SUSPENDED DEPUTY PLEADS GUILTY FOR POSSESSION OF COCAINE

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 45-year-old John A. Gugino of Hamburg pleaded guilty yesterday morning before Hamburg Town Court Justice Gerald P. Gorman to one count of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh Degree (Class “A” misdemeanor). He pleaded guilty to the highest sustainable charge on the morning his non-jury trial was scheduled to begin.

On October 17, 2020, at approximately 10:30 p.m., the defendant was the subject of a search warrant when he was stopped by Erie County Sheriff’s deputy while driving on Milestrip Road in the Town of Hamburg. A small quantity of cocaine was found during a search of the vehicle. The defendant was initially charged with a felony for possession of cocaine, but further testing determined that the weight of the cocaine was a misdemeanor level.

Gugino, who was off-duty at the time of his arrest, was employed as a jail deputy with the Erie County Sheriff’s Office.

Gugino faces a maximum sentence of one year in jail when he is sentenced on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. He remains released on his own recognizance as the charge is a non-qualifying offense for bail.

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‘Everyone’s scared’: This DC tradition now reflects Trump era is ‘no laughing matter’



In 2025, the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) is celebrating its 114th anniversary. The organization, founded during Democrat Woodrow Wilson's presidency, was designed to be an alliance of journalists who covered the White House but were independent of it.

The United States has had some controversial presidents since then, from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump. But before Trump, all U.S. presidents attended the WHCA's dinner — an event that goes back to Republican Calvin Coolidge's presidency in 1924.

In an article published Saturday, The Guardian's David Smith describes some of the anxiety surrounding the WHCA's forthcoming 2025 dinner.

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"It is no laughing matter," Smith reports. "The annual dinner for journalists who cover the White House is best known for American presidents trying to be funny and comedians trying to be political. But this year's edition will feature neither. Instead, the event in a Downtown Washington hotel on Saturday night will, critics say, resemble something closer to a wake for legacy media still trying to find an effective response to Donald Trump's divide-and-rule tactics and the rise of the MAGA media ecosystem."

Smith adds, "Joe Biden's effort to restore norms included the former president giving humorous speeches at the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) annual dinner. But just as in his first term, Trump will not be joining the group he has long branded 'the enemy of the people,' and most of his staff are expected to boycott."

The WHCA invited comedian Amber Ruffin to speak at their 2025 dinner but withdrew the invitation — a move that, Smith notes, is being criticized as an "exercise in capitulation and cowardice" and "a metaphor for the failure of the media to unite around a strategy to push back against Trump's all-out assault."

"Since returning to office," Smith observes, "(Trump) has seized control of the pool of journalists that follows the president, barred the Associated Press news agency from the Oval Office and handed access READ MORE: 'Everybody is on edge': Trump cuts threaten to dismantle 'godsend' program

Author Sally Quinn, widow of the late Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, isn't planning to attend this year's WHCA dinner —which, she laments, is taking place during a very dark time in U.S. history.

Smith quotes Quinn as saying, "Everyone's scared. You're scared you're going to get thrown in jail if you write something (Trump) doesn't like, and that's going to happen very soon. Then you have the owners of these news organizations who keep keeling over and bending the knee. So you've got all these people in the media who are quitting in protest. It's a horrible time to be covering Trump."

Quinn added, "If you're a journalist and you want to be on the story, this is the story to cover. But people are not having fun covering it. It's very intense and very upsetting."

Read The Guardian's full article at this link.