The Spirit Of Christmas Is This Evening In Bath

The Spirit Of Christmas event is happening later today in the Village of Bath.  Mayor Michael Sweet says they will be lighting all of the Christmas Trees at 6pm this evening.  Sweet says, he’s hoping to see a lot of people there tonight here in Bath.

 

Steuben Co Donates $20,000 To The United Way 

Steuben County Legislative Chair Kelly Fitzpatrick says the county gave $20,000 to the United Way Of The Southern Tier for their Dolly Parton library books for children. 

The county also worked out a deal with the Hornell Humane Society to handle the feral cat population.

Also, county attorney Tim Rosell is looking into the ramifications of starting up an animal abuse registry, so that people will know whose been cruel to their pets. 

Gillibrand: Preventing Seniors From Being Scammed 

Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand says there are a number of innovative ways to make vunerable senior citizens aware of all the phone scams out there these days. Such as: putting scam awareness literature in doctors offices and getting bank tellers to ask seniors, questions like – "Why are you withdrawing $10,000 today?  Did someone tell you to do that?"

The National Strategy for Combating Scams Act builds on Senator Gillibrand’s work to address scams as the top Democrat on the Senate Aging Committee. She has led the fight to protect seniors from financial frauds and scams, raised awareness about predatory scammers targeting seniors, and demanded answers from those attempting to cut funding for agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She has also introduced legislation such as the Senior Financial Empowerment Act, the Guarding Unprotected Aging Retirees from Deception (GUARD) Act, and the DO NOT Call Act. These vital bills would help seniors avoid financial scams, support law enforcement efforts to catch fraudsters, and establish new criminal penalties for robocallers, including prison time.

 

They Don't Have A Majority - But They Are Very Effective

Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski says the Republicans in the state legislature were able to block two big pieces of far left legislation in 2025.  One such bill, which was prevented from being passed by the Republicans, would have limited the number of cows, which dairy farmers could own.  That  bill, if passed, would have made it so farmers could not have more than 700 cows per farm.   Another example of the GOP preventing a Democrat bill was when Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik almost left the House of Representatives to take a job with the United Nations.  Some Democrats were urging Governor Kathy Hochul not to set a date for a special election to replace Stefanik.  Had this happened, it would have weakened the GOP Majority in the House and left the people in that district without a representative.  Sempolinski says the Republicans worked both behind the scenes and publicly, to prevent those two things from happening.