Wowy Radio | radioNOVO News NY News Roundup for July 09, 2026

Good morning. Turning to news from across the Empire State.The United States Department of Homeland Security has finalized plans to construct a brand-new federal detention facility in Western New York. Federal immigration authorities state the new build is a direct, mandatory response to a recent New York State sanctuary law that explicitly blocks individual county jails from housing Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees. The upcoming federal complex is scheduled to be built directly alongside the existing Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia and will house approximately one hundred beds. Federal officials have not yet announced an official timeline for the project's completion.Meanwhile, a major downstate plastics packaging plant has announced it will permanently shutter its operations early this fall. Executives from Pretium Packaging confirmed that their production facility in Columbia County will officially close down in September. The corporate consolidation comes after the manufacturing company filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy protections earlier this year. Company officials state the factory liquidation is part of a broader corporate network reorganization plan, though they have not yet disclosed the exact number of local employees who will lose their jobs.In state legal news, the tenth and final New York State corrections officer connected to the fatal beating of an inmate has been formally sentenced in Oneida County Court. Judge Michael Nolan ordered former guard Thomas Eck to serve nine months in jail after he pleaded guilty to offering a false instrument for filing. Eck admitted to falsifying state reports and planting a weapon to cover up the actions of a specialized tactical unit that delivered sixty-nine strikes to inmate Messiah Nantwi at the Mid-State Correctional Facility.Downstate, law enforcement authorities have unveiled the sweeping results of a coordinated federal and regional sting operation targeting illegal firearms trafficking. The Westchester County District Attorney's Office, working in tandem with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, successfully seized twenty-two illegal ghost guns, including multiple high-capacity magazines and military-style assault rifles. Forty-nine-year-old Michael Larruiz of Greenwich faces multiple felony weapons charges and is currently being held on one hundred thousand dollars bail.And communities throughout the Hudson Valley are mourning the tragic loss of Cottekill Volunteer Fire Department Chief David Gagnon. A massive public visitation will be held this afternoon at the SUNY Ulster Gymnasium for the veteran emergency chief, who was struck and killed by a snapping tree limb while actively clearing storm debris from a local roadway last week.For more news from across the state, download the radioNOVO app. I’m Codi Gaboff, radioNOVO News.