Month: May 2016

BY TONY FARINA I wrote last week that the rubber may be close to hitting the road when It comes to the financial crisis at Erie Community College, but so far County Executive Mark Poloncarz is holding his powder over the

BY JOSEPH KISSEL Where’s the money going? That’s the question newly elected Grand Island Supervisor Nate McMurray wants to know regarding the tolls that have been collected at the bridges since 1929. “This is an old fight,” McMurray said. As

BY TONY FARINA Dr. [Eugene] Gosy was “the last best hope for patients suffering from chronic pain,” said Joel Daniels this week in describing the difficulties many patients have had finding help since the Williamsville pain treatment center operated by

BY JIM OSTROWSKI The war on human beings who use, sell or possess drugs (private property), is, from the perspective of reason or morality, dead. Yet, it survives in political backwaters such as Buffalo and in the intellectual backwater of

Kristy Mazurek, the local socialite and muckraking journalist whose pioneering career spanned decades in a half dozen American media markets, intends to wage an aggressive campaign for New York State State Assembly against a little known candidate recruited by Erie County

Rumor has it that County Clerk Chris Jacobs is nervous following sweeping losses for the school board’s reform coalition earlier this month. Jacobs has been a chief architect of the reform coalition for years, and is said to be shaken by

Barry Snyder, Sr. is the six-time former President of the Seneca Nation of Indians and the Seneca Gaming Corporation’s current Chairman. For the last year and a half Seneca Gaming has gone without a Chief Executive, since shortly after Snyder

BY MATTHEW RICCHIAZZI If we could ever put the interests of institutional advancement over the prissy sensibilities of cynics, we may be able to make something spectacular of the Albright Knox, which barely earns 200,000 attendees annually at its Delaware

BY MATT RICCHIAZZI When the nationally renowned education expert Dr. Steve Perry came to town last week to speak with parents about education reform, Buffalo Public Schools teacher and union organizer Kristen Mendoza behavior was unbecoming of a professional. In

Former State Senator Greg Ball, a popular two-termer from the lower Hudson Valley, has taken a major annual political fundraiser private. The move follows a decision last year to forgo a reelection effort after US Attorney Preet Baharara started asking

BY JIM OSTROWSKI Jurors in this state and throughout the United States are firmly told by judges they must follow the judge’s instructions “on the law,” but in so doing, are the judges themselves following the law? Keep in mind

BY MATT RICCHIAZZI Attorney Ann E. Evanko, the politically connected managing partner of Hurwitz & Fine, a law firm that contributed to Mayor Byron Brown’s election efforts, will be issuing a legal opinion as to whether Commissioner Joe Mascia’s removal

A source inside the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority is telling The Chronicle that Assistant Director Modesto Candelario was called to City Hall this morning and told by Mayor Byron Brown that he must look for another job. Candelario is widely seen as the

Jury nullification occurs in both civil and criminal trials. In a civil trial, a jury nullifies by finding a defendant not liable, even though members of the jury may believe the defendant is liable. In a criminal trial, a jury nullifies by acquitting a defendant, even though the

BY BETTY JEAN GRANT On Monday, May 9th, 2016, the Contract Compliance Review Committee, chaired by BUILD President Charlie Fisher and County Legislator Betty Jean Grant, will hold a protest rally outside of the headquarters of LP Ciminelli Construction, at

BY ANDREW KULYK In last week’s edition of The Buffalo News, you will find an excellent feature on the NBA Buffalo Braves, penned by sports journalist Bucky Gleason. It offers a fascinating instrospective on the rise and fall of Buffalo’s failed NBA franchise

BY JAMES HUFNAGEL National Fuel supplies natural gas to over 730,000 residential and corporate customers throughout Western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. The Williamsville, NY-based oil and gas concern is vertically integrated across five business divisions: Exploration & Production, Pipeline

BY JIM OSTROWSKI The power elites who have run Buffalo into the ground for decades have largely squandered the greatest inland waterfront in the United States, ours.  Only in recent years has progress been made.  It is said that China builds the