The Buffalo News - City and Region http://www.buffalonews.com Latest stories from The Buffalo News en-us Sat, 25 May 2013 12:09:57 -0400 Sat, 25 May 2013 12:09:57 -0400 <![CDATA[ What are you eating?: Balanced diet fuels this racewalker ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130525/REFRESH/130529491/1010
Today, he works for Toth’s Sports. He still walks three to six miles four times a week, and 12 to 16 miles Saturdays, when he gathers with runners at 8 a.m. at the warming house at Bond Lake Park in Lewiston.

Does doing all that walking allow you to eat more?

I like food but the older you get, even when you’re working out, your metabolism continues to slow, so you do have to watch what you eat. It’s awful. I work out hard, too, but I still like pizza.

What did you used to eat when you were training?

The myth is a lot of pasta and carbs. … It does provide complex sugar, but you have to do your proteins and your veggies, have a balanced diet. I don’t eat as much red meat as I used to.

Staples of your diet today?

Burritos, quesadillas, chicken, Mexican food. And pizza. We eat pizza once a week.

The food you can’t resist?

Don’t even make me say it. The other choice, the food that goes with pizza; that’d be the wings.

– Scott Scanlon ]]> Sat, 25 May 2013 12:00:35 -0400 <![CDATA[ Drug maker to pay $33 million to settle case ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529545/1010 In 2008, a local doctor flew to Florida for a meeting with ISTA Pharmaceuticals.

The company picked up the tab and even gave the doctor $500 for his trouble.

Five years later, federal prosecutors are pointing to that trip and many others as examples of the kickbacks ISTA used to illegally boost drug sales.

The eye-care drugmaker admitted its guilt in a Buffalo courtroom Friday and agreed to pay $33 million to settle a criminal prosecution brought by the government and two civil cases brought by former sales representatives who blew the whistle on the company.

“This wasn’t a rogue employee,” said Daniel C. Oliverio, a lawyer for one of the whistle-blowers. “This was company practice. This went to the highest levels of the company.”

The case, which dates back to 2007 and was under court-ordered seal in U.S. District Court until Friday, was based on allegations that ISTA improperly marketed one of its drugs, Xibrom, for medical uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA has approved Xibrom for use as an anti-inflammatory treatment for patients recovering from cataract surgery but the company, eager to increase sales of the drug, embarked on an illegal strategy of trying to convince doctors to use it for other non-authorized uses.

“ISTA Pharmaceuticals offered illegal kickbacks, illegal inducements to doctors,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney MaryEllen Kresse.

As part of a plea deal approved by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara, ISTA admitted taking part in the scheme, which began in 2005 and continued until 2010.

“Conduct was occurring that should not have been occurring,” Kristen G. Koehler, a lawyer for the company, told Arcara.

ISTA, which is based in California, admitted using kickbacks to doctors and an illegal marketing campaign as part of an elaborate scheme to increase its sales of Xibrom.

The scheme, outlined in detail in newly released court papers, ranged from company-provided instruction sheets for doctors to continuing medical education programs to promote the drug.

In many cases, ISTA employees were told not to leave printed materials behind in doctors’ offices or to keep records of their meetings with doctors in order to avoid detection by others.

The company went so far as to offer speaking engagements and consulting appearances to doctors in hopes that they might use Xibrom for non-authorized treatments.

Doctors can legally prescribe drugs for non-FDA approved treatments, but drugmakers are prohibited from promoting their products for those uses.

“Essentially they entered into consulting arrangements to induce physicians to prescribe their drug,” said Jeffrey I. Steger, a lawyer in the Consumer Protection Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice.

When Arcara asked if money was the doctors’ motivation, Steger said yes.

“Thousands of dollars,” he told the judge.

The scheme collapsed when two former employees filed lawsuits exposing the company’s illegal activities. One of them, Keith Schenker, left the company after just six or seven months on the job.

He now stands to make about $2.5 million as part of his share in the $15 million civil portion of the settlement.

“There came a point when he realized what he was doing was a violation of the law,” Oliverio said of his out-of-town client. “He basically decided, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ ”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen A. Lynch said the civil settlement also resolves the government’s contention that ISTA’s conduct caused false claims to be submitted to government health care programs such as Medicaid.

