As the government shutdown begins, the Rochester Housing Authority has begun planning on just what to do if its flow of federal housing dollars to over 26,000 recipients runs dry. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Other journos out there: has PACER also been irreparably broken for you too? It's been almost impossible to actually go from searching for a case, getting into it, and downloading a document for the past couple weeks.

Two months ago, Black Button Distilling was selling off its furniture to make rent. Now, a nascent liquor group has helped save it from the grave. What comes next for Rochester's first distillery since Prohibition? www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

For the first time in over 30 years, the city of Rochester plans to name a new historic preservation district. Cobbs Hill and Washington Grove will also be the first to be made up entirely of parkland. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Eight people face federal charges over schemes to scam the elderly, using everything from romance to posing as government agents. All told, they're believed to have attempted to steal more than $11 million from 139 victims. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

With dwindling enrollment, five city schools were shuttered last year, with two buildings returned to city ownership. Now, the city is seeking a developer to turn them into something. What that something is is still up for debate. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

My first headline in The Gothamist, a publication I've always had a really deep respect for and am now proud to work in the same news network as. gothamist.com/news/federal...

A protest against ICE in the Park Avenue neighborhood appeared to provoke the federal agents to leave a roofing job site. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Once one of Rochester's most pivotal artist hubs, the Hungerford Building has fallen into decay. Now, the lender to its owner, Peter Hungerford, is seeking to have the building foreclosed on, after he defaulted on payments. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

A menace has popped up on the quiet strip of Avery Street renegade chickens roaming the yards, chasing kids, and leaving a trail of eggs and poop in their wake. The situation has gotten so bad, it's hatched an unusual legal action from the city. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

The new bill bars city employees from discriminating or enforcing immigration law, with punishment up to termination. The law also includes protection from discrimination based on gender identity or orientation in sports, businesses, and city buildings. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Monroe County has signed onto a federal lawsuit in response to the anti-DEI executive orders from the Trump Administration. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

The Police Accountability Board's former chief of administration is suing the city and agency, alleging she was subjected to harassment and bullying in the workplace, and terminated through an unlawful "sham" process. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Alesha and Ricardo Chambers worked for three years to open their cannabis dispensary, Pure Wellness on Ridge Road. But a screw-up in state law let them open too close to a school. The state has vowed to fix it. A lot is on the line for them to do so. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

A ruling Wednesday found that the state's tactic of warrantless search and seizures of unlicensed cannabis dispensaries was constitutional, and that they can proceed doing so. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Workers at WROC/RochesterFirst/Ch. 8 first voted to unionize in Feb. 2023. But since then, its parent company, Nexstar Media Group, has refused to recognize the union or come to the collective bargaining table. Now, state local elected officials are boycotting. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Man killed by Rochester Police on Thursday on Ernestine Street identified as 38-year-old Akintunde Campbell. Here is the bodyworn camera footage. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCDu...

Rochester Police shot and killed a man on Ernestine Street last night, after the man allegedly brandished a pistol. The two officers involved are one leave pending an investigation by the state Attorney General's Office. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Plane crash near Maplewood Park

On Monday, Ray Martinez, co-owner of Sobrino's on North Clinton and Norton, received an unusual letter from the city's top lawyer, as well as other businesses on the avenue: close early on the last day of the Puerto Rican Festival, or else face a misdemeanor charge. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Last week, the city of Rochester moved to clear two homeless encampments on North Clinton Avenue, referring to them as "open air drug markets." This story explores what happened to the largely heroin-addicted residents of the camp, and the dearth of resources. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

My first national award (well, a silver medal, but I'll take it) from the Association of Alternative News media for my coverage of the disastrous roll out of legal weed and its harm on the growers trying to leave the black market and go legit.

This story has been updated to include comments Lupien made in an Instagram reel Thursday morning, in which she downplayed the current importance of City Council and Council meetings.

