Top Stories
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First Nations and first ministers meet in Ottawa as chiefs press for a sovereign wealth fund and a share of major projects
[PREMIUM] Canada’s prime minister and premiers meet First Nations leaders Monday in the first gathering of its kind since Kelowna in 2005.…
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Boston overrides the tax cap for its 2027 budget, and town officials say water lines are the reason
The Boston Town Board unanimously approved a 5% levy increase that lands about $85,000 over the state tax cap. Town officials point…
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Seneca Nation’s Cattaraugus gas expansion selected in record federal tribal energy round
The Seneca Nation requested $6.7 million from the Department of Energy to expand its own natural gas system on the Cattaraugus Territory.…
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Lancaster and Depew close out a football rivalry that dates to 1919, and only one side wanted it to end
Lancaster beat Depew 48-8 Friday in what was billed as the last game of one of Western New York’s oldest high school…
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Golden Dome hits early milestones as senators from both parties press for steadier funding
President Trump’s missile-defense shield has an operational site and two tests behind it, but most of its 2027 money depends on a stalled reconciliation bill. Senate Armed Services members of both parties want it on a steadier track.
Latest Headlines
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White House touts refinery funding and diesel relief, says New York hasn’t adopted fuel waivers
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Trump weighs a deal or renewed strikes on Iran as Tehran says messages are still moving
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FBI surge on unsolved Indian Country crimes doubles arrests, Justice Department says
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Albany’s license plate reader bill passed without a no vote, but it doesn’t reach the police cameras drawing fire in Western New York
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Niagara Falls’ first North Main Street tax break: what $376,523 in incentives buys at 2109 Main
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Hochul’s $36 million for crime victim programs has yet to flow as providers cut staff
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Jamestown weighs $36 million in downtown requests as an EPA grant targets its industrial riverfront
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Albany should not hand Erie County the bill for SNAP’s error-rate penalty
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The case for rethinking hospital tax breaks, and why Buffalo should tread carefully
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Canada is thirsty for a strong father figure. Pierre Poilievre is built for the job
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Want more starter homes in Western New York? Start with the minimum lot size
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Elmwood Bidwell apartments start leasing, 10 months past the developer’s target
Studios start at $1,700 at Douglas Development’s long-delayed Elmwood and Bidwell project. City permit records trace a five-year path, mismatched unit counts and a storefront that…
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A Rochester developer bets factory-built homes can fill Buffalo’s vacant lots for about $175,000
Cook Properties is buying 18 city lots for unsubsidized modular homes, starting on Northampton Street. Its plan comes as Albany funds factory-built starter homes elsewhere and…
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Buffalo’s long ballot: 11 charter changes, from a human rights commission to who controls the budget
With no city offices on the ballot, Buffalo voters will decide 11 proposed charter changes on Nov. 3. Here’s what each would do, from police advice…
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Federal disaster loans open to Buffalo-area homeowners, renters and businesses hit by Sept. 3 floods
The SBA’s Oct. 19 declaration covers Erie and five neighboring counties after the Sept. 3 flash flooding. Applications for physical damage loans are due Dec. 18.
Suburbs
The Northtowns
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A stuck sewer camera keeps the old Niagara County Infirmary in limbo on Lockport’s city-town line
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Clarence holds its tax rate flat for 2027, but leans on $3.2 million in savings to do it
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Catholic Health and Benderson seek a tax break to turn a vacant Evans Street Rite Aid into a $28.5 million medical hub
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Hochul sends $5.8 million to Amherst and Williamsville for the Peanut Line Trail and Island Park
The state is putting $3.8 million into Amherst’s 4.9-mile Peanut Line Trail and $2 million into removing the old dam at Williamsville’s Island Park, with the…
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A state broadband grant for Buffalo’s affordable housing has grown 67% while its promised reach shrank by a third
[PREMIUM] Empire State Development wants to raise a ConnectALL grant for low-cost fiber in Greater Buffalo affordable housing to $4.75 million, even as the number of…
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A democratic socialist and a Hamburg Republican face off for the open 149th Assembly seat
Tenant lawyer Adam Bojak (D, WFP) and Hamburg Councilman Frank Bogulski (R, C) are offering sharply different answers on taxes, utilities and affordability in the open…
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Wydysh and McMurray vie for open 145th Assembly seat as early voting begins
Early voting began Saturday in the open 145th Assembly District race between Republican Becky Wydysh and Democrat Nate McMurray, who are both drawing on public matching…
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Claudia Tenney’s campaign has spent $2.6 million in a safe seat, and most of it went to raising more
