May 2016 – The Buffalo Chronicle

A primer on Quasar’s equate

May 25, 2016

BY FRANK PARLATO ‘Equate,’ the brown, blackish, mulch-like product – with a piquant taste and curious smell – is made up of about 60 percent human excrement, mixed with other undissolved solids that once went happily down the drain after

Politics is behind Rus Thompson’s Voter-Fraud charge, says wife

May 25, 2016

BY JOSEPH KISSEL Rus Thompson says he can’t talk about it, but as he said during his Sunday “remove the tolls” address at Fisherman’s Park in Grand Island, anybody else can. Thompson was recently charged with five felony counts of

Poloncarz still reviewing ECC budget plan

May 25, 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

Thompson, McMurray call for an end to Grand Island tolls

May 25, 2016

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

Dr. Gosy was ‘Last Best Hope,’ says attorney Joel Daniels

May 25, 2016

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

Gosy indictment signals Feds expanding war on drugs, freedom

May 25, 2016

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, reformer and muckraking journalist, to run for Assembly

May 24, 2016

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

Jacobs is nervous in wake of school board losses

May 23, 2016

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

Will Snyder’s behavior at Seneca Gaming attract attention of Feds?

May 21, 2016

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

It’s time to move the Albright Knox to Niagara Falls

May 21, 2016

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

Framework for community partnership with LP Ciminelli emerges

May 20, 2016

In talks with LP Ciminelli executives last week, the members of the Contract Compliance Review Committee found much common ground in identifying barriers to entry for minority participation in the construction trades. LP Ciminelli and other construction contractors have been

Union teacher learns ugly is a bad look

May 19, 2016

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

LP Ciminelli and community would gain from partnership

May 16, 2016

BY KATRINNA MARTIN-BORDEAUX Our city has great potential to be a national model on how to architect inclusive publicly funded economic development projects, like those funded by the Buffalo Billion, to increase equity for marginalized communities and people of color. Working

Senator Greg Ball takes fundraising private

May 14, 2016

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

Raising the Jury from the dead

May 13, 2016

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

Mayor Brown is judge, jury, and executioner

May 13, 2016

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

Candelario on the outs at BMHA as ‘document management’ contract raises eyebrows

May 11, 2016

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

Contract Compliance Committee and LP Ciminelli come to tentative agreement

May 10, 2016

BY MATT RICCHIAZZI The Contract Compliance Committee, chaired by BUILD President Charley H. Fisher and County Legislator Betty Jean Grant, has come to a tentative agreement with LP Ciminelli this morning, following a demonstration protesting the firm’s failure to meet

A primer on jury nullification, as Pigeon indictment looms

May 8, 2016

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

Contract Compliance Committee to protest LP Ciminelli

May 8, 2016

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