Finger Lakes Family Fights Caterpillar Infestation
A Canandaigua Family is fighting off a epic invasion or gyspy moth caterpillars. These common and highly destructive moths are in the prolific years of their ten year cycle. The level of invasion in your back yard is largely depending on trees species(they prefer oak) in your back yard. They also love other common trees, apple included, which has many home and landowners scrambling to save the fruit from the “gypsies.” Professional advice ranges from harsh chemical treatments(no don’t), to burning the nests which contain eggs(marginally effective), and to banding trees with sticky tape to prevent the caterpillars from climbing the tree.
Upstate Deals with Growing Shortages
The housing shortage in upstate NY continues to be a major social and economic issue. A pandemic driven exodus from New York City has virtually cleaned out the available housing and rental inventory all over upstate. The issue is more acute in the eastern part of the state but even in Allegany County the trend is problematic. Rents continue to rise as quality apartments become scarce and hard to afford as city dwellers move into rural areas.
This crisis is exasperated by a parallel shortage of labor across upstate. In Wellsville we have reported several times on the acute lack of unskilled labor and its impact on local business. Contractors can’t find labor to meet the strong demand, restaurants are scrambling to find servers and kitchen staff, and large summer employers like the NYS Fair expect to be woefully understaffed. Neither of these problems show any sign of abating in 2021.
Southern Tier Blood Shortage
Red Cross officials are warning of a national shortage of blood for medical emergencies and transfusions. That shortage is a reality in upstate NY, largely due to the pandemic. Donors are hesitant to give blood during a public health crisis and the Red Cross hasn’t been able to conduct normal blood drives. A large percentage of the blood donated to the Red Cross comes from high schools and colleges which have been either shut down or minimizing outside visitors. If you live in the Elmira area, a blood drive is planned for this week.
Read the whole story here with links to the blood drive
Rochester Mayor Legal Trouble
Mayor Leslie Warren has had her share of controversy and crisis during her term leading Rochester NY. Her husband has not make the job any easier: Timothy Granison was charged along with five others for with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute, and distributing, at least 280 grams or more of crack cocaine, and at least 500 grams or more of cocaine.
The charges include drug dealing with he and Warren’s daughter in the car, and making deals in a vehicle reportedly registered to Mayor Warren. The case was moved to the Grand Jury in light of the complicated nature of the crimes and Warren’s potential involvement.
Today’s Mayoral Election in the Big Apple is like non-other with its breadth of candidates and the introductions of “rank-choice voting.”
Thirteen candidates are on the ballot which is confusing enough! Add rank choice voting into the mix and officials have reason to be concerned that voters won’t understand the ballots. RankthevoteNYC.com explains: “A candidate must get more than 50% support to win. If no one hits that threshold, the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated. The ousted candidate’s votes get redistributed to the voters’ second choices. That will continue until only two candidates remain.”. To read more about rank choice check out the Wall Street Journal’s piece.
