Local News: December 1, 2023

- Two Ithaca residents arrested at United Nations protest -

Eighteen people were arrested at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations on Thursday. They were protesting the U.S. government’s failure to sign on to the “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.” Ithaca residents, Teresa and Ellen Grady were among those arrested. Both are long-time anti-war activists. Thursday’s protest was held while signatories to the treaty met. The U.S. did not participate in the meeting. Ellen Grady was briefly detained by German authorities this summer while protesting the U.S. storage of nuclear weapons in European Union countries.

- Seneca County commits $500,000 to a new housing trust -

Seneca County is putting half a million dollars from its federal American Rescue Plan funds into a new trust to address the county’s housing crisis. Fingerlakes1.com reports that the county board of supervisors voted unanimously for the money to go into the newly created Seneca County Housing Trust Fund. The trust fund is operated by the county’s planning department with other county officials. Housing projects by the Finger Lakes Regional Land Bank, Seneca Housing (a non-profit in Seneca Falls), and the redevelopment of the former Willard Psychiatric Center campus in Romulus.