WASHINGTON — Congressional representatives from New York state and the Northeast are touting a new bill to help dairy farmers.

ALBANY — New York authorities would be given expanded power to shut down illegal pot shops and levy fines of up to $200,000 under legislation proposed Wednesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul, who’s seeking to protect the state’s fledgling legal market for recreational marijuana.

GOWANDA — The Valentine Flats Trail and parking lot at the Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area has been closed temporarily by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

WELLSVILLE — Earlier this month the village board received notification that it once again, for the 31st time, has been named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation for “its commitment to effective urban forest management.”

NEW YORK (TNS) — A three-judge panel of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals is weighing whether New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act is constitutional.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus has been reimagined and reborn without animals as a high-octane family event with highwire tricks, soaring trapeze artists and bicycles leaping on trampolines.

BRADFORD, Pa. — The next step in the process of establishing a low-fly training zone over the Pennsylvania Wilds and parts of the Southern Tier of New York is underway.

OLEAN — Bishop Héctor A. Burgos Núñez gathered with United Methodists of Upper New York on Wednesday at Christ United Methodist Church in Olean.

OLEAN — Archbishop Walsh Academy/Southern Tier Catholic School has secured a new but familiar home for its students that is long-rooted in the faith tradition.

Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a proclamation over the weekend declaring March 18-19 and 25-26 as Maple Weekends in New York state.

ASHFORD — Like many other Western New York maple producers, Blesy Maple in the town of Ashford will be open to the public this first Maple Weekend.

WELLSVILLE — Everyone was Irish Friday as hundreds of watchers witnessed the Ancient Order of Hibernians Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade making history — and maybe setting a world record in Wellsville.

SALAMANCA — As a renewed effort is underway to expand interactive gaming in New York state, the Seneca Nation is demanding that native nations be given fair treatment and consideration in any discussions.

ALFRED — Alfred University, in partnership with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and U.S.-based company Silica-X, is studying ways to develop a concrete fortified with waste glass particles that would stand up to marine environments better than traditional cement m…

WELLSVILLE — The parking lot was crowded Wednesday afternoon when Runnings unlocked its doors for employees’ families and friends to take a look around a day before its scheduled opening.

BUFFALO — Springtime brings warmer, sunny weather, more outdoor playtime for kids and, unfortunately, the potential for contracting Lyme disease.

ALBANY — State Sen. George Borrello expressed disappointment Wednesday over the decision by state Attorney General Letitia James to appeal a state Supreme Court ruling in Cattaraugus County last year limiting the state Department of Health’s quarantine powers in a pandemic.

ELLICOTTVILLE — Five years ago, Dick Rivers came out of retirement after more than two decades with Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES to become executive director of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cattaraugus County.

WELLSVILLE — When Dave and Kim Toot moved in 36 years ago and when a young Tim O’Grady, now the police chief, grew up there, Pearl Street was a nice place.

WELLSVILLE — The Wellsville varsity cheer team had a successful season this year.

OLEAN — While more snow is on the way, the region will miss the bulk of the Nor’easter bearing down on the state Tuesday and Wednesday.

ALBANY — State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, has been approved to serve as a member of the Public Authorities Control Board (PACB), a five-member panel that has responsibility for ensuring that any proposed project-related financing of New York’s public authorities is fiscally sound.

WELLSVILLE — Organizers have heard nothing but positive comments about their plan to stage the Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the World on Friday as they hope to set a world record.

CUBA — As the snow fell outside, locks were falling inside at Cuba-Rushford schools to raise money for cancer research.

With Two Western New York Maple Weekends again this year — March 18-19 and 25-26 — area residents can get tuned up for the WNY Maple Festival in Franklinville next month.

U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy says President Joe Biden’s new $6.8 trillion budget “may as well have been released from Mars because it couldn’t be any more out of touch with the problems facing our nation.”

BELMONT — Patricia “Pat” Fogarty was recognized this week by the Allegany County Board of Legislators for her legal work on behalf of families and indigent defendants.

A firefighter who died in an explosive blaze in Buffalo last week was remembered at his funeral on Friday as a talented cook who whipped up delicious meals for his colleagues and as a husband and father who loved his family and his city.

ALFRED — Alfred State students gathered for a day of training, education, and fellowship at the 5th annual Students of Color Leadership Conference.

ALLEGANY — An Allegany-Limestone teen with a dream of someday bringing home big prize money from bull riding is part of a growing number of young people who have become interested in rodeo.

JAMESTOWN — One of the foremost experts in the field of freshwater plastic pollution will explain how plastic, though useful in society, is detrimental to our environment at 12:30 p.m. March 21 at SUNY Jamestown Community College in the Sheldon Center.

ALBANY — New York lawmakers are advancing a package of bills aimed at buoying the state’s farmers by promoting agricultural products and locally sourced foods.

OLEAN — After nearly three years of COVID-19 in Cattaraugus County, there have been nearly 25,000 residents with confirmed cases of the coronavirus — some of them more than once — and 285 deaths.

Day Adventure Passes are once again available in local Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System branches.

WEST VALLEY — The U.S. Department of Energy announced last week that seven areas of the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project have been successfully deconstructed in the past six months.

BUFFALO — Bishop Michael W. Fisher has announced a commutation from eating meat on St. Patrick’s Day for members of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

LOCKPORT (TNS) — A State Supreme Court justice signed a final order directing U.S. Bitcoin to shut down a cryptocurrency mining facility in Niagara Falls and pay the city punitive fines that exceed $1 million.

The death toll rose to two on Monday following a stampede at a rap concert in Rochester, New York, that authorities said may have been triggered by unfounded fears of gunfire.

ALBANY — Following his advocacy to include barns and agricultural facilities in the list of buildings that will be exempt from the natural gas bans proposed in the executive budget, Sen. George Borrello said that the change has been made in the governor’s 30-day amendments.

OLEAN — The dramatic drop in teen and young adult cigarette smoking over the past dozen years has been eclipsed by the skyrocketing use of e-cigarettes and other nicotine delivery systems, two tobacco cessation experts say.

Kidney disease is considered to be a “silent disease,” since it usually doesn’t have clear symptoms in its early stages. Up to 90% of Americans with chronic kidney disease (CKD) don’t know it.

A Buffalo man pleaded guilty Friday to stealing a badge and radio from a police officer who was beaten as rioters pulled him into the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol over two years ago, court records show.

BUFFALO — After Eric Jones finished his latest snow sculpture outside Gabby Kranock’s Buffalo hospital room Friday afternoon, he went to visit the severely injured Cuba teen and showed her a video and photos of what her pup Kody looked like as a snow dog.