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Brianna Rae Burlingame, 20, of Palmer Road, Churchville, is charged with driving under the influence of drugs, criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of marijuana. Burlingame was arrested after deputies Chad Minuto and Jason Saile responded to the parking lot of Petco at 2:14 p.m., Saturday for the report of a woman asleep behind the wheel of her vehicle while it was running. Burlingame was issued an appearance ticket.

Sean Allen Kota, 18, of Byron-Holley Road, Byron, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater and driver view obstructed. Kota's vehicle was stopped following complaints of the occupants throwing beer bottles out of the window of the car. His vehicle was stopped at 2:47 p.m., Thursday, on Oatka Trail in Le Roy by Deputy Matthew Butler.

Joshua Webster, 25, of York Road, Pavilion, is charged with grand larceny, 4th, and criminal possession of stolen property. Webster is accused of stealing a purse and credit cards from a location on Commerce Drive, Batavia, and of possessing stolen property from another incident at the time of his arrest on an unrelated incident. (Previously)

Gregory J. Battaglia, 30, of Pavilion Center Road, Pavilion, is charged with petit larceny. Battaglia is accused of stealing gasoline from a station in Le Roy.

A 17-year-old resident of Bacon Street, Le Roy, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. The youth is accused of failing to provide appropriate supervision to a child left in his care.

A Batavia resident suffered a minor injury in an accident Friday on Route 33 in Bergen after another car reportedly pulled in front of her car.

Hurt was Kelly J. Poole-Davis, 39, of North Lyon Street, Batavia. She was taken by ground ambulance to UMMC.

The other driver, Loretta E. Miller, 71, of Buffalo Street, Bergen, was uninjured, but was issued a traffic citation.

According to Deputy John L. Baiocco, Miller said she was exiting the Sugar Creek parking lot and never saw Poole-Davis's car. Miller was attempting to make a left-hand turn onto Route 33.

The official attendance at Dwyer Stadium on Sunday was 866, but there's little doubt that there were fewer than 200 people left by the time the Empire State Yankees secured a 6-5 victory over the Norfolk Tides.

Bitter cold -- 38 degrees at game time, plus a 10 mph wind -- seems to have kept many fans home, and drove many away even though it was a closely fought game.

Norfolk jumped to an early lead with three runs in the second inning, but the Yankees scrambled back, mounting a three-run lead in the seventh and then pushing across the winning run in the eighth.

Cold weather and the possibility of precipitation led to the cancellation of a planned second game.

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An altercation is reported in the city at Main and Center streets. Batavia PD is en route. Two vehicles are said to have "emptied their occupants" who then clashed. A car eastbound on Route 5 may have been involved. Cops on scene say nothing's showing.

UPDATE 4:11 p.m.: There have been several calls to dispatch about this. The cars may be on Swan Street now. One vehicle is purportedly white and the other is "dark."

UPDATE 4:17 p.m.: A witness told dispatch one of the vehicles has a partial license plate of FRA. It's a 1999 green Mercedes-Benz registered to someone in Rochester.

A vehicle is reportedly barreling down the westbound I-490 traveling in the wrong direction -- that would be eastbound. Law enforcement is trying to track down the driver.

UPDATE 2:44 p.m.: Monroe County reports the driver was last spotted near the Bergen exit.

UPDATE 2:48 p.m.: Genesee County officers traveled to the Churchville exit without spotting the vehicle and then turned around. The ball's in Monroe County's court now, so to speak.

Virginia Martinez and her four children lost nearly everything Friday in the apartment fire at 26 Maple St., Batavia.

Though fire crews were able to pull out just about all of their belongings from their first-floor apartment, clothing, household and other items were so heavily smoke and water damaged, they're not of much use.

"They need to start over," said Tammy Scheidweiler (on the outside right), so she's organized a donation collection with her husband John (left) in the parking lot of Tonawanda Valley Federal Credit Union this afternoon. 

Four bags of clothing have been dropped off. 

Virginia's four children are ages 7, 5, 3 and almost 2.

