A man accused of violating probation in Taxes and captured in Batavia On Tuesday appeared in Genesee County Court Friday morning and waived his right to extradition proceedings.

Terry W. Strickland, 30, of 110 Lake Park, Waxahachie, Texas, is allegedly wanted in Dallas County for a probation violation stemming from a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon. Strickland could have insisted the governor of Texas produce a warrant for his arrest and challenge any evidence of the charges' validity.

Tuesday, Batavia police officers responded to a report of a domestic incident at a residence on Dewey Avenue and, after identifying Strickland, discovered the warrant.

There is just one day left in our contest:

You know there are local businesses that you just love -- tell us about them on Shop Batavia and you could win a $100 gift certificate from one of your favorite businesses.

Dan Jones: Bypassing The Electoral College in Favor of a National Popular Vote System Benefits Our Communities

The girls of the Pembroke High School basketball team were dressed in all pink uniforms Thursday night in front of a capacity crowd in their home gym.

The big turn out and the pink uniforms were part of a fundraiser called "Shooting for a Cure" to support breast cancer research

Proceeds are being donated to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

The Walt Disney Company donated a family 4-pack of 3-day tickets to their Disney Orlando Parks (value of $1,000) as the grand prize drawing. The winner was selected at half-time of Thursday's game, but we don't yet have the name of the winner.

Bottom picture, Bryan Wittman, global VP of Special Events for Disney, team captain Randi Dellapenta, April McMillion and Buster Bison, mascot of the Buffalo Bisons.

If you're unable to view the slide show, click here.

To purchase printed copies of the photos from this event, click here.

A 46-year-old man released from the Ontario County jail on bail was arrested by Le Roy Police on Thursday and accused of stealing a purse Dec. 20 and using the credit cards at locations in Le Roy, Batavia and Rochester.

Charged with criminal possession, 4th, a Class E felony, is Richard A. Cooke, of 327 E. Main St., Waterloo.

Cooke has two prior felony convictions, according to Le Roy Police, and had recently posted bail in Ontario County following indictments on multiple charges unrelated to the Le Roy case.

Cooke allegedly stole a purse Dec. 20 from a business on Lake Street.

With the help of surveillance video and the assistance of the Monroe County Crime Analysis Center, Avon Police and the Ontario County Sheriff's Office, New York State Police and the Waterlook PD, Cook was identified as the suspect.

Further charges in Genesee County may be pending.

Following arraignment in Le Roy, Cooke was jailed without bail.

This video was produced by Ted Johnson, of Pavilion.

Press release:

United Memorial Medical Center is pleased to announce that plans are under way to provide Urgent Care Services at the Jerome Center in Batavia.

“This continues United Memorial’s efforts to increase access to necessary health care services to residents of Genesee County,” said Mark Schoell, president and CEO.

United Memorial currently operates an Urgent Care Center on Tountas Avenue in Le Roy which opened in July 2010. Visits to United Memorial’s Urgent Care Center in Le Roy have grown from an estimated 3,500 to more than 6,000 annually. Analyzing patient demographics based on zip codes indicate that a great deal of that growth is from the Batavia area.

Urgent Care services are a cost effective and convenient way for patients to receive quality medical care when their primary care physician is unavailable and they do not want to spend time waiting in an emergency room to be treated for a non-life-threatening injury or illness. Co-payments for urgent care are typically less than emergency room co-pays.

UMMC’s Urgent Care Center in Batavia, like the center in Le Roy, will be well equipped to treat a variety of ailments, including: sprains and fractures; cuts and lacerations; animal and insect bites and stings; cold and influenza symptoms; ear infections; pneumonia; bronchitis; urinary tract infections; asthma; sore throats/strep and mono; and influenza vaccines.

Urgent Care at the Jerome Center will be supported by United Memorial’s state-of-the-art medical imaging services, the most advanced in Genesee County. The Jerome Center is conveniently located in the heart of Downtown Batavia at 16 Bank St. It offers handicap accessibility, convenient parking, a gift shop and refreshment kiosk.

An opening date will be announced soon and is expected to occur in early spring.