FEC filings show Rep. Claudia Tenney’s campaign spent about $2.6 million this cycle, more than half on fundraising and digital vendors, about $208,000 on travel and…
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A one-town ceasefire, November talks and a diesel tanker bound for New York: Inside Washington’s new approach to Moscow
[PREMIUM] A U.S.-brokered pause in Oleshky begins Tuesday, three-way peace talks are set for early November, and the first Russian diesel cargo since 2022 is headed…
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Wyden drafts data center excise tax as $19.46 billion STAMP project advances in Genesee County
Sen. Ron Wyden’s draft would tax data center revenue and end key tax breaks for the industry, though the rate is still blank. Republicans and the…
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Rubio invites Cubans to a ‘discrete partnership’ with the CIA as Trump says Rubio will ‘finish up the deal’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Cubans seeking change to contact the CIA, hours after President Trump told a Florida rally he would send Rubio to…
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Divided 5th Circuit says detained immigrants have no right to bond hearings as Supreme Court takes up Buffalo case
The full 5th Circuit ruled 10-7 that immigrants who were never admitted have no constitutional right to a bond hearing. The Supreme Court has already agreed…
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Trump order aims to trim mortgage insurance and refinance costs as Buffalo-area prices climb
President Trump signed an executive order directing federal housing agencies to cancel mortgage insurance sooner, make cheaper refinancing permanent and speed up factory-built housing. Here’s what…
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Every traveler flying to the U.S. must soon swear they haven’t been in Congo. Here’s how New York will watch for Ebola.
[PREMIUM] A new CDC order requires every U.S.-bound air passenger to attest they have not been in Congo, as the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak nears 10,000 cases.…
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Justice Department starts notifying counties it will monitor on Election Day as New York early voting nears
The Justice Department has begun telling counties in five states where it will send election monitors, part of what it calls its largest monitoring effort ever.…
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Niagara County’s sewers hit their limit, and Lewiston moves to pause bigger developments
[PREMIUM] Lewiston’s sewage plant ran about 320,000 gallons a day over its state permit after a wet summer. On Monday the Town Board takes up a…
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North Tonawanda voters to decide on an $18 million community center at the Keller Building
A Nov. 3 ballot proposition would let North Tonawanda borrow up to $18 million to consolidate its rented senior and youth centers into the city-owned Norman…
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Niagara Falls bets its Main Street comeback on $25 million in Niagara University student housing
A developer plans to turn two long-vacant Main Street buildings in Niagara Falls into housing for 100 Niagara University students, a $25 million project Mayor Robert…
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Niagara County wants Albany to lock in the Falls’ casino share. The Seneca Nation says the next compact may not have one
The County Legislature unanimously urged the state to guarantee Niagara Falls 25% of the state’s Seneca Niagara share. But the Nation says the compact it negotiated…
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Navajo Nation braces for weeks of recovery after record San Juan River flooding
Homes in Shiprock went underwater as the San Juan River broke a 1909 record upstream. President Buu Nygren is seeking $10 million in tribal disaster relief.
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Appeals court says 1929 census descendants belong in organizing the California Valley Miwok Tribe
[PREMIUM] A unanimous D.C. Circuit panel upheld Interior’s decision to let descendants of Miwok people on a 1929 Calaveras County census take part in organizing the…
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For the eighth time, the Montaukett Nation’s recognition bill waits on Gov. Hochul
The Legislature has again voted to restore state recognition to the Montaukett Indian Nation, stripped by a 1910 court ruling. Gov. Kathy Hochul has vetoed the…
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Analysis: Canada tells the Haldimand court it didn’t inherit the Crown’s debts to Six Nations. In the 1920s, it paid toward one anyway
Three weeks into the Six Nations of the Grand River trial, Canada and Ontario say today’s governments aren’t answerable for what the Crown did with the…
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A vacant Swan Street corner is slated for housing. Tests found lead at 50 times the residential cleanup limit
A developer who grew up nearby wants to build apartments and affordable townhomes at Swan and Chicago streets. His consultant’s tests found lead, mercury and buried…
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Radioactive slag was documented at a Town of Niagara drive-in in 2020. Neighbors are still waiting for answers
A 2020 report for Niagara County’s land bank found radiation on a vacant Witmer Road drive-in across Gill Creek from homes and recommended a $1.25 million…
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Two weeks after neighbors reported it, the state still hasn’t said where the oil in the Buffalo River is coming from
DEC’s spill record for the South Buffalo sheen lists diesel, mineral oil and latex, with the source “Unknown” and no volume. The same stretch near Ogden…
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House approves Coastal and Great Lakes Communities Enhancement Act, with Higgins’ amendment
Higgins’ Measure Addresses Algal Blooms in the Great Lakes Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) announced the House of Representatives approved the Coastal and Great Lakes Communities Enhancement…
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Gendron jury selection enters week three as a fatal taxi crash brings an indictment