Tammy said she's known Virginia since she was just a baby, "and they're like family to me," explaining why she organized the donation effort.

The children also lost most of their toys.

UPDATED 12:03 p.m.

The drivers of both cars that collided head on at 6:44 a.m. on Lewiston Road, just south of Galloway Road, Batavia, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators said the cars appeared to hit squarely, though the speeds of either vehicle have not yet been determined.

It's unknown what caused a northbound white sedan to cross the double-yellow line.

The sedan hit a minivan.

The sedan, a 1997 Buick, was driven by Quayeshawn D. Smith, 25, of 4590 Mill St., Medina.

The minivan, a 2002 Mazda, was driven by Rosemary Calla, 74, of 34 S. Main St., Oakfield.

Sgt. James Meier said he doesn't believe weather conditions, light wind and a light drizzle, contributed to the accident.

No other passengers were in either vehicle.

Town of Batavia Fire Department and Mercy EMS responded to the scene, though Mercy medics went back in service shortly after arriving at the accident.

Lewiston Road was closed in both directions between Galloway Road and Veterans Memorial Drive from shortly after 7 a.m. until 9:36 a.m.

Oakfield Fire provided traffic control at Galloway and Route 63.

The accident is being investigated by the Crash Management Team of the Sheriff's Office, which includes Sgt. Meier, Sgt. Bill Scott, Deputy Brad Mazur and Investigator William Ferrando.

A serious injury accident is reported in the area of 7936 Lewiston Road, Batavia.

Town of Batavia Fire Department and Mercy EMS requested to the scene.

Mercy Flight unable to fly due to weather.

Route 63 closed in both directions

UPDATE 7:40 a.m.: This is a double fatal accident.

UPDATE 9:36 a.m.: Lewiston Road is reopened. Town of Batavia is back in service.

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The Batavia High School Girls Softball Team was at Clor's Meat Market today selling chicken BBQ dinners as a fundraiser for the team.

More than 20 fencers were at Batavia High School today for a tournament sponsored by En Garde. The event was part of the USFA WNY Epee Circuit division and winners scored points toward a division championship. Fencers came from as far away as Syracuse, Binghamton, Albany, Rochester and Buffalo. Fencers ranged in age from 15 to 57.

When I was at DeWitt Park this morning I got to drive out to the far side of the park and found that Paul Osborn is getting new paths installed, new trees planted at this lookout platform installed.

Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts were in DeWitt Park today for Earth Day to do a little clean up. The girls found a whole area of old auto parts that had been dumped, no doubt, decades ago, and dutifully picked up every scrap.

Dozens of families brought their cars to the Batavia fire station today for inspections of their child safety seats or to get them properly installed.

Recently, another seven Batavia firefighters went through training in child safety seats, giving the department the capability to provide year-'round-service to local families looking to ensure the safety of their children when riding in a car.

State troopers and Sheriff's deputies assisted with the inspections today.

Despite the unrelenting rain, it was a busy day for Clor's Meat Market today -- with several groups needing Clor's one-of-a-kind BBQ chicken. So Chuck Gugel had a couple of employees set up BBQ pits in a vacant-lot area behind Faletti Ice Arena near the skate park off Evans Street. Pictured are Troy Colton, left, and William Griffin.

A persistent drizzle didn't dampen the green spirits of some Batavia residents who turned out for the city's Earth Day park clean-up effort today at Austin Park (with clean-up crews dispersing to other parks after a meeting).

Above, Kaitlin Logsdon at Austin Park, and below, Batavia City Council President Tim Buckley with Katie Buckley, and wearing the trash bag is Dave Russell.

A child playing with fire is the most likely cause of a blaze that gutted the second floor of an apartment building at 26 Maple St., Batavia, on Friday.

According to Lt. Jay Steinbrenner of the Batavia City Fire Department, the physical evidence and the version of events given by the mother are consistent and the fire will officially be deemed accidental.

It's unknown if the child was playing with matches or a lighter.

The names of the occupants of the three unit complex are not yet available.