Press release:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's priorities for the State University of New York are good news for SUNY's 64 campuses and for New York State taxpayers, Genesee Community College President James M. Sunser said today.

Gov. Cuomo, in his 2012 legislative address delivered yesterday at Daemen College in Amherst, called the state university system a "precious New York asset" and a "great equalizer for the middle class." The governor said that his new SUNY2020 plan will spur economic development and job creation. SUNY2020 will provide seed money for innovation and economic development initiatives.

President Sunser noted that the governor's plans will further support SUNY's role in spurring business and job growth across the state.

"Our state university system provides a net positive return to New York State residents," Sunser said. "SUNY graduates provide the backbone of many of our critical and emerging industries, and pay state and local taxes far in excess of the investment that taxpayers make in their education.

"Also, SUNY campuses across the state work directly with business organizations, bringing training and knowledge resources that help business leaders build productivity, profit and jobs."

Sunser noted that last year an independent research firm found that Genesee Community College alone has an economic impact of $126 million on the Genesee-Livingston-Orleans-Wyoming region.

Sunser said that last year, The BEST Center, Genesee's highly acclaimed business training division, helped more than 650 business organizations.

"We at Genesee Community College, and the other 63 SUNY campuses, are a driving force for economic stability and growth," he said. "Gov. Cuomo recognizes the critical role that SUNY plays in our statewide economy."

Members of the Batavia Kiwanis Club stopped into "My Brother's Garage" after their weekly meeting Thursday. "My Brother's Garage" is a new secondhand store in the YWCA on North Street, where the Kiwanis meet each week. It's patterned after the long-standing and popular "My Sister's Closet" secondhand story at the Y.

Press release:

Breast cancer is a life-threatening opponent that has significantly impacted the rural community of Pembroke. As a result, a group of Pembroke High School athletes has decided to challenge the invasive disease by doing what it does best -- play basketball.

Tonight at 7, the Pembroke High School Girls' Varsity Basketball Team will take to the court for a “Shooting for a Cure" benefit basketball game against Attica High School to raise money for breast cancer research.

The high school is located at 8750 Alleghany Road (Route 77) in Corfu.

Local country music talent Maddie Larkin will perform the national anthem and Buster Bison will be on hand to lead the cheerleading fun.

The Pembroke team is also partnering with a number of area businesses to make this event possible including:

• Impressive Marks -- creating custom-designed apparel for Pembroke teams and fans
• D & D Printing -- providing game fliers, posters and programs
• Next Generation Vending -- donating food to sell
• Pizza Pantry -- donating discounted pizzas for sale
• Great Erie Federal Credit Union -- donating popcorn for sale
• SUBWAY® -- donating drinks for sale
• The Walt Disney Company, donating Disney Theme Park passes as a fund-raising giveaway

According to Coach Mike Wilson, all proceeds from the fund-raising portion of the game will be presented to Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI).

“We are a small school in a rural district and our team has to consistently work to raise money for most everything we need, including our warm-ups and team sneakers,” Wilson said. “But this time, the girls wanted to do something different, something they felt was truly helpful for our school and those affiliated with our Pembroke community who have been so widely impacted by breast cancer diagnoses.

"To their credit they are putting together an amazing fundraiser in partnership with some very generous businesses and organizations.”

RPCI has officially sanctioned “Shooting For A Cure,” and Cindy Eller, executive director of the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation, acknowledges the significance of the grassroots fundraiser.

“It’s wonderful when young people, such as these Pembroke students, come together to make a difference in the lives of those facing cancer,” Eller said. “And for the girls to go out and enlist the support of businesses for donations to help raise money, truly speaks to the character of the team, their families, the school and the Pembroke community at large.

"We are honored by their efforts in the name of critically needed breast cancer research.”

To help the Pembroke team with their Shooting for the Cure fundraiser, The Walt Disney Company has donated a family 4-pack of 3-day tickets to their Disney Orlando Parks (value of $1,000.) Chances for the tickets will be sold at the game with the winning ticket drawn at halftime. Winner must be present to claim the prize.

