Local News: January 23, 2024

- Lea Webb launches re-election campaign -

State Senator Lea Webb is officially running for re-election. The first-term Democrat represents the 52nd state senate district which was re-drawn in 2022. It includes Cortland and Tompkins counties and part of Broome County. Webb said she has prioritized the “needs of working families” and will continue to do so. Webb has one opponent, Republican Tompkins County legislator, Mike Sigler. Sigler announced his campaign last September.

- Ithaca College student files sexual abuse lawsuit against the College, a former Park School dean and  others -

An Ithaca College student filed a civil lawsuit last November against the college, former Park School dean Bryan Roberts and four other former employees. A note: Roberts was a member of WRFI’s Board of Directors for ten months. He resigned last July. The student is only identified as John Doe in court documents. The Ithacan, the Ithaca College school newspaper, reports that in court documents Doe alleges he was “in an unwelcome, unsafe, threatening, and/or non consensual sexual relationship” with Roberts from the fall of 2021 until the Spring of 2023. Roberts resigned from the college last August and now works at the University of Connecticut. The lawsuit also claims Doe experienced “harmful, unwanted, unwelcome, nonconsensual and/or hostile sexual advances'' from three other members of the college’s faculty and staff. It also alleges the student reported the relationship with Roberts to two college officials who did not report it. Neither official was part of the Title IX office. A Title IX complaint was made and an investigation was conducted last summer. The case was moved to federal district court in December because it includes claims of Title IX violations.