Gendron’s lawyers tell prospective jurors the case is about life or death. Also: a DWI homicide indictment in Kensington-Grider, two sentences for Buffalo killings, a Hamburg…
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Four charged with murder in alleged plot to kill a witness, as federal gun case and day care shutdown round out the week
An indictment accuses five Buffalo residents of conspiring to kill a murder-trial witness. The week also brought a federal gun-trafficking complaint, Timon Street arrests and a…
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Woodhill Capital’s president admits to mail fraud as records detail a $54 million collapse
[PREMIUM] Richard Teplitsky pleaded guilty Friday to mail fraud in the collapse of Woodhill Capital, which federal prosecutors say took $54.4 million from about 200 investors.…
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Woman shoved by Buffalo’s deputy police commissioner files notice of claim, halting Internal Affairs review
The woman First Deputy Police Commissioner Craig Macy shoved to the ground on Chippewa Street in July has filed a notice of claim against Buffalo, pausing…
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Albany adds $10 million to Buffalo’s East Side Building Fund after 300 applications chased the first round
Thirty-five projects split the first $10 million. With a second round expected, here is how the storefront and mixed-use grants work and who gets priority.
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New York’s quantum study ranks the state second nationally, but finds Western New York’s footprint thin
A new state-commissioned study ranks New York second in the nation for quantum technology, but its regional map shows only a small cluster of activity in…
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Rich Products cuts 60 Buffalo jobs in a global overhaul while it keeps building on Niagara Street
Rich Products is eliminating about 60 Buffalo jobs in a global restructuring that will see roughly 380 people leave, even as it keeps investing in its…
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Carl Montante, a UB Law alum who practiced law ‘for about a week,’ enters the WNY Business Hall of Fame
Uniland founder Carl J. Montante, a 1967 UB Law graduate, was inducted into the Western New York Business Hall of Fame on Oct. 14. His company…
The Chronicle Magazine
Culture, Food & Life in Western New York
Music & Entertainment
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Hell’s Kitchen leads a crowded theater week downtown as Shea’s builds its next century
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The BPO premieres its second new work this month, a Leshnoff symphony written for the orchestra
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Erie County’s budget holds Buffalo’s stages to last year’s dollars and leaves out a dozen groups its own reviewers backed
New reporting is coming soon.
Food
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Marketside has fed Niagara Falls breakfast since 1939, and its fourth generation just made room for more
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Sun Cuisines still makes the case for Burmese food in Williamsville, if you’re willing to wait
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Darian Bryan’s Reserve Steakhouse is a big-night splurge in Larkinville. Here’s what the record shows
Design
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Developers are converting Main Street offices into apartments. The city-owned hostel building across from Shea’s is still empty
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The Broadway Barns hosted Woodrow Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald and pro hockey. City Hall says it will probably come down
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Broadway Market’s $45 million makeover slips to 2027. Here’s what the design would change
New reporting is coming soon.
Buffalo’s Finest
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Natalie Merchant brings Jamestown grit and a cabinet full of wonder to a new generation
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Buffalo’s Finest: Christine Baranski, the Cheektowaga girl who dreamed up sophistication and took it to the West End
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Buffalo’s Finest: Dion Dawkins, the Shnowman who makes the trenches look good
New reporting is coming soon.
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Messiah Burch carries UB past Bowling Green and into a crowded MAC race
Senior running back Messiah Burch ran for a career-high 184 yards and three touchdowns as Buffalo beat Bowling Green 31-24 on Senior Day. The Bulls are…
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Sabres fall behind early again, and the goaltending question follows them on the road
A 3-1 loss to the Flyers ended Buffalo’s point streak and sent the 4-4-2 Sabres on a four-game road trip. As Connor Hellebuyck’s suspension in Winnipeg…
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Josh Allen ties Jim Kelly in Las Vegas, but a spitting ejection leaves the Bills with a suspension question
Josh Allen tied Jim Kelly’s franchise touchdown-pass record in a 33-30 win over the Raiders. Now the 5-1 Bills wait to learn whether the NFL will…
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Bills are 4-1, but Jim Leonhard says his defense can’t keep waiting for Josh Allen to rescue it
The Bills are 4-1, but defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard says a unit giving up historic numbers can’t keep relying on Josh Allen to bail it out.…
From Coast to Coast to Coast
Canada Edition
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U.S. reshuffles Canadian tariff list as Ottawa tells diplomats to avoid midterm candidates
Plywood and some paper products come off the 50% Section 338 list Oct. 30, while valves, carpets and waste products are added. Global Affairs Canada has told its diplomats to keep away from midterm…
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Ontario bill aims to finish Highway 69 widening five years sooner
The proposed Building Highway 69 Faster Act would streamline environmental reviews for the last 68 km between Parry Sound and Sudbury. The province hasn’t given a cost or a completion date.
