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Niagara County police reform plan available for public review

Niagara County Legislature Chairman Becky Wydysh and Sheriff Michael Filicetti today announced the draft plan of Niagara County’s police reform and reinvention collaborative is available online for public review.  The plan has been put together by an ad hoc county

City

Parolee sentenced on promoting prostitution charge

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 43-year-old Richard S. Swiderski of Buffalo was sentenced on January 6th before Erie County Court Judge Kenneth F. Case to an indeterminate sentence of 2 to 4 years in prison. Between

City

Virginia man indicted for randomly attacking two victims

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 40-year-old Carlos Cherry of Reston, Virginia was virtually arraigned on January 5th before Erie County Court Judge Kenneth Case on an indictment charging him with one count of Assault in the

City & Region

Town of Tonawanda man indicted for attempted murder

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 30-year-old Antonio L. Taylor of Town of Tonawanda was virtually arraigned this morning before State Supreme Court Justice Christopher J. Burns on an indictment charging him with one count of Attempted

Police Beat

Teen indicted on gun charges

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 18-year-old Clifton D. Eutsey of Buffalo was arraigned this morning before Erie County Court Judge Kenneth Case on an indictment charging him with two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon

Police Beat

South Buffalo man arraigned on murder charge

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 61-year-old Michael B. Rattle of Buffalo was virtually arraigned this morning before Buffalo City Court Judge Betty Calvo-Torres on one count of Murder in the Second Degree, a Class “A-I” felony.

Opinion

SCISSORS: India clings to a failed status quo

BY DEREK SCISSORS Earlier this week, India’s Supreme Court indefinitely stayed new, important farm laws, creating a court-appointed committee to . . . do something, maybe. This has been hailed as prudent and needed to protect farmers and attacked as a

Foreign Policy

Marijuana legalization won’t curb Mexico’s drug cartels

BY RYAN C. BERG Mexico is poised to become just the third country in the world to fully legalize marijuana (after Uruguay and Canada). If legalized, the size of the country would make it the world’s largest legal cannabis market. Already, headlines are

Opinion

VIARD: Payroll tax deferral ends with a whimper

BY ALAN D. VIARD In previous posts (here and here), I discussed the Trump administration’s decision last August to allow employers to defer the Social Security payroll taxes that they would otherwise have withheld from their employees’ paychecks during the last four months of

Opinion

POMERLEAU: Biden should improve his corporate tax proposal

BY KYLE POMERLEAU Last week, Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won their Senate races in Georgia. Joe Biden will enter the White House on January 20 with a large Democratic majority in the House and a 50-member Democratic

Technology

What happens when the EU and Biden redesign Big Tech?

BY MARK JAMISON Some politicians, academics, and regulatory practitioners are increasingly confident that there is something wrong with the structure of Big Tech. They are equally confident that smart regulators can remold Big Tech and make things better. They are

National Headlines

Federal dollars keep California ‘swimming in money’

BY MATT WEIDINGER California Governor Gavin Newsom’s latest budget proposal released last week suggests, as one article summarized, the state is currently “swimming in money,” including “a $15 billion one-time surplus.” That’s a massive turnaround from early in the coronavirus crisis, when headlines warned California faced

Commerce

December’s jobs report and where we go from here

BY BRENT ORELL Last week, the Department of Labor released the final employment report of the Trump administration, and the news there, much like all the news these days, was not good. For months, I’ve written that the key to getting the economy

White House

Will Biden’s embrace of industrial policy pay off?

BY JAMES PETHOKOUKIS Joe Biden wants more government intervention in the American economy. And not just cutting checks to people. Biden favors a national industrial policy, what his “build back better” campaign agenda describes as a “comprehensive manufacturing and innovation strategy” which “will marshall

Foreign Policy

China’s economy probably shrank in 2020

BY DEREK SCISSORS The Chinese Communist Party appreciates American media praise. Yes, China halted COVID-19 and engineered a clear economic recovery. But the party has always denied or distorted major mistakes. Last year it lied about initial virus spread and, consequently, about