DEAL

Time Warner Cable says it's reached an agreement with the
owners of Channel 7 to continue to carry it's programming.
WKBW-TV is owned by Granite Broadcasting and the deal
also covered stations they own in Syracuse and Binghamton.
No details were announced.

TRAFFIC STOP LEADS TO DRUGS

Lockport Police say they found marijuana and
other drug paraphenalia Monday night when they
pulled over a Wilson man on Gooding Street for
allegedly failing to make a proper signal. Ernest
Ganshaw of 2414 Riverview Drive allegedly had a
purse in the car containing the pot, a pipe, a
metal scale, and a metal crusher.

WARME

Accused Falls Police Officer Ryan Warme is still being held
in the Stueben County Jail after a federal judge yesterday
postponed a hearing on whether he should be granted bail.
Judge Hugh Scott took the action after Warme's attorney...
Joel Daniels...complained it was difficult to prepare a defense
because prosecutors had not given him the names of Warme's
alleged victims. The Judge told Daniels and prosecutors
to submit written arguments to him next week on the matter.
Scott said he was concerned about the safety of the witnesses
and Daniels right to confront them. Warme was arrested December
2 on accustaions he trafficked in cocaine and forced two women
to have sex with him. The Assistant US Attorney said Warme
is a danger to the witnesses and the two women are especially
fearful of him.

CIGARETTE TAXES

Seneca Nation President Barry Synder Senior says they're
considering all their options after the Governor signed the
bill yesterday to begin taxing cigarette sales to non Indians
at reservation stores. Synder said every aspect of the Nation's
relationship with the State would be revisited. Paterson said
a 1994 Supreme Court ruling gives the State the legal right
to collect the tax. He said it would also cut down on smoking.
The state tax on a pack of cigarettes is $2.75.

SCHOOL CAPITOL PROJECT VOTE

Voters in the Lockport School District to decide the fate
today of a proposed $29.5-million capitol project. The polls
will be open from noon till 9pm. Developer David Ulrich ran
a two page ad in yesterday's paper attacking the plan and
School Chief Terry Ann Carbone. School Board President
Marietta Schrader told WLVL today Ulrich was mistaken
when he said she made more than the President of the
United States. She also said it did not cost the District
any money to send out a circular detailing the proposition
to voters. She said the contractor paid the cost. Schrader
also said Ulrich's claim that the District had fallen in the
Business First rankings since Carbone took over was
incorrect.

LOCKPORT TRAFFIC ADVISORY BOARD

The Lockport Traffic Advisory Board deciding Monday to
let the Common Council determine if an Irving Street woman
can get a permit for on-street parking. Mayor Mike Tucker
opened the meeting and asked the Board to be more flexible
following coverage of the woman's plight last week by the
Union Sun & Journal. She's fighting a zoning violation charge
from the Building Inspection Department for parking on her
front lawn. She needs a decision by January 6, the next
date she's slated to appear in Housing Court.

DYSTER

Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster announced Monday he would
deliver his State of the City address January 29 at the Conference
Center. He said he's talked to the Senecas and they hope to resume
construction on the land surrounding the casino and hotel sometime
in 2011. He also expects Globe Speciality Metals will reopen in March.

DOG

A 33 year old Lockport man who allegedly stole a family's
dog was arrested by police last night behind the Union Sun
& Journal building. Police reports say Walter Gardner III
of 132 Spalding was arrested without resistance but somehow
he had injured himself prior to his arrest. He was taken to LMH
and then transferred to ECMC for treatment of a fracture to his
spine. Police had been called to the victim's home on Union
Street around 9:30. The caller told police she had let their dog
out into their fenced in backyard and it began to bark a short
time later, She opened the door and saw Gardner asking to
come in. The family has a full stay away order of protection from
him. She locked the back door and ran to do the same to the
front...and about that time her son yelled that Gardner had
taken Bella, the family dog. Police say she was found safe.
Gardner is charged with petit larceny, trespassing, and criminal
contempt.

BUDGET CUTS

The five Democrats in the County Legilsature are
planning to propose just a bit more than $545,000
in budget cuts at tomorrow night's meeting. Minority
Leader Dennis Virtuoso says the plan includes doing
away with four political patronage jobs...the clerk of
the Legislature, the county auditor, the deputy county
Treasurer, and one assistant county attorney. The
Democrats say another $50,000 can be saved by
dropping out of the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise.
Virtuoso also wants to reduce oil and gas lines back
to where they were last year, The Legislature is slated
to vote on a $304-million budget tomorrow night.

RITE AID

A worker in the Pharmacy at the Rite Aid store at
130 Washburn allegedly admitted to police Saturday
she had stolen more than $12,000 worth of hydrocodone
pills with the last year and a half. Jamie Branch of
6108 Ruhlman Road is charged with third degree grand
larceny. She confessed after a video surveillance camera
allegedly caught her taking a bottle of 100 pills last
Monday. She said she had been selling them to a friend.

FIRE

A mother and her three kids are being helped by the
Red Cross following an overnight fire at Monteagle
Ridge Estates on Hyde Park Boulevard in the Falls.
The blaze started in a dryer in Unit 155 around 3:15am
and spread to the exterior of the building. Damage was
estimated at $30,000. Firefighters cleared the area just
before 5am.

TRANSPARENCY

County Republican Chairman Henry Wojtaszek says he's concerned
about secret negotiations supposedly going on to find a
replacement for Senator Hillary Clinton. He's calling on the
Governor to put together a formal, bi-partisan commission.
They'd interview all those interested in the position and give
Paterson a list of qualified applicants. Wojtaszek says the
Governor should stop playing "footsie" with the Kennedy and
Cuomo clans. Wojtaszek wants an open and transparent
process that'll publically identify potential candidiates and allow
for a public vetting of them. He says we should where they stand
on the issues and find out if they know that New York State
is comprised of more than the give boroughs, Long Island, and
Westchester.

LOCKPORT SCHOOL PROPOSAL

Lockport developer David Ulrich is urging residents to
vote against the School District's proposed $29.5-million
capitol project tomorrow. In a paid, two page advertisment
in the Union Sun & Journal, Ulrich says that, considering
the financial situation of our State, the County, and especially
our local community, the proposal is both totally insensitive
and absolutely unaffordable buffoonery. He says he's
totally unimpressed with Superintendent Terry Ann Carbone
and says it's ridiculous that she and 2/3 of the Assistant
Superintendents don't live here and won't be affected by
the burdens they place on the rest of us.

TAXES

The Governor signed that bill in Utica this morning to
tax the sale of cigarettes to non Indians at reservation stores.
He's expected to call for even more revenue raising measures
tomorrow in his 2009 State budget. Sources say Paterson wants
to increase taxes on insurance policies, on non diet soda's under
an obesity tax, and to revive the state sales tax on clothing. He
also wants to make changes in the funding of hospitals and
health care providers that would shift more of the costs onto
individuals and employers. The news of all these taxes and fees
appeared in Sunday's Albany Times Union and a Paterson
spokesman did not deny them. The Obesity Tax is expected
to raise $404-million. He's also expected to renew his call for
a $600 tuition increase at SUNY schools and universities and
to lift the 8-cent limit on how much the state can collect on a
gallon of gas.