The City of Lockport violated the law and its contract with the city firefighters' union by privatizing ambulance service in 2014, a state administrative law judge ruled Monday. Judge Lynn Fitzgerald of the Public Employment Relations Board ordered the city to return the ambulance duties to the fire department.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Buffalo News

A driver has been cited for failing to stop for a fire engine in a domino-effect crash in the Back Bay Monday morning that sent four firefighters to the hospital and damaged numerous parked luxury cars, police said. Witnesses told police the driver of a Chevrolet Equinox failed to stop for the fire engine flashing its lights and sounding its siren in the crash at Dartmouth Street and Commonwealth Avenue Monday.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald

Prosecutors are claiming that a serial arson case in Sacramento federal court has national security implications and, in a highly unusual ruling, a judge is allowing the government to withhold parts of the evidence from defense lawyers. Attorneys on both sides declined Monday to comment publicly, but court papers they have filed outline a dispute over the legality of hiding evidence with no obligation to disclose the reasons to the defense team.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee

A Michigan State Police trooper testified that suspended Allegan District Fire Chief Matt Gillies admitted to sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl and recording it. During the hearing Tuesday, the trooper affirmed Gillies sexually abused the young girl at his home and recorded it in September. Gillies had a previous foster care relationship with the girl but not at the time of the alleged incident, according to investigators.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

Rural fire departments have more than 140 additional firefighters one year after legislation became law that eliminated the age limit for new volunteers. House Bill 2005, authored by Rep. Mike Sanders, took effect Nov. 1, 2015. The law eliminated the 45-year-old age limit for new firefighters by giving them the option of joining the system without the requirement that they be added to the state’s pension plan.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norman Transcript