Democrat assembly leaders seeks to K-O Niagara Indian casino gambling. NY State Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver (D-NYC) said Thursday, 8/23, he wants all negotiations between the Seneca Indians and governmental units to stop until a "uniform" approach for Indian gambling casinos can be worked out for the entire state. If Silver gets his way, and he usually does, that would effectively end all efforts to start casino gambling on the Niagara Frontier according to Seneca Indian negotiator, Richard Jemison. (8/24/01)
Judge says: Pataki's attempt to give Indians control of Casino Gambling in NF illegal. State Justice Joseph Teresi ruled Wednesday, 4/11, that on-going negotiations between New York Gov. George Pataki and the Seneca Indian Nation to set up casino gambling on the Niagara Frontier is in violation of the State Constitution. The law requires, according to the judge's ruling, that the New York State Legislature must approve any such deal between the State and the Indians. The Democratic-controlled Assembly has traditionally knocked down any effort for casino gambling on the Niagara Frontier. New Jersey gambling interests are said to be continuing to lobby hard (read: donate to New York politicians) against any casino gambling off Indian lands in New York. There has been speculation that Pataki has been working on a deal that would allow the Seneca's to run casino gambling at the Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center. (4/12/01)
Out Of Job After Political Changes In DC, Andy Cuomo Says He Wants To Be NYS Governor
43-year-old Andrew Cuomo, Mario's boy, announced Monday night, 1/29, in New York City that he is a candidate for Governor of New York State. The junior Cuomo lost his job as federal housing secretary on Jan. 20 with the departure of the Clinton administration. He had gained that job as a political payoff to his father, Democratic power and former New York Governor, Mario Cuomo.
It was in 1994 that Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, thwarted Mario Cuomo's attempt to win a fourth term. In 2002 Pataki is expected to be a candidate for re-election. State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, is expected to vie with the junior Cuomo for the Democratic Party nomination to oppose Pataki.
Cuomo's announcement party was to have been held in the home of Democratic fund-raiser Denise Rich, ex-wife of former fugitive financier Marc Rich. Those plans were scrapped at the last minute in the wake of public outrage over President Clinton's last-day pardon of Rich. Denise Rich, who had written Clinton in support of the pardon, said she didn't want to become a distraction. She has contributed over $1-million to Democratic Party functions and candidates, much of it to the Clinton's. The Cuomo party was moved at the last minute to an alternate downtown Manhattan site. (1/30/01)
Gov. George Pataki laid out a
proposal for big increases in state spending in releasing his budget to the media and
state legislators on Tuesday, 1/16. The total budget is $86.3-billion, up about 5%
from the present year.
A highlight of the spending plan was nearly across-the-board increases in state aid to local school districts, pegged at $382-million. Lockport schools would get about $625,000 more than the current year under the proposed Pataki budget. Even with the giant boost in school aid, educators began to complain, saying they needed $1-billion more in taxpayer funding to operate the school in the 2001-02 school year. The major reason for skyrocketing school spending, increases in teacher salaries, is again expected to gobble up most of the proposed state aid increases.
Observers viewed the spending hike as inflationary, citing that increases were running more than double the rate of inflation for a state with generally declining population. There were proposed increases in some state fees but no general tax increase was sought. The budget would continue to maintain the artificially low tuition rates for the State University system while cutting aid for private colleges and universities.
Another feature of the Pataki spending program is about $50-million of new money to be pumped into the Erie Barge Canal System across the state from Buffalo to the Hudson River. Communities like Lockport could benefit from such improvements although in the past, much of "canal money" has been siphoned off by communities not on the canal and for non-related spending such as subsidized housing.
Earlier in the month, in his annual State-of-the-State message Wednesday, 1/3, New York Gov. George Pataki proposed massive help for Niagara Falls' tourist district. A clean-up like the one the state largely funded in New York's Times' Square a few years ago. (1/17/01)
After being held hostage to a petty political feud between New York Gov. George Pataki and downstate Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-Saugerties), The U. S. Congress on Friday, 12/15, finally moved to approve the Erie Canal Heritage Bill. The bill creates the nation's 23rd heritage corridor and will aid in marketing the historic Erie Canal right through Lockport and across the state.
While the legislation doesn't immediately open up huge amounts of new money for canalside developments, sources told the Lockport Home Page that such applications for federal funds will now be seen with much more favor. Whether Lockport will share in the expected millions to go to canalside communities will depend on how well Congressman John LaFalce can work with Lockport Mayor Tom Sullivan. Both are Democrats and their cooperative initiative will be the main factor as to how much benefit Lockport will get from the new designation. Many canal communities, most significant of which are Buffalo and Syracuse, are already making moves for special funding. Ten millions dollars is immediately up for grabs from the federal Interior Department. But individual applications, pushed by local Congressmen, are expected to make up the big money that will go into the canalside communities. (12/17/00)
An 18-year old former Burger King employee told a Rochester court this week how he and two other teens contaminated food served at a Thruway restaurant over an eight month period. Daniel Musson admitted he was responsible for adding oven cleaner and spit to a Whopper sandwich that so sickened a sheriff's deputy that an investigation into operations at the Scottsdale Thruway Burger King (photo below) was begun in May. That investigation showed that teen employees at the eatery routinely added urine, human spit, caustic oven cleaner, and Comet cleaner with bleach to Whoppers, fries and other food served to customers at the restaurant. Questions to the restaurant by the Lockport Home Page have gone unanswered.
Mr. Musson described in court papers how a teen girl took a Whopper sandwich into a restroom, said she urinated on it, and then placed it for sale to a customer. Musson struck a deal with prosecutors to testify against two other teens. His sentencing is set for November 29th. Burger King is not revealing to the Lockport Page if any of its employees charged with the poisoning have been tested for diseases such as the AIDS virus which are transmitted through bodily fluids. (10/6/00)
35 Arrested; Charged In Rochester-Niagara Drug Operation
Federal drug authorities with the cooperation of state and local agents, took action Wednesday, 9/27, to bust a major area drug traffic operation with the arrest of 35 alleged participants. Five of the 35 were identified as Niagara Falls residents. A federal indictment against four other persons remains sealed. Federal indictments are reported to seek the forfeiture of $12-million in cash and property assets. The drug operation is said to have moved cocaine from Rochester to Niagara Falls in kilo quantities. The drug supplier in the Rochester area was identified as "the Castillo Gang." Once the drugs arrived in Niagara Falls, authorities indicate, lesser drug movers would distribute the varieties of coke to other areas on the Niagara Frontier including Lockport. The investigation into the drug distribution network has been on-going for several years, authorities indicated. (9/28/00)
Tuscarora Indian Let Loose On Probation - Had Made Bomb Threat Against Lawyer
A resident of the Tuscarora Indian Reservation, charged with making a bomb threat against a Syracuse lawyer has been let loose on probation after a defiant appearance in Federal Court at Syracuse. 48-year old Douglas Anderson of the Niagara County Indian reservation in the town of Lewiston, reportedly showed no remorse in Federal Court Friday, 9/22. A federal court jury had convicted him of extortion in a case where a Syracuse lawyer had been threatened. The attorney had reportedly been mailed a threat that unless he stayed off the territory of the "Six Nations" his car would be blown up. Attorney Joseph Heath, has been representing the Onondaga Council of Chiefs and leaders of the Iroquois Confederacy in cases involving squabbles between rival Indian factions in Central New York.
Federal Judge Norman Mordue told Anderson, "You've got an attitude about you, but I'm going to give you a break." He then sentenced Anderson to three year probation with six months "home confinement" back at his place on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation in Niagara County. (9/23/00)
The case of 19-year old Matthew J. Maxson of High Street, Lockport, continues to move through the legal system in Oswego County where he has reportedly admitted to killing a 54-year old woman, in her home, while going door-to-door selling magazines. Maxson is scheduled to be sentenced February 26th to 15 years to life for the woman's death by stabbing. Authorities in Oswego County (north of Syracuse) say Maxson has offered no explanation for his attack on Diana M. Cooper of Fulton, NY. (1/30/01) See earlier stories, immediately below, for additional details.
More information is coming out in the Fulton-Oswego area about the activities of the Lockport teenager charged with the murder of a 53-year old woman in her home just before the Memorial Day weekend.
As Matt James Maxson of 117 High Street sits in a jail cell at the Oswego County holding center, The Lockport Home Page has learned of the following new developments in the case:
Maxson reportedly did not have a peddler's permit as required by Fulton law to go door-to-door selling magazines. The permit would have cost $50/day.
An associate of Maxson's ---also a magazine subscription seller---had been the subject of a complaint to Fulton Police last year.
The Florida company that Maxson was reported working for selling the magazines has denied they employed him. Instead, Palmetto Marketing, Incorporated of Pompano Beach, FL says they only "process orders" Maxson and others obtain. The company indicated still another corporation, which it identified only as "DeGeorge Sales" dealt with Maxson and Palmetto deals with DeGeorge.
Oswego County District Attorney, Dennis Hawthorne, said on Wednesday, 5/31, that he wasn't ruling out seeking the death penalty for the Lockport teen. New York State law gives the DA 120 days to file a notice with the court announcing intent to seek the death penalty.
Maxson had been hired by the magazine solicitors while the company was operating in the Niagara Frontier on May 17th. His supervisor is reported as calling him "well-mannered, talkative, and articulate." His supervisor says he met with Maxson's mother and checked references before signing him on for sales in the Syracuse area. Maxson left home in Lockport for the Syracuse area on May 21st according to reports in public papers.
Maxson was to have gone through a two-week training period but set out on his own in Fulton on May 24th. It was the last day that the murder victim, Dianna Cooper, was reported seen alive. It was the day young Maxson was working the Fulton area alone.
Updated 6/1/00
18-year-old Matt James Maxson of 117 High Street was arrested over the weekend at a hotel near Syracuse and charged with the murder of a 53-year old woman in her home at Fulton, north of Syracuse. Maxson reportedly was among a group of young people in the area to sell magazine subscriptions, door-to-door.
Police arrested Matt James Maxson, 18, of 117 High St., Lockport, Saturday morning, 5/27, after he was picked up at the Holiday Inn on Farrell Road in Geddes. The Lockport boy was charged with two counts of murder in the second degree in the death of Diana Cooper, 53, 251½ West Second Street in Fulton, a community of about 15,000. Police say Cooper was hit in the head with a piece of glass that appeared to have come from large jars she kept in her home. Her body was discovered by her daughter on Thursday, 5/25.
Authorities say they found a sneaker print on one of the many pieces of glass found in Cooper's living room and kitchen. The print had a herringbone design. In Maxson's hotel room, (Holiday Inn in Syracuse suburb of Geddes) police say they found sneakers with the same pattern as the one on the glass. The sneakers also were stained with blood, according to public papers.In a written deposition to Fulton Police, Jeremy MacPeek, Maxson's co-worker at Palmetto Marketing Inc., a magazine subscription sales company based in Coral Springs, Fla., said he noticed blood on Maxson's Nike Air Jordan sneakers at the end of the day Wednesday, 5/24. MacPeek told police that after Maxson was unable to wash all the blood stains off, he tried to sell the sneakers to him for $25.
Maxson is being held without bail at the Oswego County Jail until another court appearance on Wednesday. (5/30/00)
Thruway travelers shocked with story
that teens poisoned food at restaurant. Many Lockportians have been among
the victims of food poisoned at a Burger King Restaurant at the Scottsville Service
Center, south of Rochester, in the east bound direction of the New York State
Thruway. Three teenage employees were charged Wednesday, 5/10, with adding
"foreign substances" to food served there over an eight month period. The
State Police at first declined to reveal what the kids added to food but the Lockport
Page learned on Thursday, 5/11, that among the substances added to Whoppers, fries,
and other fast food at the Burger King were: urine, human spit, caustic oven
cleaner, and Comet cleaner with bleach. Two boys and a girl have been charged.
Authorities are at a loss of how to explain why the kids were not caught earlier given the
long period of time they are charged with spiking customer food with the poisons.
Authorities are not giving out many details of the poisoning. Of great concern is if
any of the teens were H.I.V. positive or had other diseases or infections that could be
spread by body fluids such as urine. A positive answer to that question would
involve probably over 100,000 victims. (5/11/00)
State acts to place extra tax on home electric and gas use. Just as the energy crunch from oil is hitting upstate New York residents hard, the State moved to hit consumers again by charging a local sales tax on the delivery of electric and gas service. The minimum is 3% with some consumers paying as much as 8%. In Niagara County the total tax will be 3% but in the Niagara Falls school district an extra 3% will be added on. Local communities could ask to exempt electric and gas service from taxation but none have acted to do so. The new tax wipes out much of the savings some consumers experienced by going with independent suppliers of gas and electric. (4/21)
Niagara Bancorp buys up Central New York banks. The financial group which took over Lockport Savings Bank and changed its name to First Niagara Bank---says it will not change the names of banks it has moved to take over in Central New York State. Niagara Bancorp reportedly will buy the banks controlled by Iroquois Bancorp for $80.3-million. Banks included are Cayuga Bank (Auburn-based) and the Homestead Savings (Utica-based). Niagara had previously bought up the Cortland Savings Bank which it also allowed to continue using its own name. (3/28/00)