Once the whistle-blower suits were filed, the government’s criminal investigation soon followed and ultimately led to Friday’s criminal plea. The company pleaded guilty to conspiracy to introduce a misbranded drug in interstate commerce with intent to defraud and mislead, and conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute.

The California company also agreed to pay $18.5 million in fines and forfeitures to the government.

Arcara, who seemed genuinely shocked by the revelations of kickbacks to doctors, asked at one point if there were health or safety consequences associated with ISTA’s scheme.

Koehler said the government is not alleging that in its court papers, but Oliverio said the potential for side effects still exists even if there are no documented cases of people becoming ill.

Arcara also wanted to know if the $33 million settlement was large enough to serve as a deterrent for a company that generated $160 million in sales in 2011.

“This will have national consequences in the pharmaceutical industry,” Kresse assured him.

ISTA is owned by Bausch & Lomb, the Rochester-based eye care company, but the illegal conduct occurred well before Bausch & Lomb bought the company last year.

email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com
]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 13:52:22 -0400 Phil Fairbanks
]]> <![CDATA[ Veterans offer lessons in history at West Seneca East High School ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529457/1010
Ten men and one woman – veterans of the conflicts in the Middle East, the Vietnam and Korean wars, and World War II – participated in the 10th annual Hometown Heroes Day.

Coordinated by school librarian Sandra Eichelberger, the program allows veterans to meet with small groups of students in the school library. Instead of having veterans at a podium, “We invite them to sit at a table and share their stories on a more intimate level,” Eichelberger said.

Eichelberger said she never heard the stories of her late father, Russell Jakel, who was an Army veteran of World War II. Her brother, Craig Jackel, also served in the Army; he died in a helicopter crash in South Vietnam in 1974.

During the course of three 40-minute sessions Friday, the veterans met with hundreds of students as part of their social studies, English and foreign language classes. “It really is a universal thing that can tie into all kinds of things in the curriculum,” Eichelberger said.

Russell Schober, of West Seneca, an Army veteran who served in Europe during World War II, has participated every year. Sitting in a wheelchair Friday, with his wife, Gert, by his side, he was positioned between a table laden with memorabilia and maps highlighting his travels.

His wife asked him prepared questions about his service – to keep him on track, she explained – but Schober wanted to tell his own stories, in his own time.

He recounted the day Japanese forces bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor.

Schober said he was out for a walk near his West Seneca home when a friend told him the news. “When I went inside I couldn’t believe it – Pearl Harbor was bombed,” he said.

“It was a Sunday. It was December. It was a bright day,” he said. One of those days “you squinted from the reflection of the snow.”

Jack Michel, of Snyder, and Greg Cain, of West Seneca, served with the Marines and Air Force, respectively, during the Vietnam War.

Veterans of that era returned home to face protests and scorn. A student asked if they were angry or disappointed by the lack of support.

“I personally was disappointed because we did our best, but the government really didn’t back us up,” Cain said. “I was angry for a long time. Fortunately, I got involved with some people who had similar feelings as I did.”

“The more you talk about it, the less anxiety, anguish you go through,” Cain said.

Michel admitted that it took him much longer to accept the help that’s available. “I decided not to get involved with anyone for 35 years; I was angry for a long time,” he said.

Val Mozdziak, of Cheektowaga, served with the Army during the Korean War. He recounted experiences while being stationed at various military bases around the United States, including Fort Sill in Oklahoma.

The year was 1951, Mozdziak recalled, when he was admonished upon walking out of a restroom. A looming figure asked if he could read.

The restroom was designated for “Colored Men Only.”

Having grown up among blacks, Mozdziak had never thought of racial differences that way. “We were classmates; we were friends,” he said.

Patrick Belmonte and Jeanna Marrano, of North Chili, are a married couple who have service in Iraq in common. But they didn’t meet until they were back stateside.

A 1998 graduate of West Seneca East, Marrano described herself as the kind of kid who didn’t really like high school.

“It’s not how you start off in life,” she told students. She said what they make of themselves is far more important.