The Pembroke High School Girls Varsity Basketball Team is comprised of 12 outstanding girls, ages 15 to 18. Their 2011-12 captains are Breanna Johnson and Randi Dellapenta. Team colors are green and black and their nickname is "The Dragons."

The team’s motto is "Family-Hustle-Winning." The team has undertaken Shooting for a Cure as a unified family and they are committed to hard work and winning, not only in the games they play, but in the battle against breast cancer.

From the office of Assemblyman Steve Hawley:

The governor touched on many important issues worthy of attention in his State of the State Address, but nothing is more pressing for Western New York than mandate relief and job creation. In fact, if we are to fix either problem, we must fix both.

Unfunded mandates have sent local taxes through the roof for years, and I have been fighting to eliminate this burden since my first day in state government. While taxes climb, business owners and job creators flee Western New York in droves. If we are to truly embrace job creation, we must put an immediate ban on any new mandates and begin examining the litany of unnecessary and expensive requirements that can be repealed.

In addition, Western New York’s low-wealth schools have been unfairly burdened by education cuts in recent years. We must protect our community’s schools from having their budgets pilfered in favor of wealthy, downstate districts.

I am encouraged by the governor’s commitment to economic development, but the question, as always, is “How will we pay for this?” As we turn the corner on economic recovery, we must fund these worthy projects by eliminating wasteful spending, not by raising taxes.

From the office of Sen. Michael Ranzenhofer:

By working together in 2011, the State Legislature reduced spending and the size of government, closed a $10 billion deficit without new taxes, and lowered tax rates for the middle class. For 2012, the State Legislature must continue to work together and further build upon its successes of the prior year.

The State Legislature must again close a $3 billion deficit with cuts to spending, not with tax increases. Mandate relief – especially pension and Medicaid reform – must be passed to ensure the property tax cap works for both property taxpayers and local governments. However, the critical goal for this year should be ensuring Albany supports policies and programs that will encourage companies to locate and create jobs in Western New York.

That is why I am encouraged by the governor’s proposal to provide $1 billion in multi-year economic development incentives for the Buffalo region, to attract major companies to invest billions of dollars and create thousands of jobs in Western New York. I am even more pleased to hear his proposal for a second round of $200 million in competitive grants for our regional economic development councils.

As the 2012 Legislative Session begins, I am hopeful that the governor and State Legislature can again work together to build on the successes of last year.”

Andrei Peter Sliker, 20, of 220 W. Main St., Batavia, is charged with petit larceny and criminal impersonation. Sliker is accused of stealing $10.75 in merchandise from Kmart on Tuesday. When approached by Kmart security, Sliker allegedly fled. When Deputy Chad Minuto located Sliker at his apartment, Sliker allegedly claimed to be another person in order to avoid being taken into custody. Sliker was jailed on $500 bail.

Dexter Lee Turner, 20, Start Street, Medina, is charged with petit larceny. Turner was arrested by Medina PD on a warrant out of Town of Batavia after Turner allegedly failed to appear to answer to a petit larceny charge.

The feedback we've received since launching Shop Batavia has been uniformly positive, but I really liked this note I got a few days ago from Michelle Thompson, owner of Hair Clip Holiday, a home-based business in Pavilion.

HI Howard,
I just wanted to take a moment and let you know how impressed I am with this website!!!  I love the traffic reports, messages, and all those little extras.  Someone put a lot of time into designing this!

I never heard of this website until last Sunday, I was shopping at a local gift shop, and I overheard two people talking about  ShopBatavia.com....don't get the wrong idea about me,  I normally don't ease-drop,   but they were right next to me,  and I couldn't help but to listen to them talk about your site.

Well, I will keep this short and sweet,  so I just want to say thank you for this service.

More than 100 local businesses have set up their storefronts on Shop Batavia so far. If you own or manage a local business and haven't done the same yet, you can get started by going to shopbatavia.com, finding your listing and clicking the "claim my business" link. If your business isn't listed yet, you can click the "add business" button on the home page. A basic, starter storefront is free.

