Zeitgeist

BY TONY FARINA Gov. Andrew Cuomo came to Niagara Falls on Tuesday to officially break ground on the long-awaited Hamister hotel project in downtown Niagara Falls and he used the occasion to praise his state development team led locally by

BY MATT RICCHIAZZI One of the most accomplished political activists of his generation, former Erie County Democratic Party Chairman G. Steven Pigeon has long been a target of entrenched special interests and party hacks. Today, he is fighting for his

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

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

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

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 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

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

BY TONY FARINA We have learned that State Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman is expected to impanel a special grand jury in Buffalo on Monday (May 9) with the sole purpose of investigating former Erie County Democratic Chairman Steve Pigeon’s political

BY MARC GROMIS As the number of patients qualifying to purchase medical cannabis under New York’s program slowly rises, many are complaining about the high price of the medicine in New York.  Medical marijuana, which is not covered by health insurance,

BY JIM OSTROWSKI The older I get, the more I think that politics is a battle of the dictionaries.  Whoever has the best words, wins. The political movement I have been active in for 35 years is the contemporary revival of

BY CAROLETTE MEADOWS Eighteen year old Hutch Tech student, Austin Harig is young, bright, and talented. But for some, his youth is an unforgiving obstacle. Despite the cynics, Harig has demonstrated a wisdom far beyond his years. Harig participated in

BY MIKE HUDSON Buffalo developer Mark Hamister was given “preferred developer” status on a valuable piece of property on Rainbow Boulevard just a few hundred yards from the state park entrance for two reasons. He could build a luxurious resort

BY JIM OSTROWSKI What better topic to introduce my new column in this paper than Trump’s visit to Buffalo Monday night?  So there I was, in the press pen, literally walled off from the event with no food, no booze,

BY MATT RICCHIAZZI Congressman Brian Higgins is urging the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority to spend $43 million to redevelop the DL&W Terminal into a light rail station. That facility would only service the six-mile line that runs along Main Street

BY MATT RICCHIAZZI There are two seats up for election on the City of Niagara Falls’ school board, which will be held on May 17th. The full slate of candidates is still in flux, with a crucial filing deadline of

BY TONY FARINA Erie Community College has filed a formal response to the Jan. 14 audit report by the state comptroller that detailed a “lax control environment” established by the board of trustees that allowed college management to assume board