Marrano said her decision to join the Army came, in part, from not being able to afford the four-year college of her choice. She was deployed to Iraq in 2003.

“It was really a culture shock,” she said. “From having everything a hop, skip and a jump away to having nothing at all.”

Like a shower, a cellphone, a computer. The only way to communicate with people back home was with a pen and paper, she said.

“That’s when you really are tested ... how strong a person you are,” Marrano said.

Having temporarily lost her passion for the teenage dream of working in law enforcement, she said she got into human services work before signing up for another six years in the Army.

Now she works for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, where she urges criminals to look to the future, as well.

“I tell them: Don’t worry about what you did when you were 21,” she said.

Worry about what you’re going to do after getting out of jail, she tells them.



email: jhabuda@buffnews.com ]]> Sat, 25 May 2013 11:58:07 -0400 Janice Habuda
]]> <![CDATA[ IBM team offers advice on job gap ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529444/1010
The recommendations on how to connect young people in Buffalo with the thousands of jobs that open up every year included ones heard often in Western New York and those that are less conventional, such as commissioning a new video game to help job applicants learn life skills, such as the importance of showing up on time and dressing appropriately.

A team of IBM executives has been in Buffalo for the last three weeks to help the city tackle high unemployment among people ages 16 to 24 and presented its findings this week.

“Jobs do exist here,” said Erica Webber, an associate partner in IBM’s strategy and transformation consulting.

The team noted that 22,000 jobs open up in Western New York every year but that those opportunities are not always accessible to job seekers and that other factors, such as a high dropout rate and a mismatch between skills employers need and the skills in the applicant pool prevent young people from obtaining employment.

The team recommended that the city, school district and service agencies share data to develop more complete profiles of young people and that more measurement and accountability is done of programs already in place, as the city does with data collected through 311, which measures city services.

Sharing data with each other and the public, as New York City’s Open Data initiative has done, would help agencies know how they measure up against others, said Katie Trask, director of data and outcome measurements for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Buffalo.

Trask knows that students who regularly attend Boys and Girls Clubs have a higher high school graduation rate than the general population, but knowing other metrics would be valuable in seeking grant funding, she said.

“We all have these different measurement tools,” she said.

Mayor Byron W. Brown said that the city would make available data it has on city youth and that he plans to implement IBM’s recommendations quickly.

“There are a lot of jobs coming online, and us leading the way and opening up data, we hope will influence the business community and the service providers to work with us ... ultimately leading to more people being employed,” Brown said.

The team also recommended that the city take the lead on coordinating youth employment efforts and that a branding and marketing campaign be executed to let people know where to get information.

The video game idea, if executed, would be the first of its kind for a city, said Yu Kit Lee, IBM’s chief technologist, adding that the federal government has grants for video game development.

Naim Sabir, 20, said he appreciated IBM’s research but was interested in how it will be executed. Sabir, who lives near the Fruit Belt, said agencies such as the Buffalo Urban League do a good job preparing young people for the interview process but even with that preparation, young people deal with other barriers to employment, such as transportation.

A detailed report with items that can be acted on in one-, two- and three-month time frames will be submitted to the city at a later date.

Buffalo was one of 100 cities around the world that won IBM’s “Smarter Cities” challenge grants, equivalent to approximately $400,000 in in-kind services.



email: jterreri@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 22:17:32 -0400 Jill Terreri
]]> <![CDATA[ Drunken driver must sell motorcycle, spend Mondays, Tuesdays in jail ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529461/1010
Anthony J. Brough, 49, of Main Street, also will be on probation for five years and pay fines and fees totaling $1,555.

Kloch also revoked the registration on Brough’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle and ordered Brough to sell it. He also must install ignition interlock devices on two cars.

Kloch also revoked Brough’s hardship driver’s license for at least 18 months. Brough was arrested Aug. 9 on Lockport Road in Pendleton, where a Niagara County sheriff’s deputy measured his blood alcohol content at between 0.16 percent and 0.19 percent in three separate tests. Brough had six previous alcohol-related arrests. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 22:02:45 -0400 <![CDATA[ Local leaders lobby in Washington for Falls Air Base ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529446/1010
Merrell A. Lane, chairman of the Niagara Military Affairs Council, said the meetings were set up by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Washington office.