Ottawa
House of Commons · Senate · Supreme Court · Global Affairs · Prime Minister’s Office · Leader of the Opposition · Assembly of First Nations · Federal Elections
Latest News
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The Feed: Cheektowaga’s camera discipline, Alberta’s vote and Trump’s gas-price remark dominate the week online
A Cheektowaga police camera case, radioactive backyards in Niagara, Alberta’s referendum and a U.S. Embassy fact sheet, and President Trump’s oil-profits remark led the week’s public conversation online.
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UB alum Judge John Sinatra has a consistent answer for New York’s gun laws: show the history
The federal judge behind last week’s body armor ruling earned both of his degrees at UB. Since 2022 he has applied the same historical test to New York’s…
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Lewiston slaps six-month moratorium on rain, orders clouds to file downstream capacity analysis
Satire: If the pipes can’t take any more water, Lewiston’s fictional Office of Atmospheric Compliance says the sky will simply have to stop sending it.
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Kennedy presses DHS on Batavia detention expansion as the administration points to Albany and the 2024 vote
Rep. Tim Kennedy wants answers by Nov. 2 on a roughly $16.7 million ICE expansion in Batavia. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says voters backed mass deportations, and…
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A year into the top job, UB alum Allana Krolikowski steers Jericho Road through a leaner era for health centers
Dr. Allana Krolikowski, a two-time UB graduate who started at Jericho Road as an unpaid intern, marks a year as CEO as Medicaid changes reshape how safety-net clinics…
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Senate Budget chair Ron Johnson’s defense blueprint heads into the lame duck as the deficit nears $2 trillion
Sen. Ron Johnson’s fiscal 2027 budget resolution, which would make room for $60 billion more for the military through reconciliation, has stalled since August. It returns after the…
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Trump-backed $1.15 trillion defense bill and Dec. 11 funding deadline await Congress after the election
The House passed a $1.15 trillion NDAA matching President Trump’s request, but the Senate bill stalled 50-46. With a stopgap expiring Dec. 11 and a $60 billion defense…
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Langworthy holds a 37-to-1 cash edge in NY-23 as Gies outraises him again in the final stretch
Rep. Nick Langworthy entered the last weeks of the NY-23 race with nearly $2 million in the bank to Aaron Gies’ $54,000. But FEC filings show the Democrat…
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Niagara Falls bought back Main Street. Now it should publish a scorecard for every building
Niagara Falls used casino money, a state grant and tax waivers to take back 38 Main Street buildings. Residents deserve a public scorecard showing who promised to build…
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Salvation Army opens Hope on Main shelter, first piece of a $100 million Main Street redevelopment
The Salvation Army opened an 80-bed family shelter at 954 Main St., the $20.5 million first phase of Hope on Main. Next on the site: 143 affordable apartments…
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With Templeton Landing back in city hands, Buffalo weighs a plan for the whole Erie Basin Marina
The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency controls the Templeton Landing parcel for the first time since 1982. Mayor Sean Ryan says the city will plan the marina area as…
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NFTA board asked to add nearly $1 million for Metro Rail extension traffic update ahead of 30% design
The NFTA board was asked to add $958,244 to WSP’s contract to update the Amherst-Tonawanda Metro Rail extension’s traffic model, the next engineering step after the FTA’s environmental…
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Western New York won a third of MOVE-IN NY’s starter-home money. Here is where its 96 homes stand
[PREMIUM] Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Lackawanna and the Town of Tonawanda won about $29 million to place 96 factory-built starter homes. Records show lots identified and approvals under way…
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Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls loan goes back to a special servicer after reaching maturity
The roughly $74 million mortgage on the Town of Niagara outlet mall matured this month and moved to Midland Loan Services, months after the Niagara County IDA approved…
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Upstate Niagara’s West Seneca dairy expansion grows to $325 million, with $35 million for on-site power
The cooperative’s third revision adds linear generators because of a lack of available electricity and seeks about $12.7 million in sales-tax breaks. The ECIDA holds a public hearing…
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New York’s $225 million water-for-housing fund is open only to Pro-Housing towns. Many WNY suburbs aren’t certified yet
The state’s new Clean Water for Housing grants pay up to 75% of water and sewer work tied to new homes, first come, first served. HCR’s dashboard lists…
