Silver Lake Daily Newsletter.com

News Briefs

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision could face legal action or potential penalties after thousands of incarcerated New Yorkers were incorrectly penalized by a former department drug testing platform. The tests gave false positives for the opioid buprenorphine, according to a report issued Tuesday by the state Inspector General’s Office. That resulted in improperly revoked family visits, delayed parole or time in solitary confinement. For eight months in 2019, the results from DOCCS drug testing vendor Microgenics Corporation led to rampant numbers of false positive drug tests from January through August, which the department did not verify, State Inspector General Lucy Lang revealed in her recent report.

The state Health Department will start to ask all hospital administrators to provide a breakdown of COVID-positive patients with mild symptoms versus severe infections to keep New York hospitals from becoming overwhelmed as the latest surge advances. New daily coronavirus infections in the state had increased to 23.17% and 21.49% over a seven-day average Monday. New York’s COVID transmission rate has continued a steady climb, up from a one-week average of just under 18% on Friday, New Year’s Eve. COVID-19 cases — and increased hospitalizations and deaths — are expected to persist on the upswing in the days following large New Year’s gatherings, and may continue through the Super Bowl in February.

A Geneseo man serving prison time for his role in two robberies and a brutal beating of a man in York had his conviction upheld by a state appeals court. The Appellate Division, Fourth Department at its last session of 2021 unanimously rejected Kevin E. Dolison’s appeal on several grounds. Dolison is serving a five-year term at Upstate Correctional Facility. Dolison was convicted of second-degree robbery for a planned attack of a man on Jan. 27, 2019. He and two others lured the man to a residence in Piffard, where they beat him and stole debit cards, cash and a phone. The victim suffered fractures to his nose, face and ribs.