The delegation included Niagara County Manager Jeffrey M. Glatz, North Tonawanda Mayor Robert G. Ortt, County Legislator David E. Godfrey of Wilson, county Economic Development Commissioner Samuel M. Ferraro, and town supervisors Robert B. Cliffe of Wheatfield and Marc R. Smith of Lockport.

Lane and his group’s vice chairman, John A. Cooper Sr., also made the trip along with William “Robin” Pfeil, chairman of the council’s Strategic Committee, and council director Thomas Keough.

They met with Sen. Charles E. Schumer, Reps. Chris Collins and Brian Higgins, and staffers from the office of Sen. Kristen Gillibrand. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 22:00:23 -0400 <![CDATA[ Falls police arrest 14 in raid at crack house ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529447/1010
Harris, 27, who lives on Niagara Avenue, was arrested on felony criminal possession of controlled substance charges, Capt. David LeGault, chief of the Narcotics Bureau, said detectives found quantities of crack cocaine, powder cocaine, marijuana, prescription pills and heroin in plain view on a dining room table as the raid began about 9:25 p.m. in an apartment at 459 19th St. As detectives entered Harris unsuccessfully tried to flush various illegal drugs down a toilet.



The raid followed a lengthy police investigation and complaints from neighborhood residents and community groups.

The thirteen other men and women in the apartment during the raid were all charged with misdemeanor drug counts or loitering for the use of drug charges, ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 22:00:09 -0400 <![CDATA[ Niagara Falls ex-con arrested with drugs, gun ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529448/1010
When detectives broke into his bedroom Weaver quickly dropped the 40-caliber handgun he had grabbed, telling officers he had expected to have to shoot whoever broke into his house. Capt. David LeGault, chief of the narcotics bureau, said Weaver was charged with weapons possession and, as a convicted felon, he is legally barred from owning weapons.

The search of Weaver’s house led to the seizure of 2.8 grams of alleged crack cocaine; Weaver was also charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance. The detectives also seized his automobile, LeGault said. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 22:00:06 -0400 <![CDATA[ Drugs, cash seized in Hyde Park Avenue arrest ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529449/1010
Jermaine G. Ellison was taken into custody and about a half-dozen different prescription drugs he was allegedly selling were confiscated, along with digital scales and drug packaging materials, according to Capt. David LeGault, chief of the narcotics bureau. Police also found $16,814 in cash, which LeGault said is believed to be “the proceeds of his illegal drug sales.” ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 21:59:59 -0400 <![CDATA[ Marilla Town Board plans to buy house for use by the Historical Society ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529450/1010
The property is behind Town Hall on Two Rod Road, and a gate will separate the Town Hall site from the Historical Society’s location, said Town Supervisor George Gertz.

The price for the property is $172,000, and the seller has one year to vacate the house, to allow him time to build a new home on Three Rod Road.

Gertz said the town will pay cash for the three-bedroom home that he called immaculate and in great condition. Although the age of the house was not immediately known, Gertz said it is in pristine condition and has a huge garage that could be used by the Historical Society. The upstairs has a door that closes it off completely, and those rooms could be used as offices.

The Historical Society has been using a portion of the Community Center at 1810 Two Rod Road for the past 18 years.

On another issue, the Town Board is considering buying or leasing time clocks for employees of the Highway Department and Town Hall that will require full hand prints instead of just a fingerprint as originally was thought. Gertz said the clock reads the top of a hand. It can be programmed daily to keep track of people’s arrival and departure. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 21:41:25 -0400 By Nancy Gish

SUBURBAN CORRESPONDENT

]]> <![CDATA[ Silver Creek School Board reviews passed budget ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529453/1010
The budget passed, 260-110. Voters also approved the vehicle purchase from the capital reserve, 270-93. The third proposition, to establish a reserve fund, also was approved, 248-105.

Gregory Cole was re-elected to the board with 257 votes. Stephen Booth was elected to the unexpired term of Amy Chavez .

In other business, board members recognized Rochester Institute of Technology Junior Award recipients Mary Bonasera, Michael Miller and Carol Pelz.