The town of Webster hasn't done an assessment since 2004, and its assessed values are estimated at less than half of market value, the lowest in the county. The average house is expected to at least double in assessed value during the assessment. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Four of Rochester City Council's nine members failed to show up to its July meeting. Ten bills which require a super-majority—including funding lead pipe replacement and an affordable housing project—had to be delayed as a result. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

The change in state leaves two major pool of new applicants—retired cops from other states and retired military personnel, the latter allowed to be up to 50 to take the exam. But whether it will make a difference in RPD's deep staffing issues is unclear. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said she plans to step down from her position, following a state investigation into a traffic stop last April in which she berated a Webster police officer. But just when she will be leaving is not clear. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

It's been over a year since Rochester began its search for a new veterinarian. Not a single eligible candidate has gone for the job, leaving per diem contracts to fill in the gap. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Just what was caught on Stefany Baez's Grand Avenue Ring camera Wednesday morning? One thing's for sure: whatever is in the video is big, and it looks a hell of a lot like a cat. wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

REACH Advocacy once operated six shelter sites as part of its "Project Haven," including a shelter for sex trafficking victims and the city's only LGBT shelter. The organization is in the process of dissolving, its shelters closed. One project may survive. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Nearly 20 years after skaters set out to get a skatepark in the city, and four years since the finished products of approval, construction on the last phase of the Roc City Skatepark is expected to begin this fall. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

The Sierra Club and Seneca have sued to block the creation of a massive data center on the STAMP. It's the latest in a string of lawsuits against the industrial park, located between the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge and the Tonawanda Reservation. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Do you really want him to be making decisions for your city? Go vote

The Republican candidate for Irondequoit town supervisor has been indicted on corruption charges. The charges appear to be connected to his lowering of his own assessment as town assessor. That incident was investigated last year, with no charges levied. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

A bill that would strengthen Rochester's sanctuary city policy will not go to vote, barring a conclusion to a lawsuit brought by the Trump Administration over the existing policy. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Sister Grace started House of Mercy with $20,000 from the Sisters of Mercy. She didn't know what she was doing exactly, but as she tells it, she ran with the money before they had a chance to change their mind. Video from Max Schulte youtube.com/shorts/1n6eE...

Sister Grace is dying. On her hospice bed, she spoke of her legacy and life's work of serving the poorest in her community. This story explores her nearly 40 years at House of Mercy, her philosophy and its ripple effects, and the work left to be done. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

I'm hosting Connections on WXXI both hours today. We're talking ticket resellers like StubHub! And no taxes on tips! Turn it up and rip the knob off.

The ongoing search for a 5-year-old boy who fell into the Genesee River Sunday afternoon is now a recovery operation. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

During Wednesday's debate, Mayor Malik Evans claimed that the city has not and will not sweep homeless encampments. His first term in office paints a somewhat different picture. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

The issues with the service provider at the two enhanced housing facilities include failing to monitor narcotics, failing to feed tenants on meal plans, and taking in residents they did not have the capacity to care for, including people who needed feeding tubes. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

This story has been updated to include a letter issued to residents and families from Family Service Communities, outlining that the program will be officially shuttering on Saturday.

The state DOH moved to clear Danforth and Hudson Ridge towers, to adult enriched living complexes, over emergency safety violations from its care provider. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

I spent a cold spring morning with Ben Spangler at his forge behind his Honeoye Falls home. Spangler is one of an increasingly rare breed: a blacksmith crafting knives, swords, and axes by hand. It's an art, and an homage to thousands of years of history. www.roccitymag.com/culture/magi...

The progressive bloc of City Council has floated a new sanctuary city bill "with teeth." It's ability to discipline and fire employees who disobey is likely illegal under the same civil service laws courts have ruled the Police Accountability Board violated. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Taxes on legal weed have now brought in over $1 million to the three Monroe County municipalities with dispensaries, with that number only expected to surge as the legal marketplace matures. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

The city has appealed a Supreme Court ruling which stripped the Police Accountability Board of nearly all of its powers. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

The city of Rochester is suing a New Jersey-based landlord over hundreds of outstanding code violations and lack of certificates of occupancy. In practice, that totals to $194,000 every day for violations alone as the maximum penalty. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Originally included in the budget book, a statewide Dolly Parton Imagination Library is in limbo, as negotiations continue in the latest New York budget since 2010. www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

Dilbar Dilbar, originally of Afghanistan, is accused of forging paperwork to get a special immigration visa, a type of immigration program specifically for Afghan and Iraqi people who aided the US military www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...