Month: January 2018

The late M&T Bank CEO Robert Wilmers was as close as one could come to reigning over Western New York as its titular monarch.  The installation of Rene Jones as Wilmers’ successor at the Bank is of no small consequence

Yesterday, The Buffalo News hosted its annual prospectus gala at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens on Transit Road in Williamsville. Sources liken the event to Cape Town in the 1980s, under apartheid.  Attendees report that there may have been one or two minorities in

Programing executives at NBC want Megyn Kelly to manage and produce a second hour of its flagship morning program, Today — and they want her to get political. The network’s executives think that they are underutilizing Kelly, who is one of the nation’s preeminent

Political operatives close to Governor Andrew Cuomo say that he is worried this election year, and particularly worried about a lesser known challenger whose background, credentials, and reputation could soundly defeat him on the left. The potential gubernatorial challenger is

This year’s Top 5 Criminal Defense Attorneys have been released, ranked annually by The Chronicle.  If you need them, these are the top guys in town to turn to — if you can afford them.  This year, Vacco is ranked number one (despite

If political chatter is any indication, support for Senator Chuck Schumer is falling precipitously following a federal government shutdown that stems from Schumer’s ‘procedural objection,’ effectively filibustering a vote on the budget.  Schumer is demanding that immigration laws are liberalized

Billionaire B. Thomas Golisano, the founder and chairman of Paychex, the Rochester area firm valued at more than $25 billion, is open to merger talks with Buffalo based M&T Bank, whose market capitalization stands around $28 billion, a source familiar

Governor Andrew Cuomo is making a strong play for Western New York in his third reelection effort, even as former County Executive Joel Giambra and other Western New Yorkers consider gubernatorial bids.  That he recently decided to retain Lt. Governor

Observers predict that the high profile anti-corruption activist, Joe Mascia, will run for State Senate on the Conservative or Tea Party line, in an effort to thwart the reelection of freshman Republican Senator Chris Jacobs.  When Jacobs was County Clerk,

Former two-term Erie County Executive Joel Giambra is running for Governor of New York with a plan to consolidate county and municipal governments.  Giambra has long evangelized regionalism — an issue that has defined his political career.  It’s a vision

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has finally made it clear that he intends to run for reelection. Last year there had been talk among the Governor’s operatives that a safer play for Cuomo’s ultimate goal — the White House in

A source close to Democratic Party Headquarters says that Chairman Jeremy Zellner and the Executive Committee are increasingly losing confidence in Senator Tim Kennedy following revelations that Western New York’s only Democrat in the State Senate has taken $5,400 from

Residents of the Town of Tonawanda are calling on Assemblyman Robin Schimminger to resign his office, following revelations that he has taken more than $27,000 from the nation’s largest opioid dealers — more than nearly every other member of the

When freshman Senator Rob Ortt, a Republican of North Tonawanda, sent out a mailer to supporters last week lambasting the the Cuomo administration’s film industry tax credit, he probably thought that he was speaking to a receptive audience. But the

Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch, the owners of Koch Industries, are the founders and funders of a number of conservative and libertarian political organizations, and credited with swinging control of the House of Representatives in 2010. This year, when it

When the City Council voted last month to ask the state to improve its designs for a proposed reconstruction of the Scajaquada Expressway through Delaware Park, Joel Feroleto — who represents the Delaware District — was the only person to

Senator Tim Kennedy (D-South Buffalo) is being asked by constituent groups to return $5,400 in campaign contributions that he has accepted from firms that have contributed to the Nation’s opioid epidemic. Kennedy has accepted money from Allergan and Pfizer.  Allergan

Betty Jean Grant may be retiring from the County Legislature (a body that she once chaired), but her supporters know she isn’t going anywhere.  With the sheer force of her honest, humble, unwavering style, she has earned greater esteem in