Kevin Rice was appointed as an intramural soccer coach.

A banner was erected celebrating the success of the 2013 boys varsity basketball team, which went to the state championship game. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 21:02:36 -0400 By Susan Chiappone

CHAUTAUQUA CORRESPONDENT

]]> <![CDATA[ Buffalo native shares story of Oklahoma tornado ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529454/1010
There, in the steel bunker beneath her garage, the Buffalo native realized she was a long way from home.

A voice crackled on the emergency radio, calling out street after street that the tornado was wiping off the map.

The street names became more familiar, and she realized the deadly twister was getting closer – and fast.

That’s when Likavec began to cry.

“Malika, stop it,” her husband, David, said to her. “You’re taking up all the oxygen.”

Halfway across the country, Likavec’s mother was watching the tragedy unfold on television from her home on Buffalo’s West Side.

She didn’t think much of the tornado, especially after receiving an email from her daughter saying she was home from work, and everyone was safe.

But soon another email popped up from Likavec: “Mom, the tornado’s headed toward us.”

“At that point, we just started crying,” said her mother, JoAnne Bracy. “To be so far away from her when something like this is happening, it’s just horrible.”

And when the tornado got closer to the Likavecs’ home in Moore, it sounded like a freight train ripping through the neighborhood, Malika said.

But she and her husband, high school sweethearts from City Honors, and their daughters survived.

The Likavecs were the lucky ones. When they climbed from the shelter a few minutes later, nature’s wrath surrounded them. An eerie silence gave way to rescue sirens – and total destruction.

“It destroyed the hospital our daughters were born in,” Likavec told The Buffalo News. “It destroyed the park we go in every day. It destroyed everything we know, really.”

“It narrowly missed us,” the 30-year-old Air Force sergeant recalled. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through.”

Forecasters had been predicting a strong storm for more than a week, and some of Likavec’s co-workers were already taking precautions.

Tornadoes are a way of life in Oklahoma, though, as the nation is finding out in the days since the storm killed 24 people, including nine children.

Likavec even went to work that day, although the Air Force let her out early to prepare for the storm.

It was a good thing, since she had only a half-hour to hurry her children into the 10-foot-deep storm shelter and prepare for the worst.

“The kids are screaming, it’s loud, there are lots of baseball-sized hail,” she said. “It’s not an ordinary storm.”

It was especially worrisome for Air Force Col. Stella Smith, another City Honors graduate, who oversees more than 1,500 who work on battle surveillance planes.

From her base 90 miles away, Smith was tasked with helping to coordinate rescue efforts in the Moore area.

Hundreds of her people were trapped in harm’s way, and Likavec, whom she knew well, was one of them.

The two struck up a friendship when Likavec showed up at an Air Force picnic wearing a Buffalo Bills sweatshirt.

They soon found out that they were not only proud Buffalo natives but graduates of City Honors High School.

But now, Smith recognized that Likavec and hundreds of others were in peril, and she had no way of reaching them.

“We started texting everyone,” Smith said. “Like teenagers. Text, text, text.”

Likavec was shocked at what she saw when she climbed from the bunker. The storm had missed her family by seconds, leaving a path of destruction just a few football fields away.

If the twister had shifted course for just a second, she said, it all could have been much different.

“It was a lucky experience,” she said, that her area only received physical damage and that no one in her family died.

Likavec, who is four months’ pregnant, has been stationed in the tiny Oklahoma prairie town for a few years with her husband, a law student at Oklahoma City University and a South Buffalo native. They have two daughters, Maliah, 5, and Amaya, 2, and a third on the way.

She insisted on building the bunker as soon as they bought the house – perhaps all those snowstorms in Buffalo had taught her to prepare for the weather before it hits.

“My daughter, she is so resourceful,” her mother said. “She was right on top of it.”

Many of the homes are built on clay, so basements are not common in that part of Oklahoma. The Likavec shelter, built beneath the garage, is about the size of a sedan.

Others, though, weren’t so lucky. Within sight of the Likavec home were toppled buildings, strewn debris and shattered lives.

Her fellow airmen were among the first to leap into action.

One man drove his wife and children away from the storm, then turned back around and pulled 10 people from the rubble.

