(WBEN/AP) A bizarre exchange in the NYS Senate over a budget provision banning plastic grocery bags statewide inadvertently underscored the upstate-downstate divide in the state Capitol.
Republican Sen. Rich Funke, who represents a district in the Rochester area, was questioning how the ban would work when he mentioned Wegmans, the Rochester-based grocery store that is a beloved institution in many parts of upstate.
"If I have old Wegmans plastic bags at home, can I bring them to the store and use them again?" Funke asked.
Democratic Sen. Todd Kaminsky of Long Island apparently didn't get the reference.
"Did you say an `old white man's plastic bag?"' Kaminsky asked.
"Wegmans," Funke responded. "Wegmans.
