Five area food pantries received the contents of a tractor-trailer, 36,000 pounds of food, including Heart, Love & Soul in Niagara Falls, Care and Share Food Pantry in Ransomville, the Wilson Community Food Pantry, St. Brendan’s on the Lake in Newfane, and Newfane First Baptist. Goodman Farms also loaned a box truck to deliver food, with Wilson girls and boys basketball teams helping unload. The man who allegedly strangled his girlfriend to death and killed his newborn baby in their Buffalo home in October died in jail on Wednesday. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office said Kidane Haile, 30, was found dead in the showers at the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden around 9 p.m. Wednesday night. The death is being investigated as an apparent suicide. Niagara County fire investigators are looking into a early Thursday morning fire that destroyed a barn in Newfane. The fire was reported about 2 a.m. at 7007 Ridge Road. Sheriff’s deputies arrived to find a 20-by-24 foot barn behind a home fully engulfed in flames. A Christmas movie that was filmed around Western New York last February, including at the SPCA, is set to premiere this Friday. “A Royal Christmas Tail” will be playing at the North Park Theater in Buffalo and will release worldwide on the Great American Family Channel on Sunday.

Atlantic City’s mayor was concerned about an investigation into child abuse claims becoming public and harming his career, a DCPP worker testified Thursday. According to BreakingAC.com, Alysen Quay said she observed no physical injuries on his teenage daughter during a body check at that time, and that the girl denied any abuse.
Marty Small is on trial for allegedly abusing his daughter and then asking her to lie about it after he was criminally charged.

40-year-old Newfane man, Kevin Ferber, is in custody following a Wednesday stabbing incident in Olcott. Niagara County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the area of 5927 Main St. about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday for a report of a stabbing. Arriving deputies located a man suffering from several laceration wounds.

A fire caused an estimated $1 million in damages to an apartment building on Main Street in Williamsville on Wednesday. Fire crews responded to a fire at 5403 Main St., where four people were taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

A large fire caused $2.5 million in damages early Wednesday morning at family-owned feed mill and farm supply store Reisdorf Bros Inc. in Wyoming County, officials said. Three firefighters were injured.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo denied a motion to dismiss the indictment of Tops shooter Payton Gendron because the grand jury lacked a fair cross-section of the community.

The towns of Porter and Wilson will receive a portion of $32 million in state funds to help local governments with road safety enhancements.
Porter and Wilson are getting $700,000 to install shoulder and curve warning signs on Youngstown Wilson Road.

The Borough of West Wildwood will be patrolled by North Wildwood Police Department officers for at least the next decade, or until the West Wildwood department is dissolved or merged with North Wildwood’s, under a contract approved by the borough and the city.The possibility of dissolution or merger was mentioned numerous times throughout the agreement.

A Philadelphia man 43 year old Aaron Watson who stole more than $1,000 in cash and a bottle of liquor from a Vineland liquor store while armed with a gun was sentenced Friday to 27 years in prison, Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said. Watson was convicted Sept. 17 after a three-day trial on charges of robbery, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon, aggravated assault and possession of a weapon by a convicted person.Watson will not be eligible for parole for at least 19 years. He will be subject to five years of parole supervision upon release.

New Jersey and five other states want the regional power grid operator to keep price caps in place to prevent even larger spikes in electricity prices.According to the Press of Atlantic City New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy joined the governors of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois and Virginia in writing to PJM Interconnection, asking the grid operator to extend a price cap that would prevent rates from “increasing exponentially in 2026.”The move comes after electricity rates increased by 20% this year in New Jersey, with an unspecified additional increase expected next year.The current price is capped at $329 per megawatt-day.

Wreaths Across America returns to Lake County this week. The annual wreath-laying event honoring veterans will be held at five county cemeteries at 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 13.

Mendocino Council of Governments is studying sea level rise impact on coastal roads. Submit feedback by Monday, February 16, 2026, at mendocinoSLRstudy.org for the survey and details.

Michael Andrew Coleman, 42, pleaded no contest this past September for the 2024 death of 77-year-old Roberta Ann McNeil-Wood in June of 2024, in Mendocino County. The plea, replacing a murder charge, was for voluntary manslaughter, first-degree burglary, and a weapon enhancement, resulting in a maximum 16-year sentence. Coleman began his sentence at the California Medical Facility on October 24, 2025, with earliest parole in June 2035. 

Tapestry Family Services in Ukiah has secured a $1 million, three-year grant from the Tow Foundation’s 2025 Innovation Fund to enhance youth mental health services and expand parent-child interaction therapy in remote Mendocino County. The funds will allow therapists, utilizing a new Sprinter van to visit rural families.