Shop Batavia exists to connect local shoppers with local businesses, giving local businesses a place to promote their goods and services to local customers in a direct way online, any time of day, and give businesses a powerful option to promote what they do.

Just about everybody nowadays researches their purchases online, even if they eventually walk into a store to make the purchase. Local businesses, to remain competitive today, must have robust ways to promote themselves online.

Shop Batavia isn't just another "create a link in a business directory and hope people find it" kind of site. It's rich with features that include e-commerce capabilities, coupons, deals, gift certificates, restaurant menus, email newsletters, free websites and more. There's nothing else like it available to Genesee County-based businesses, not even from national companies.

And readers, a reminder about our contest: You can win a $100 gift certificate if you leave a five-star review of a local business on Shop Batavia. One review will be randomly selected and the author of that review will receive a $100 gift certificate to that business. So review your favorite local businesses today -- only two days left in the contest.

A motor-vehicle accident with injuries has been reported in the area of 266 East Ave., Batavia.

City fire and Mercy EMS responding.

Traffic is blocked.

UPDATE 9:30 a.m.: Mercy EMS: "There's four patients here. So far, only one being transported." The injury is minor.

UPDATE 9:32 a.m.: Both vehicles will need flatbed tows.

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Nothing The Batavian has ever published has elicited quite the response as an item we published this morning on cyberbullying.

Whether by comments here, by private email, by Facebook comments or by Twitter, there's been a lot of discussion of the piece.

The feedback has been both favorable and harshly negative, and the negative messages have been fueled by misunderstanding the post, the nature of The Batavian, journalism in general and too much of it, sadly, expressing acceptance of bullying.

One point the critics got right is that a key element of the post was missing -- one of the people portrayed as victimized by bullies has a history -- at least judging from the screen shots sent to us -- of bullying others.

The author admits (remember, as some people seem to have missed, I didn't write the piece), that he didn't see the person's status updates and comments that apparently prompted other people to lash out at her. She deleted them before he saw what he saw on Facebook.

We've both seen those status updates now, and they're pretty ugly.

But the fact those updates were not included in the original post, according to some, made "the story" one-sided.

But it wasn't a story. It was an opinion piece, an op-ed, as I referred to it in the post. As much as anything, it was a public service announcement against bullying. It keyed off screen grabs taken from recent posts by local kids and referred to a recent case, but it wasn't about those incidents. It was about dealing with cyberbullying.

That point was missed by some, appreciated by others.

The reactions I found most troubling:

• She did it first, therefore my bullying her is OK.
• Everybody gets bullied, so what's the big deal?
• It's just a little Facebook argument and now the media is making it into a big drama.
• The person getting bullied shares the blame because he or she could make it stop if he or she wanted.

My position: bullying is wrong, in all cases. There's no justification for it. It's not something you can excuse away or just expect a victim to deal with it. It's morally reprehensible on its face.

And it doesn't matter if the other person was a jerk first. Anybody that would bully under those circumstances would bully under many other circumstances.

One person quoted to me, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." My response: that's a lie. It's a lie told by parents at a time when their kids are hurting. It's not a life philosophy. The fact is, words leave marks. Words can hurt. Words matter.

But it seems there's a group of young people in Genesee County who don't understand that, or don't want to understand it.

And that's the real issue, not who bullied who first, and that point seems to have been lost.

People say the "story" was one-sided, but it was in fact "no-sided." No names were used.

The names weren't used because who the actual participants were, and the actual sequence of events, were immaterial to the real issue that needed to be discussed. If you weren't directly involved -- and most of our readers were not, I'm sure -- you wouldn't know who any of the participants were.

The issue was bullying, not who did what to whom. The examples used were exactly that: real life examples, current examples.

The more readily people grasp the fact that bullying is a serious issue, the easier it will be to deal with it.  The best thing that came out of the posting today is it got a lot of people talking about a very important issue, even if some of them didn't see the real issue in their fog of confusion while defending their own actions.

A 13-year-old Batavia boy who was reported missing earlier this week was located today in Cleveland.

A family member reportedly tipped police that Michael's non-custodial mother might be at a hospital in Cleveland seeking treatment, according to Det. Pat Corona, and the teen was located at the hospital.