“You know how Buffalo is,” said Smith, the colonel. “That’s how Oklahoma is. We’re used to Mother Nature beating us in the head all the time.”

A stronger sense of community has developed in the wake of the storm, Likavec said, with neighbors pulling together and some adopting the families who have lost their homes and all of their possessions.

Some might say it’s crazy to live in Tornado Alley, where a twister is just a few wind gusts away. After all, Likavec’s family heads down to the shelter about five times each year in anticipation of a major storm.

But that hasn’t driven her away. In fact, she plans to remain in Oklahoma for the long haul with her family. Five months from now, she plans to have her third baby there – tornadoes or not.

“The threat of a storm coming, all you can do is take precautions,” she said. “I can only control what I control. You can’t let it affect your whole life. That’s why people rebuild and stay here.”

“We all come together,” she added. “There’s nothing that’s been blown down that won’t be rebuilt.”



email: cspecht@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:42:04 -0400 Charlie Specht
]]> <![CDATA[ K9 saves day in multi-agency drug raid ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529455/1010
The dog found a 9 mm handgun hidden in the hollowed-out leg of a pool table.

A multi-agency task force of federal an local law enforcement officers descended on the home of Michael P. Mitchell, 32, at 1154 LaSalle Avenue about 6:30 a.m.

Capt. David LaGault, chief of the Niagara Falls Narcotics Bureau, said that a “trace” of suspected power cocaine was found in the house. Mitchell, who was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, remains under investigation, he said.

The raid was staged at the request of Rochester narcotics detectives and agents from the Buffalo office of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“Tank,” was brought along by Town of Tonawanda Police Officer Brent Costello. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:37:29 -0400 <![CDATA[ West Valley cleanup work progressing, official says ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529458/1010
CH2M Hill B&W West Valley, a project management firm, took over the decommissioning and deconstruction process of the nuclear waste processing facility in 2011. The company’s scope of work is fourfold, said Daniel Coyne, president and general manager.

First, workers are looking to get the high-level waste that still remains in the main plant out of the building and into a storage facility. Ten-foot-tall cans of the waste, fuel rods encased in glass – vitrified, as the industry calls it – are on three-foot-thick concrete slabs. The cans holding the waste are encased in thick concrete casks, and other safety measures are in place to protect the environment, Coyne said.

More than 200 of these concrete vaults sit on the site waiting for a place to go. There are no depositories established to receive the waste.

The second goal is to remove the legacy waste. That is the low-level waste that had been left on the site. Some of that has been shipped to facilities for storage in Nevada and Utah, Coyne said.

Third is the complete tear-down of the processing and vitrification facility on the site. Last is bringing down the remaining structures.

Work on dismantling what can come down is moving forward, Coyne told legislators.

“We have already shipped 48,000 cubic feet from the site,” he said, referring to materials when his firm began work at the site. “Another 80,000 cubic feet of newly generated material has shipped as well. We have also already torn down 40,000 square feet of building footprint.”

The last phase of the project, final decommissioning, is not expected to take place until 2020 at the earliest, Coyne said. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:26:19 -0400 By Chris Chapman

CATTARAUGUS CORRESPONDENT

]]> <![CDATA[ Arizona man charged after accident in Attica ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529459/1010
Joshua J. Stoffer of Holbrook, Ariz., was charged with drunken driving, refusing to take a blood test, speeding and failure to keep right. He was treated at the Wyoming Community Hospital for minor head and shoulder injuries.

Stoffer narrowly missing striking a pedestrian at about 12:50 p.m. on West Main and sideswiped a car driven by Joshua Senick of Attica before driving into a ditch and flipping over. Senick suffered some injuries but was not taken to hospital for treatment. Both vehicles were extensively damaged, according to Attica police officials.

Stoffer refused to submit to a blood test at the hospital while he was being treated, police said.

He is being held in the county jail in lieu of $500 bail pending a June 24 court appearance in the case. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:24:26 -0400 <![CDATA[ Niagara USA Chamber calls for school consolidation ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529460/1010
Christopher Boron of Lockport, the Chamber’s new president, said the voters’ defeat of budgets Tuesday at Niagara Wheatfield, Lewiston-Porter and Wilson shows that cost-sharing is the only way of the districts’ budgetary problems. He said that doesn’t necessarily mean district mergers.

