March 17th, 2022 Daily Headlines

Republican Timothy Ko has dropped out of the race for New York’s 22nd Congressional District. According to the Ithaca Voice, Ko has endorsed Tompkins County legislator Mike Sigler in the race. Sigler has also received support from the Tompkins and Onondaga County Republican committees. Sigler still faces another Republican challenger in Cayuga County entrepreneur Brandon Williams. The new 22nd district is deeply Democratic and voted for President Joe Biden by over 18 points. Sigler represents an extremely Democratic district in the County legislature that voted for President Joe Biden by over 30 points. Despite that Sigler was reelected in 2021 running unopposed. 

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Village Elections were held on Tuesday in the villages of Cayuga Heights, Groton, Trumansburg, and Dryden. Dryden was the only village with a contested election. According to the unofficial results from the Board of Elections Democratic incumbents Dan Wakeman and Deborah Fischer lead the race for the two seats on the board. Republican candidate David Bravo-Cullen trails both candidates by almost 20 points. The two candidates who receive the most votes will take the two seats on the board. The Board of Trustees currently has a 5-0 Democratic Majority. 

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The Tompkins County Public Library Foundation has announced Kerry Barnes as their new Executive Director. According to the Ithaca Voice, the foundation is the library fundraising arm. Barnes had been the Interim Executive Director since late last year. Barnes first joined the foundation in 2017 as Assistant Director. 

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An Audit by the state Comptroller has found the New York State Health Department undercounted the number COVID deaths in nursing homes during the tenure of Governor Andrew Cuomo. According to CNN, a little over 4,000 deaths went uncounted from April of 2020 to February of 2021. In a news release State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said “The public was misled by those at the highest level of state government through distortion and suppression of the facts when New Yorkers deserved the truth,"