The father of the teen is driving to Cleveland to pick up his son.

Corona said the teen, Michael Smith, is safe.

Smith reportedly failed to return from a visit with his non-custodial mother at a local hotel. The pair were spotted Monday morning boarding a bus in Buffalo.

A pedestrian has reportedly been hit by a car on West Saile Drive in the area of the State Police Barracks.

The patient is reportedly up and walking around, complaining of side pain.

Town of Batavia Fire Department and Mercy EMS responding.

Press release:

We are pleased and applaud the governor’s support for a constitutional amendment concerning casino gaming during his State of the State address. This will have a significant positive economic affect on Western New York, specifically the 15 counties and two cities, which include Buffalo and Rochester that own Batavia Downs Casino.

With New York facing ongoing fiscal challenges as the economy continues to sputter, now is the time to permit enhanced gaming at the state’s racetrack casinos so that we can reclaim the billions of dollars in revenue – along with spending on travel, lodging, meals and other related economic activity — that flow out of our state every year.

Many thousands of New Yorkers already visit the state’s racetrack casinos, including Batavia Downs Casino. The tracks, which are licensed by the state, have over the past decade created thousands of jobs and provided billions of dollars to the state and local governments for education, agriculture and horse breeding.

Since 2005, Batavia Downs Casino and Western Regional Off-Track Betting have given more than $107 million to New York State Education through the lottery. More than $71 million has been distributed to Western Regional's member counties and cities, helping lower property taxes and contribute to community improvements.

Batavia Downs Casino and Racetrack employs more than 250 people year round. That number increases to more than 300 when racing is in session from July through December.

But the racetrack casinos lack a vital element to keep gaming enthusiasts in our state: live table games. As a result, many are choosing to travel to venues in other jurisdictions, where they leave behind an estimated $3-5 billion and spend hundreds of millions more on hotels, restaurants, entertainment, shopping and travel expenses.

The racetrack casinos have united to form the New York Gaming Association, which will work in partnership with the governor and the legislature on the multi-year process to approve the state constitutional amendment to permit live table games at our facilities.

By enhancing our existing venues with table games, we will attract clientele that now goes out of state and consequently create thousands of additional jobs and generate more revenues to provide even greater support for education, agriculture and horseracing and breeding.

Enhancing existing racetrack casinos to include table games is a good deal for New York, and not simply because of the increased revenues. Association members have already proven to be outstanding and dependable partners with the state, operating with oversight by both the State Division of Lottery and the Racing and Wagering Board. In fact, some have suggested that ours is one of the most successful public-private partnerships in the state, if not the entire country.

There is another reason why enhancing the racetrack casinos makes so much sense for New York: We are not asking for any taxpayer dollars at all. On the contrary, association members, including Batavia Downs Casino are prepared to invest hundreds of millions to upgrade our venues.

Batavia Downs Casino already had an expansion plan in place that will look to break ground this year. By the time the amendment is passed, the facility will be ready to start on an $85-95 million project beginning in 2014. This will include a convention center and expanded gaming, including table games. That means more visitors to our area, helping retail, hotels and restaurant owners along the way. It also means increased revenue to the state, and most importantly, new jobs. The impact of all these would be seen rapidly.

At a time when budgets are tight and taxpayers are rightfully skeptical about untested ideas that promise economic benefits, allowing the enhancement of existing, successful racetrack casinos to include table games is a good bet for all New Yorkers.

Batavia Downs in owned and operated by Western Regional Off-Track Betting, a public benefit corporation. Municipalities that own Batavia Downs Casino include: City of Buffalo, Cattaraugus County, Cayuga County, Chautauqua County, Erie County, Genesee County, Livingston County, Monroe County, Niagara County, Orleans County, Oswego County, City of Rochester, Schuyler County, Seneca County, Steuben County, Wayne County, and Wyoming County.

The track is also home to Batavia Downs Casino, featuring more than 600 video slot machines. Batavia Downs Casino is located less than one mile from Thruway Exit 48 and is open daily from 9 to 4 a.m.

Press release: