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An unknown type of wire is down across the roadway at 136 Bank St. in the City of Batavia, between North Street and Washington Avenue.

Batavia Fire is responding.

UPDATE (2:10 p.m.): The wire was a cable wire pulled down by a truck. It is cleared and the resident has been notified about the broken wire.

Llamas, or possibly alpacas, are reported in a yard close to the roadway, unsupervised, at 6234 Route 5 in Stafford.

Law enforcement is checking the scene.

UPDATE (by Howard) 1:50 p.m.: A resident showed up, the llamas are being corralled. Law enforcement reports that neighbors say, "this happens all the time."

In a media release from Assemblyman Steve Hawley's office on Friday, he expressed acute exasperation for the "lack of Albany leadership" which continues to delay completion of the 2010-11 State Budget.

After a legislative leaders met last week, he says "it became all too clear that even after being more than 50 days late, the Majority parties in both the Assembly and Senate are not concerned about passing the state budget.

"Even worse was the fact that during the public meeting, Assembly Speaker Silver and Senator Sampson confirmed that not only is there no current plan in place to pass a budget, but there are no plans to make plans. This is absolutely unacceptable and New York taxpayers deserve better."

The assemblyman notes that in 2007, rules reforms for the budget process were put in place, requiring the Legislature to produce state revenue forecasts and appoint members to joint conference committees to negotiate the differences between each house’s proposed budget.

He claims none of these rules have been followed and "Albany has reverted to the ‘three men in a room’ style of government."

Over the last several weeks, Governor Paterson, Speaker Silver, and the Senate Majority Leader Sampson have left rank-and-file members of the Assembly and Senate out of budget negotiations, leaving us to vote on trivial legislation like the protection of seahorses, according to Hawley.

"My colleagues and I in the Minority Conference have repeatedly asked that timetables be announced. Additionally, we’ve offered specific cost-saving proposals to the governor and both Majority conferences that would close the current $9.2 billion budget gap by cutting state spending, stopping backdoor borrowing, and reforming the budget process to make it more transparent and accountable.

"These measures would not only close the current budget gap, but will lay the framework for a more fiscally responsible state spending plan and help prevent future gaps from occurring. Unfortunately, we have been ignored while the Majority parties continue to argue amongst themselves about where to increase taxes and how to continue state borrowing, policies that put our state in this fiscal crisis to begin with.

Hawley continues "Albany has mismanaged New York tax dollars for decades, and now in the midst of an economic slow down, have continued to do so. The actions, or more appropriately inactions, of the ‘three men in a room’ have caused our schools, local governments, contractors, state parks, and small businesses to suffer.

"I will continue to demand that the Assembly and Senate majorities follow state budget reform laws and convene conference committees so the budget can be finished. New York taxpayers are fed up, and my colleagues in the Majority parties should start listening.

A wire down across the roadway has required the temporary closure of State Street near the Thruway.

A car is on fire in front of the City of Batavia Police Department at 10 W. Main St. Officers are being dispatched to control traffic.

City firefighters are responding.

The Alexander Fire Department is responding to a report of the smell of natural gas coming from the same mobile home unit which an hour ago had firefighters on scene because of a dishwasher fire.

The location is Lot 11 in the West Bank Mobile Home Park at 3189 Route 20.

BATAVIA, NY -- The testimony of Scott Doll's former corrections' department coworker was called into question this afternoon in his murder trial in Genesee County Court.

Teresa Zelaszkiewicz is a retired corrections officer who worked in the special-needs unit for at-risk offenders at the Wendy Correctional Facility.

She said she met Doll there when he applied to a job posting for that unit and was friendly with him for three years before she retired, and remains friends with him.

She testified that in the early morning hours of Feb. 17, 2009, she was asleep at home. A text message from Doll's girlfriend awakened her. After getting up and driving to the couple's house in Corfu, the two women decided they would go to the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

Around 3:30 a.m. Feb. 17, following the murder on Feb. 16, the former coworker went to the facility and was greeted by Det. Kris Kautz. She asked to speak with Doll and was denied, she asked to meet with him a second time "out of professional courtesy" and was allowed to do so.

Zelaszkiewicz, with short-cropped, highlightened brown hair, wearing glasses, tan pants and a plaid jacket, testified that Kautz told her she could meet with Doll, but Kautz would be present.

Kautz earlier testified that that he took notes about the conversation between Doll and Zelaszkiewicz. But the witness today denied Kautz took any notes whatsoever. She told District Attorney Lawrence Friedman that Kautz did not in fact have a large yellow legal pad and used neither pen nor pencil to takes notes. Also, he had no tape-recording device.

It is hard to determine whom, if anyone, she helped by taking the stand. She was the second witness called by the defense team, but she seemed incapable of recalling facts that she testified to only minutes previously.

The pre-trial testimony she provided to attorneys was gone over. While in the holding cell with Doll, she found him shackled to the floor, sitting on a bench, equi-distant from herself and Kautz. She asked him "If his head's OK, and if she needed to call someone for him," she told Friedman.

She said Doll replied that his head was OK and he didn't want her to call anyone. Yet they discussed getting legal help and she said he told her that preferred to get a public defender. She said he told her, basically, why pay for an expensive attorney when a public defender can do the same job?

She asked if this was the way he wanted to go and he said he was not sure, adding "Look what happened to Sing (or Singh)."

She asked him if a deer were involved, he said no.

But she did not recall asking him "Please tell me there's no dead body!" which was a statement offered by Kautz.

"I asked him if there was someone else involved and he said 'I can't say...I was there but I didn't do it.'"

The relevance of notes she claimed she wrote came into play. She testified that she wrote down her recollection of the Sheriff's Office conversation with Doll in the days following the meeting on 5-by-7 inch "sticky" note cards.

But she was unclear as to whether the notes she took included her questions, his answers, or both, or whether all the converation was included, or what parts, if any, were left in and why.

The judge, outside the presence of the jury, berated the witness for clearly telling jurors she took notes about her converstation with Doll at the Sheriff's station, but later saying she has no idea where the notes are and whether they could be produced.

Noonan asked her if the case were recessed so she, accompanied by a deputy, could sort through her household goods, if there was a likelihood of finding the note cards.

She said, no, she had done so much remodeling it is doubtful she would find the index cards.

The witness said she talked with Doll's defense team on the phone at times, but she hadn't met them in person until Friday. She never informed the attorneys of the alledged notes, which only came to light on the witness stand.

In an unexpected twist in the Scott Doll murder trial, Judge Robert Noonan said, outside the presence of the jury, that the accused killer will be taking the witness stand.

The matter of his testimony came up after lawyers on both sides of the aisle took issue with a witness's testimony about her conversation with Doll at the Sheriff's station. She could testify about her state of mind and what she observed and heard, but could not testify about Doll's state of mind.

That would be addressed by Doll himself when he takes the stand.

At the conclusion of the day's session at 4:30, Noonan told the jurors the case is moving along somewhat sooner than predicted. Final evidence will be offered tomorrow, with the afternoon most likely being taken up with complicated legal points between the judge and the attorneys, without the jury present.

Noonan said the jury may get the case by Wednesday afternoon at the earliest, after closing arguments are completed.