The mother burned her hand trying to grab a pillow that had been set on fire so she could throw it out of the apartment.

When she couldn't successfully deal with the fire herself, she evacuated her children from the apartment and then called 9-1-1.

Heavy smoke and some flames were already billowing out of the second-floor windows by the time the first firefighters arrived on scene at about 1:30 p.m.

Steinbrenner said that one firefighter observed upon entering the building, "It's a big fire real quick."

The upstairs rooms were filled with thick black smoke when firefighters entered through northside door.

The wind was from the south, so smoke and flames were being blown in the opposite direction. Firefighters needed to push the blaze -- they wanted to push it toward the southside windows, which would give them the best chance to save as much of the structure as possible.

In all, Steinbrenner said, he thought the city crews did a good job of accomplishing their goal.

Though the building was razed, the first floor remained structurally sound and the two downstairs occupants were able to recover almost all of their personal belongings.

"The fire was contained to the second floor," Steinbrenner said. "I thought we did a good job. The tenants downstairs were able to salvage their possessions. There was very little damage downstairs, just water damage."

Today's game between the Empire State Yankees and Norfolk Tides has been postponed due to rain.

This game will be made up as part of a double-header on Sunday, April 22. Two seven-inning games will be played, with the first game starting at 1:05 p.m. Gates open at noon.

Any person with tickets to today’s game can exchange their tickets for any other Yankees game or any Muckdogs regular season game, subject to availability.

Ramon Ortiz of the Empire Yankees delivered the first pitch -- a called ball -- to Norfolk's Xavier Avery and history was made at Dwyer Stadium: the first Triple A ball game ever played in Batavia.

There were 1,319 fans on hand to witness the history-making game.

Two pitches later, the Yankees were down 1-0 as Avery rocketed a pitch from Ortiz over the right field wall.

While Ortiz got hit pretty hard in the first inning, he settled down to last seven innings and the Yankees came back with a three-run eighth inning to salvage a 6-4 victory.

The two teams go at it again today at 1:05 p.m., tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. and Monday at 12:05 p.m.

Double play sequence:

Below, Rep. Kathy Hochul throws out the first pitch (photo provided by Kevin Manne).

More game pictures after the jump (click on the headline to view):

It was the Ugly Purse and Tie Luncheon today to raise money for the Child Advocacy Center. The second annual event is a chance for local residents to show off their most gaudy ties and purses.

The luncheon was held at Terry Hills.

Top photo, Susan Privitera, of Le Roy, with a fur-and-bug-covered handbag of her own making.

Sheriff Gary Maha.

Mike Flannery, left, Edgar Lougheed, both from Byron, and Det. Pat Corona.

Though it ways more than 2,600 pounds, a new Celtic-style cross was placed with loving care atop the tower at St. James Episcopal Church in Batavia this morning.

The cross raising caps a $500,000 restoration project at St. James that should be completely finished some time in July.

Bill Farmer, chairman of Catenary Construction, said his crews have repaired mortar, replaced 278 pieces of stone and put a new roof on the tower. In a few weeks, the white wrapping around the scaffolding will come off, the scaffolding lowered and the giant stained glass window repaired. When that's done, the project is done.

As the cross was raised this morning, Farmer and Rev. Steve Metcalf looked on with obvious joy.

"This is without a doubt the best part (of the job)," Farmer said. "It’s a pretty noble service to set a cross and it’s a once-in-a-professional-career moment."

The cross is a highly compacted concrete, and where the previous cross lasted only about 100 years, this cross will last hundreds of years, Farmer said.

"We're very pleased with it," Metcalf said. "(As I watched the cross go up) I began to think about people being able to see a new cross as a sign of renovation, not only of the building, but of this congregation."

When Metcalf arrived at the church a couple of years ago, he said, the facade was crumbling and it was hard for anybody to even approach the building. The front doors couldn't even be opened.

"There was this sense that we weren't open to the community," Metcalf said.

Donations from the congregation and members of the community along with state charitable grants helped pay for the restoration.

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