Month: January 2016

BY TONY FARINA The public will finally get a chance to weigh in on the Erie County bar closing debate next Tuesday (Feb. 2) at 5:30 p. m. at a public hearing in the legislative chambers in Old County Hall,

BY FRANK PARLATO The issue of whether to roll back the bar closing time from 4 a. m. to 2 a. m. in Erie County is certainly a hot-button item right now. The idea is a bad one – or,

BY PAUL WOLF, ESQ. Sadly our election process is a rigged game where an incumbent losing is a rare event. In most years incumbents win 90 plus percent of the time, with one or two losing. Tuesday’s election with few

BY FRANK PARLATO Niagara Falls – It was our own resident genius, James Hufnagel, who wrote us this week, to say, “You know what would be really funny? A picture of Mayor Paul A. Dyster wearing the new traffic circle

BY TONY FARINA The local construction company suing the state over its termination as the Canalside contractor in July of 2013 has won a major victory in the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court. In a unanimous ruling handed down

BY TONY FARINA A spirited Democratic primary fight for the office of Erie County district attorney is now taking shape although it won’t be acting DA Mike Flaherty against headquarters’ favorite Tim Franczyk who shocked political observers last month when

BY MIKE HUDSON It’s politics as usual at the City Hall of Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster. That’s the charge of Rick Smith, who has served on the city Planning Board for the past nine years, six as its chairman.

BY MIKE HUDSON At least publicly, Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster has sung the praises of the shadowy and secretive Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp., and its’ CEO John Percy. The NTCC benefits from nearly $2 million a year in

BY FRANK PARLATO The New York Power Authority (NYPA) successfully installed the three remaining floating sections of the Lake Erie-Niagara River ice boom on December 28, completing the work for the 2015-2016 season. The official Lake Erie water temperature on December

BY BARBARA SEALS-NEVERGOLD, PHD I have been writing about the problems of standardized tests, specifically the tests that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards and administered by the New York State Education Department.  Components of the State’s accountability

BY JAMES HUFNAGEL It couldn’t have been made any clearer had it been posted on billboards, shouted from rooftops or written in skywriting. If there was ever the shadow of a doubt in your mind that the south Robert Moses

BY CAROLETTE MEADOWS As a parent of a Buffalo Public School student, I have filed a breech of contract law suit on behalf of my child in U.S. District Court regarding the Board of Education’s failure to comply with the Office

BY TONY FARINA So what’s next for Erie Community College now that a state audit has confirmed much of what I’ve written about over the last year about the unauthorized spending and job creation at the public college under the

Congressman Brian Higgins is urging the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority to spend over $40 million to redevelop the DL&W Terminal into a light rail station. The controversial publisher Matthew Ricchiazzi, a Cornell trained urban planner, is calling Higgins’ plan “another ignorant

BY TONY FARINA As we have reported for some time, many at Erie Community College have questioned the commitment and leadership of President Jack Quinn who earns $192,500 to run the school but has several outside assignments not related to

Grand Island teacher and school board member Richard D’Augustino, a strong supporter of working families and organized labor, is being urged to challenge the embattled incumbent Senator Marc Panepinto in this year’s Democratic Party primary, says a local Democrat. D’Augustino is widely seen

The land affectionately known as the Ferry Fields — now the site of True Bethel Townhomes — was used as a massive dumping ground for toxic ash, a byproduct of lead production and metal processing. Those fields were commonly used by children

Councilman Darius Pridgen was well aware of toxic contaminants at 858 East Ferry Street, long before he developed the industrial site into market rate residential housing, located across the street from his ministry. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) awarded a