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WJTN Headlines

A leader with a local conservative organization that supported Donald Trump in his presidential campaign is "catagorically condemning" this past weekend's racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

 

Frewsburg's Mel McGinness has been a long-time leader and spokesman for the Southern Tier TEA Party Patriots, which meets monthly in Lakewood.  McGinness this morning specifically called out several "alt-right" and white supremicists who are condoning their actions.  He says they are "totally opposed" to any form of demonstrations like that. 

 

McGinness also rejected and renounced the KKK, neo-Nazi and White Supremicist groups.  McGinness who is also the pastor at the Kiantone Congregational Church, says the images of last Friday night's rally and, Saturday's violent confrontations were "horrifying."  He was especially troubled by the "torch-light" march the White Nationalists and Supremicists used in a march last Friday night. 

 

McGinness says he strongly supports the White House's most recent statement condemining the groups involved in last weekend's protests and violence.


Before specifically announcing that the FBI and other federal agencies would investigating federal crimes in the weekend incidents in Virginia, Governor Andrew Cuomo called on President Trump to denounce the white supremacist rally that spiraled into a deadly day of violence. 

 

The Democratic governor of Trump's home state launched the on-line petition Sunday, a day after a woman was killed when a car rammed into a crowd of people protesting the racist rally.  Cuomo is calling it "a terror attack by white supremacists." 

 

This afternoon Mr. Trump said that "racism is evil" as he condemed the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists as "criminals and thugs."  He is speaking at the White House after meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI director Christopher Wray about the race-fueled violence Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

 

Trump has come under fire for his comments Saturday that "many sides" are to blame for the violence and did not single out white supremacist groups.


Local Congressman Tom Reed is condemning last week's violence in Charlottesville, Virgina. 

 

The Corning Republican issued a statement last weekend, saying that he's "outraged by the violence and senseless deaths that occurred in Charlottesville and condemn those who would abuse our freedoms and divide us with bigotry." 

 

Reed also said that "hatred will never have a place in the true American spirit."  He expressed his condolences to the families of the three victims in Saturday's violence.


New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed into law new penalties for those who make bomb threats. 

 

The Democratic governor approved the legislation on Monday.  It was passed by the state Legislature earlier this year in response to a string of bomb threats called into Jewish Community Centers in New York and elsewhere in the country. 

 

Citing those bomb threats and recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, Cuomo says that "now, more than ever" it's vital for New Yorkers to stand united against "bias and hate."  Specifically, the new law changes criminal statute to ensure that suspects accused of making bomb threats against a community center can, at minimum, face a sentence of up to a year in jail. 

 

Cuomo says the new law will help authorities prosecute those who seek to "spread fear and terror."


In New York state government news this week the first official candidate for a vacant Senate seat is promising to work to clean up Albany, and there's a renewed push to provide free feminine hygiene products in schools and emergency shelters. 

 

Democrat Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh announced his candidacy for the seat representing portions of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan shortly after Democrat Daniel Squadron announced his plans to resign to take a job working on national political reform.  Kavanagh pledged to work to support ethics and campaign finance reforms, one of Squadron's own long-time goals. 

 

Meanwhile, the state now requires local police detention facilities to provide free tampons to female prisoners.  Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal says the state should go further by requiring free tampons at schools and emergency shelters statewide.