the year.” [House Roll Call Vote 858, 11/18/2011; Roll Call Vote 690, 8/1/2011; Fox News, 8/2/2011; Roll Call Vote 265, 5/17/2012; Roll Call Vote 510, 7/7/2011]

According to the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), just 2.5% of small business owners face top tax rates.  In a July 2012 study, they wrote “allowing the top two marginal tax rates to return to pre-2001 levels as scheduled next year would affect very few small businesses, a recent Treasury Department study found. The study shows that only 2.5 percent of small business owners face the top two rates.” [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 7/19/2012]

According to the CBPP, the suggestion that raising taxes on the rich would seriously affect small business is based on a “misleading” claim.  They wrote:

The claims that allowing the Bush tax cuts for high-income people to expire would seriously harm small businesses rest on an exceedingly broad, and misleading, definition of “small business.” The definition is so broad, in fact, that under it, both President Obama and Governor Romney would count as small business owners — as would 237 of the nation’s 400 wealthiest people. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 7/19/2012]

Hochul has already been a steadfast supporter of extending the middle class tax cuts and has called on Chris Collins to join her.  On July 9^th, Hochul sent a letter to House and Senate leadership that stated, “I write to strongly urge the House and Senate leadership to quickly schedule a vote to permanently extend the expiring middle class tax cuts.”  On July 27^th she asked Chris Collins to support the extensions of the middle class tax cuts. [Hochul Letter to Congressional Leadership, 7/9/2012; Hochul Press Release, 7/27/2012]

Chris Collins supports tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.  According to a Collins campaign press release, “Collins supports a full extension of the tax cuts.” [Collins Press Release, 7/9/2012]