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Treasury proposes rules for the new federal limit on big investors buying single-family homes
Treasury’s proposed rule spells out how large institutional investors can still build, renovate and sell houses under the ROAD to Housing Act’s ban, and what they would pay…
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The NFTA should tell Buffalo what the Metro Rail extension costs before it spends more planning it
The NFTA keeps adding money to its Metro Rail extension planning contract without telling the public what the line will cost or who will pay for it. Before…
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Inside the $11.6 million public bet on Niagara Power Transformer’s Cheektowaga expansion
[PREMIUM] State and county records show about $11.6 million in public support behind a $71.2 million transformer plant expansion on Dale Road, along with 73 promised jobs, an…
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A Buffalo judge strikes down the body armor ban Albany passed after Tops, on the day Hochul signs new gun bills
Judge John Sinatra Jr. ruled that body armor is protected by the Second Amendment and paused his order for 14 days, leaving the state until just after Election…
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New York’s senators press the Justice Department on why it stopped enforcing the under-21 handgun sales ban, citing Buffalo
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer joined 18 colleagues in demanding answers from Attorney General Todd Blanche after the Justice Department declared the federal ban on handgun sales…
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Hochul’s budget office warns the data center backlash, including her own pause, could cool the AI boom paying New York’s bills
The state budget director told agencies to hold 2028 requests flat and warned that government scrutiny of AI infrastructure could slow the investment wave behind New York’s $7.3…
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U.S. orders non-emergency diplomats out of Saudi Arabia as Houthi strikes widen and Buffalo diesel sits near a record
The State Department ordered non-emergency staff and families to leave Saudi Arabia as Houthi missiles and drones hit the kingdom’s airports and oil fields. In Buffalo-Niagara Falls, diesel…
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Erie County’s 2027 budget cuts the tax rate. Its own four-year plan warns of $70 million gaps
[PREMIUM] Mark Poloncarz’s 2027 budget lowers Erie County’s tax rate again, but the county’s own four-year plan projects gaps near $70 million a year as federal SNAP costs…
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Buffalo’s snow plan boosts contractor money nearly fivefold as the city waits on new plows
Buffalo’s new winter plan raises snow-hauling contractor money from $580,000 to $2.7 million, but the 10 plows the city ordered won’t arrive until midwinter, leaving it with 14…
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GLYS WNY and the Pride Center are buying Oxford Pennant’s Allentown building
After years in basements, GLYS WNY and the Pride Center of Western New York are buying 810 Main St., Oxford Pennant’s “Keep Buffalo A Secret” building, as a…
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Four Western New York providers win state money to train health workers, one more than the program promised the region
Catholic Health, Jericho Road, The Chautauqua Center and UPMC Chautauqua will share $2 million to $4 million a year in five-year state training grants, pending the comptroller’s approval.
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Tonawanda’s new supervisor breaks the tax cap and says it will save residents later. Here’s the math
Supervisor John Flynn’s first budget raises the Town of Tonawanda levy 3.9%, well past the state cap, citing health insurance, pensions, police raises and a 57% jump in…
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Trump secures release of American Stephen Hubbard as Russia agrees to talks; the first Russian diesel shipment is small against U.S. demand
Putin freed retired teacher Stephen Hubbard and agreed in principle to mid-November talks with the U.S. and Ukraine. The first Russian diesel tanker sails Thursday, but at about…
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A UB medical student’s first year costs $83,000. Washington now lends $50,000. Albany hears what that means
The end of Grad PLUS loans leaves a gap of about $33,000 a year for New Yorkers entering UB’s medical school. At an Assembly hearing, medical and social…
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Hochul should stop vetoing on-time pay for the nonprofits that do New York’s work
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Erie County drivers deserve license plate camera rules written by lawmakers, not by Flock
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ORELL: Richard Franke left a legacy on the liberal arts education
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TEWS: 5G, Planes, and Progress
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ABRAMS: New England liberal arts colleges are dangerous to American civility
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PETHOKOUKIS: So Big Tech massively investing in itself is worrisome now?
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POMERLEAU: A progressive corporate income tax doesn’t make a lot of sense
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