Monroe County

Um, in my opinion, it's in person whether you do it early or on election day, but go out and vote and vote on a piece of paper.

Um, unless you're in Monroe County where I think you've got those express vote Excel machines.

[laughs]

Yeah.

It wasn't those big counties.

Uh, they, you know, they did not give us those data fields.

W- was Mon- If I may, was Monroe County one of the counties that provided you all the information you needed for a proper audit?

Um, I'm trying to remember if there were data fields missing.

First thing you need to do is make sure you're registered to vote.

Monroe County has an online tool for that.

If your address is outdated or incorrect and you need to change it, you can do that with the voter registration portal, or by mail, or in person at the Board of Elections on Smith Street.

If you have to change your address, the deadline is October 19th.

I'm Michaela Singleton.

New plans to investigate Monroe County's jailhouse medical team after an inmate's death.

A state program is trying to act now before federal Medicaid cuts take full effect.

And later, a local economist speaks on the ripple effects coming from tariffs on green energy.

It is Thursday, October 15th.

The Monroe County Legislature has voted to form a committee to investigate the county's jailhouse medical provider.

The State Commission on Corrections had directed the county to review Prime Care Medical in a December 2025 report.

Now, that report followed the 2023 jailhouse death of Brian Harmon after nine days in custody.

I am still eating stuff that I, I got out of that thing, so just an FYI.

Uh, years ago, dear Louise Slaughter, who played such an important historic role in the politics of Monroe County, uh, God bless her, her memory, but one of the things she went on about forever was high-speed rail.

She was sure high-speed rail was gonna change the world.

It was gonna bring prosperity.

Um, Prime Medical Care.

Last night there was a, a Monroe County Legislature meeting, and as I understand it, um, there was a question about do we want to automatically renew our contract with Prime Medical Care, uh, at the jail? A lot of attention's been focused on this because of, you know, I think we found out through a, a civil suit that a man named Brian Harmon back in 2023, uh, died at the Monroe County Jail of sepsis.

Uh, he'd been in there nine days.

Sepsis is like what your grandmother used to call blood poisoning, and it's something which, uh, caught and treated properly, I'm, I'm not a doctor obviously, but is thankfully in this era of antibiotics recoverable.

And, you know, I, I'll be honest with you, um, that certainly affects us.

I- in our region, uh, a lot of people work in Monroe County, even though, you know, we may live in, in other counties, and there is a fair amount of time on the road.

You ought to come with me the beginning round of the day, and you see the parade of folks, uh, going north or south, uh, down on 390 through Livingston County.

And each of those folks are going off to make a living, and each of those folks are kicked a little bit harder in the seat of the pants as a consequence of this more expensive electricity.

Funny thing is, when you cross into the suburbs, the amount of absenteeism drops dramatically, right? Just a whole different world.

Um, Latino students in the suburban districts of Monroe County miss about 10 days of school a year.

Um, uh, uh, Black students miss about nine, and white students miss about, uh, uh, seven.

Uh, interestingly, um, the groups demographically with the lowest rates of absenteeism, um, are Asian students, Asian by heritage.