Jamestown, NY – Last weekend (December 5 and 6) was the debut for “Winter Night Lights at Audubon,” the Audubon Center & Sanctuary’s newest outdoor attraction, and organizers say it couldn’t have gone better.

“We were thrilled with the response!” said Audubon Senior Naturalist Jeff Tome. “It’s been a huge undertaking to transform our outdoors into a winter fairyland, but the enthusiastic and awestruck responses of our visitors have made it all worthwhile.”

Along a luminary-lit paved trail, volunteers used the latest in interactive LED light technology to assist visitors to bring animals to life, to “see” the insides of a tree across the seasons, and to beat a drum to change the patterns of light shining on the Nature Center building.

BUFFALO, N.Y.--U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that John M. Berry, Jr., 42, of Dunkirk, N.Y., who was convicted of making a false claim against the United States, was sentenced to 41 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Arcara. The defendant was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $92,462.12 to the Internal Revenue Service.    

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, who handled the case, stated that between September 3, 2008 and March 25, 2009, the defendant filed 122 false income tax returns for the tax years 2007 and 2008 with the Internal Revenue Service. During that time, Berry obtained the personal and identifying information for 122 recently deceased individuals and then used that information to file federal tax returns on behalf of the deceased. The defendant created fraudulent income and withholding information for the deceased and filed the returns electronically.