“Consolidation can mean sharing business officers or athletic directors, looking for different ways to deliver special education or sharing staff,” Boron said. “Without restructuring how services are delivered, the only choice is to just cut. … Eventually there is nothing left to cut, and the students suffer.”

The only major move toward consolidation at present is this month’s decision of the Royalton-Hartland and Barker districts to use the same superintendent, Barker’s Roger J. Klatt, for at least a year, starting July 1. Roy-Hart Superintendent Kevin MacDonald took another job and is leaving at the end of the school year.

]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:04:42 -0400 <![CDATA[ Mother and son arraigned on Falls drug dealing charges ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529462/1010
Evelyn George, 48, and Eddie George, 27, of Ninth Street, each pleaded not guilty to third- and fourth-degree sale and third- and fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance.

Assistant District Attorney Peter M. Wydysh said Evelyn George allegedly sold cocaine and hydrocodone, while her son is accused of dealing in hydrocodone and oxymorphone.

Both are accused of sales to a police informant March 15, 2012. Evelyn also faces charges related to a June 12 deal, while Eddie’s other charges relate to an alleged March 23, 2012, sale. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:00:07 -0400 <![CDATA[ Jamestown man charged with selling cocaine ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529463/1010
Alex Oliveras was arrested at about 3 p.m. at Harrison and Institute streets. He faces charges of third-degree criminal sale and criminal possession of a controlled substance. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 20:00:05 -0400 <![CDATA[ Falls man chooses prison over drug treatment ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529464/1010
Westbrook, 30, of Whitney Avenue, admitted to a reduced charge of attempted fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and was scheduled for sentencing Aug. 29 by County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas. She said she would consider sending Westbrook to the state prison system’s secure drug treatment facility, but Westbrook could end up in a regular cell for as long as four years. Prison time is mandatory for Westbrook, a repeat felon.

He was deemed eligible for the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment, but to get in, he would have had to plead guilty to a more serious charge. If he washed out of that program, he risked a prison term of up to 12 years. That was too big a gamble, he and Faso decided.

Westbrook admitted having 0.18 ounce of cocaine in the Falls on May 9, 2012. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:48:06 -0400 <![CDATA[ Two missing North Tonawanda children located in woods ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529465/1010
The boy and girl, who are 3 and 4, went missing at about noon after they had been allowed to play in a back yard.

Both sets of parents began searching for them before they called 911 in a panic.

The children had gone into the woods searching for mice and then became lost, according to police spokesmen. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:45:08 -0400 <![CDATA[ Falls man gets a year in jail, but more charges are pending ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529466/1010
Assistant District Attorney Peter M. Wydysh said Rose, 35, of Dudley Avenue, was arrested this week on a drug charge filed after police executed a warrant issued by County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas because Rose skipped a sentencing date last week.

Rose also was shot in the right calf and left buttock May 11. He told police he was shot while sleeping in a car in the Unity Park area. Police found a car with a bloodstained seat and a baseball-sized chunk of alleged cocaine in a plastic bag between a seat and the door.

“There may be felony drug charges from the incident where he was shot,” Wydysh said.

Rose’s sentence Friday was for having cocaine when he and two other men were arrested after a traffic stop Dec. 3, 2011, at 22nd Street and Willow Avenue in the Falls. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:30:24 -0400 <![CDATA[ Lockport man imprisoned for stabbing former friend ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/CITYANDREGION/130529467/1010
Justin J. Snead, 22, of Lincoln Place, had pleaded guilty March 21 to second-degree assault.

Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann said the victim, Edward Wright, was stabbed nine times, mostly in the back, and underwent multiple surgeries for intestinal damage and a collapsed lung. Hoffmann said that at one point, Wright was not expected to live.

Defense attorney James J. Faso Jr. said the knife came out when the men ran into each other in the parking lot of a Lincoln Avenue apartment complex several hours after they had been involved in an argument. “This was more about egos than anything else, a couple of guys jawing,” Faso said. ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 19:30:17 -0400