Local

Memorial Day parades and ceremonies are taking place in dozens of Western New York communities today.

The 914th Airlift Wing will take part in Memorial Day ceremonies in Batavia.

A flyover of one of the Wing's C-130s is scheduled to coincide with the city's parade around 10am. Congresswoman Kathy Hochul will be among the dignitaries on hand.

State Senator Tim Kennedy will take part in a ceremony honoring Cheektowaga Army veteran Walter Casheba at the Town Park at 1pm.

Internal Affairs investigators are reviewing the Sunday morning incident in which a Buffalo police officer shot and killed a man in the city's Black Rock section.

Few details have been released but a department spokesman says the shooting followed a foot chase and struggle between the officer and suspect.

The officer was treated for eye and head injuries.

The names of those involved have yet to be released.

The Homicide Squad is also conducting an investigation of the incident.

State Police in Central New York have released the name of a trooper who died Saturday after an accident late the night before.

The trooper has been identified as 31-year old Amanda Anna of Liverpool. Anna lost control of her patrol vehicle and crashed in the Town of Hastings near Oswego. She was a six year veteran of the force, assigned to the Hastings Barracks in Oswego County.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, in a statement, sent condolences to the trooper's family. Anna is survived by her fiance, also a member of the State Police, and a four year old son.

The Huntley Power plant in the Town of Tonawanda will benefit from the settlement of a lawsuit from 2011.

The lawsuit entailed tax exemptions and assessments that the plant filed for and which were denied by the town's Board of Assessment Review. The award totals nearly $9 million, much of it coming from the Kenmore - Town of Tonawanda School District and the Town itself. Both entities made preparations for the payments.

Erie county also owes in the settlement, though there has been no comment from the County Executive.
 

Administrators in the Town of Amherst are optimistic that its taxpayer supported golf courses will soon become profitable.

The town's trio of golf courses have lost money over the previous three seasons, with deficits rising to nearly $300,000 in 2011. The town operates the Audubon, Oakwood and Audubon Par Three golf courses. Administrators blame the lackluster performance at the courses to poor weather, competition from private courses, and ongoing construction projects that interrupted play.

Niagara County's Emergency Preparedness Program has received a perfect score in state performance reviews.

 The county's program has received exceptional scores for three consecutive years, including reviews by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The New York State Department of Health reviewed the program this year.

Rescue crews from Canada and the US responded to a report of a man caught in the whirlpool currents near the Falls on Saturday afternoon.

Witnesses claim that a 22 year old Asian male fell into the water at the Niagara Glen nature preserve on the Canadian side. Crews used water craft and helicopters to search for the man. He was spotted in the water but was pulled under from the currents before he could be rescued. He never resurfaced.

The rescue effort was suspended Saturday evening.

The University at Buffalo is distancing itself from a controversial hydrofracking report recently released by one of the school's affiliates.

The Shale Resources and Society Institute was formed at the school this year as a source for credible information and research regarding shale gas. It's first report, indicating an improvement in the environmental effects of hydrofracking, has been harshly criticized by being funded and directed by industry interests. Other studies show the Institute's results to be false.

Brian Davis, the former Ellicott District representative on the Common Council, could seek a plea deal at a court appearance this week.

Davis faces embezzlement charges for scheming to redirect nearly $50 thousand in federal funds for personal use. According to the News, Davis could face up to ten years in prison, though a deal would lessen that sentence. It could also require that he testify in the federal investigation into City Hall's use of federal funds allocated through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

An early morning, two alarm blaze closed a portion of Elmwood Avenue overnight.

Crews responded to calls at 353 Elmwood just after midnight where a fire was well established when firefighters arrived. The apartment building suffered an estimated $200,000 in damage, and one person was treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation and the Red Cross is assisting residents of the building.
 

Police and prosecutors are working to ebb the increase of shootings that plague Buffalo's West Side.

Seventeen members of the violent Seventh Street Gang were charged with racketeering on Friday. Some members face additional charges of murder, robbery and other violent offenses. Officials claim that the city has suffered more than 100 shootings this year, a 70 percent increase over the same stretch last year.

A rival Tenth Street Gang is also getting attention by police.

A guilty plea in a deadly automobile crash in January will send a Blasdell teen to prison for as many as fifteen years.

Bradley Maloney has pleaded guilty in the early morning crash on the Cattaraugus Reservation that killed one teen passenger and injured two others. Maloney and others had been drinking in Buffalo and were headed to a cottage in a Chautauqua County.

He faces charges of vehicular manslaughter, vehicular assault and DWI.
 

This Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer in Western New York and Canalside in downtown Buffalo is expected to be a popular destination.

From land that’s lain fallow and neglected for decades, the downtown waterfront is being reborn, and people have noticed.

425 events are scheduled at Canalside through October.  Nearly all of them are free. A schedule is available at http://www.eriecanalharbor.com/events.asp.

CBC News is reporting that the Canadian Consulate office in Buffalo will be closing. The Canadian government says the closing is due to budget cuts and changes in immigration rules.

The main function of the Buffalo office was to help foreign students and temporary workers extend their visas to stay in Canada, but that will now be handled online and in immigration offices in Canada. Other consular functions in the Buffalo office will be transferred to New York City.

A rare showing of bi-partisan support in Washington may benefit the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station.

By unanimous vote, a spending plan was approved Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee that would fund the continued operation of the 107th Airlift Wing at the Falls base.

A similar bill was passed earlier by the House Armed Services Committee.

The Pentagon had proposed to trim Air National Guard operations in Niagara Falls and around the country before Governors and lawmakers offered staunch opposition.
 

Organizers made official what many thought was inevitable: the Thursday downtown summer music series will now make its home on the emerging Buffalo waterfront.

Last year, there were some concerts in the old venue on Lafayette Square and some on the Waterfront.

This year, all of the concerts will be getting new names and a permanent location down on the Central Wharf on the Inner Harbor.

Buffalo Place President and Vice Chairman Anthony Colucci III says the schedule is being released now but there may be even more concerts beyond the five when there will be a charge.

With Governor Cuomo putting up millions of dollars to speed Peace Bridge expansion, community activists want to know if more traffic will translate into more air pollution.

Air pollution from bridge and Thruway traffic has been an issue on the West Side for years, as has the very high asthma rate turned up in local and national studies.

There has been very little air quality monitoring, although there was some in an earlier phase of planning for bridge and plaza expansion.

The school board made it official yesterday, Interim Superintendent Amber Dixon is one of three finalists for the post left vacant when James Williams retired in September.

The others named and listed with their credentials are Edward Newsome, an assistant superintendent for high schools in Baltimore County Public Schools, and Pamela Brown, former assistant superintendent and chief academic officer for Philadelphia.

There's an increasing problem of misuse of prescription drugs from an increasing oversupply.

Law enforcement officials say they need controls and new Albany legislation may provide those controls.

Police have busted an array of questionable sources of prescription drugs, from a Niagara County doctor to pharmacies.

The drugs then show up in the illegal market, legal pills for illegal purposes.

State Assemblyman Sean Ryan says it's hard to keep track because prescription records only have to be submitted within 45 days.

The decisive action of a New York State Trooper helped save the  life of an Erie County toddler.

State police report Trooper Christopher Sullivan's CPR efforts helped to revive a 23-month-old child who was found unresponsive in the family pool in the town of Boston Tuesday evening.
 

In a news release issued by State Police, Trooper Sullivan arrived on scene and found the child to be unconscious and not breathing.  He immediately began CPR and was able to partially revive the child.  Moments later Boston EMS arrived on scene and relieved Trooper Sullivan.