Month: April 2016

BY MIKE MADIGAN The headline in The Buffalo News on January 14, 2010 stated, “Feds Bring down Hammer on Wheatfield Drug Ring.”  Unknown to the paper, the only thing that actually was about to be hammered was the integrity of the U.S. justice

BY MATT RICCHIAZZI In our business, people frequently come to us as whistleblowers troubled by what they perceive as official misconduct and yet afraid that if they blow the whistle at work they will be retaliated against. It is necessary

BY MIKE HUDSON Buffalo developer Mark Hamister was given “preferred developer” status on a valuable piece of property on Rainbow Boulevard just a few hundred yards from the state park entrance for two reasons. He could build a luxurious resort

BY JIM OSTROWSKI What better topic to introduce my new column in this paper than Trump’s visit to Buffalo Monday night?  So there I was, in the press pen, literally walled off from the event with no food, no booze,

BY TERRENCE ROBINSON In this chapter of the Mascia Chronicles we will take the reader on a hair-raising spin around the track of BMHA chicanery. Be forewarned, there are perilous curves taken at high speed, the straight aways are heart-stopping and

BY MATT RICCHIAZZI Congressman Brian Higgins is urging the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority to spend $43 million to redevelop the DL&W Terminal into a light rail station. That facility would only service the six-mile line that runs along Main Street

BY TONY FARINA Community activist Amber Small, a relative political newcomer, is running an aggressive grassroots-oriented campaign in her bid to win the kind of support that will help her land the Democratic Party endorsement for the 60th District State

Republican State Senate candidate and Kenmore attorney Kevin Stocker is slamming primary challenger Chris Jacobs for his fundraising behavior and close ties to party bosses in Albany. On Facebook, Stocker shared an invitation to a pricy fundraising event that lists a

The two weeks of public hearings staged against elected housing commissioner Joe Mascia — behind closed doors with cameras banned — were recorded only by transcript and not available to the public until this week. They tell a tale of political intrigue,

BY MATT RICCHIAZZI There are two seats up for election on the City of Niagara Falls’ school board, which will be held on May 17th. The full slate of candidates is still in flux, with a crucial filing deadline of

BY TONY FARINA According to informed sources in the Buffalo development community, Mark Hamister is about $6 million short of the mark in financing for his much-hyped $35.7 million Niagara Falls hotel project on Rainbow Blvd. that was trumpeted by

BY TONY FARINA Erie Community College has filed a formal response to the Jan. 14 audit report by the state comptroller that detailed a “lax control environment” established by the board of trustees that allowed college management to assume board

BY JAMES HUFNAGEL Later this month, and for the second time during his five years in office, Gov. Andrew Cuomo will make a decision that has enormous implications for the future of Western New York’s water resources. The Governor will

BY FRANK PARLATO Buffalo Councilman and Pastor of the True Bethel Baptist Church, Reverend Darius G. Pridgen has evidently created and had posted on Facebook a photo-shopped, Mount Rushmore-esque image where he appears alongside Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and

BY FRANK PARLATO Joe Mascia, 71, the disputably suspended tenant-elected Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority (BMHA) Commissioner, is running for reelection. He has filed more than enough signatures to qualify for the ballot for the June 14, 2016 election held by

BY TONY FARINA According to the Humane Society of the United States, dog fighting is a sadistic “contest” in which two dogs—specifically bred, conditioned, and trained to fight—-are placed in a pit (generally a small arena enclosed by plywood walls)

County Clerk Chris Jacobs, a popular moderate Republican with an unparalleled social network in Western New York, has released a video promoting his candidacy for the 60th district State Senate seat. That seat has long been at the crux of power