Film

The Upside features utterly likable performances

BY NORBERT RUG When Philip Lacasse, a quadriplegic billionaire, who was paralyzed from the neck down after a reckless paragliding adventure, played by Bryan Cranston employs an ex-convict Dell Scott, played by Kevin Hart as his caregiver, they both start

Film

Beautiful Boy tells an emotionally complicated tale of addiction

BY NORBERT RUG Beautiful Boy is centered on the two books “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction” written by David Sheff and “Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines” by Nic Sheff. The movie stars Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet,

Opinion

For homestyle breakfast, try Toast and Roast Cafe

BY NORBERT RUG Outbound: Toast and Roast Cafe: 4823 Saunders Settlement Rd, Niagara Falls, New York In my quest to try and hit as many eateries in Niagara County as I can, Donna (my wife), Ed (my buddy) and I

Media

WBEN should add Weppner to morning programming

Kathy Weppner, the former Republican nominee for Congress, has launched a podcast about current events and local politics. Weppner once hosted the weekend talkshow Kathy from Williamsville on WBEN, the local conservative talk radio station. Station managers would be wise to add

Opinion

Every season brings its own pleasures

BY NORBERT RUG Every winter, my father would shovel our back yard forming a walled dish. He would then attach our rubber hose to the laundry tubs in the basement, take the nozzle to the back yard and carefully flood

Media

Memories of Rocketship 7 and WBKW’s glory days

BY NORBERT RUG A long, long time ago, in a place that seems far, far away, many Buffalo area children, myself included, would turn on their TV sets in the morning and were greeted by a trusted friend. In 1961

Media

Baby, it’s snowflakes outside

BY NORBERT RUG The song ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside” ‘ is seen as sexist In the current #MeToo era, and is being banned by some radio stations. The radio stations have stopped playing that classic holiday song because it has

Media

KLG leaving Today Show, for NBC’s top-secret remake of Golden Girls

Longtime Today Show host and media celebrity Kathy Lee Gifford announced this morning that she will be leaving the flagship NBC program to pursue “exciting new projects” that she “couldn’t talk about yet.”  The emotional announcement was made with her co-host of a decade, Hoda

Opinion

Why not build a border wall?

BY NORBERT RUG All in all it was, just a brick in the wall. Pink Floyd, 1979. The internet is filled with pictures of refugees amassing at the U.S-Mexico border in California. But many of them haven’t been able to

Media

Buffalo News lambasted for all-White prospectus gala

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

Media

NBC wants Megyn Kelly to host a second hour on Today

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

Letter to Editor

Grant: “A few days in jail won’t kill me”

BY BETTY JEAN GRANT, County Legislator I have been told by two attorneys that the vote taken yesterday on the new train station may be illegal. Number one, they barred the taxpaying public from a meeting discussing public business even thought

Housing Authority

Brown should demolish WWII-era housing project

THE EDITORIAL BOARD The Commodore Perry Homes is a vast public housing complex that is half abandoned — with 212 apartments vacant and uninhabitable. The Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority had pursued a federal grant nearly 10 years ago to redevelop

Media

Ricchiazzi cuts ties with Parlato publications

Matthew Ricchiazzi, who retains a controlling interest in The Buffalo Chronicle, is canceling a content sharing agreement with Frank Parlato, Jr. and three of his publications, including Artvoice, The Niagara Falls Reporter, the South Buffalo News and the Lackawanna Front

Opinion

Gleed: Pay attention, this is not a democracy

BY THOMAS ERROL GLEED As of 4:30pm yesterday afternoon, Muslim Green Card holders, that is resident legal aliens from certain countries, were prohibited from reentering the country for 90 days if they happened to be traveling. They were detained at airports and prohibited