NIAGARA FALLS REPORTER

The Falls' Only Locally Owned Newspaper
To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. August 31 - September 7, 2010
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EDITORIAL

TRAIN TO NOWHERE
Well, that tears it. Last week Mayor Paul Dyster and the weak-kneed City Council that services him went ahead and committed $44 million to build a new train station in a lonely, isolated corner of one of the city's worst neighborhoods.

LEAD STORIES

AL COPPOLA CITES THOMPSON RECORD IN CONTEST TO RETAIN STATE SENATE SEAT
ANALYSIS By Mike Hudson
For former state Sen. Al Coppola, running for the 60th District Senate seat he won and lost back in 2000 has become almost second nature. After defeating Niagara County Legislator Renae Kimble in a special election held in February of that year, he lost the seat just seven months later to Byron Brown, who went on to become the mayor of Buffalo.

HOMEOWNERS HERE OVERWHELMINGLY OPPOSE LOCAL HISTORIC DISTRICT STATUS
ANALYSIS By Mike Hudson
Just as Cayuga Island residents did earlier this year, property owners on Orchard Parkway and Chilton Avenue have overwhelmingly rejected a harebrained scheme cooked up by Mayor Paul Dyster and "City Planner" Tom DeSantis to have their streets designated as a historic district by the city.

LOCAL ANNUAL COOKING EVENT CROWNS NEW PEPPER QUEEN
By Mary LeFevre
The hubby and I attend any number of picnics, parties, reunions and graduations throughout the summer, but none as unique as the Pig Roast and Pepper Contest held at our friends' home in Cambria.

COLUMNS

WE WUZ ROBBED (AGAIN)
By Mike Hudson
I was shocked, shocked, by the City Council's release of an audit last week that showed Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp. Director John Percy spent scads of our money on food, booze, first-class airfare, massages and various and sundry other luxury goodies while living his jet-set lifestyle over there in India, Germany, England and wherever else he went.

BIGOTS OPPOSE THE MOSQUE?
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Why would Americans be reflexively skeptical and wary of Islam? We were born a Christian nation. For a thousand years, our ancestors fought a war of civilizations with Islam. In the name of Islam, Muslim fanatics massacred 3,000 of us. In our media, the names commonly associated with Islam are al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, Moqtada al-Sadr, Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khomeini, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.

TIME FOR CONGRESS TO LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE
By Jim Hightower
Only six weeks after America Speaking Out was introduced as "an unprecedented initiative to listen to the American people," ASO did not rush out to hold open policy-crafting town hall forums in places like Fargo, Fresno and Freeport. Instead, they held a closed session in the snug confines of House Minority Leader John Boehner's Capitol Hill office.

A FEW TRUE OBSERVATIONS ABOUT TOURISM
By Frank Thomas Croisdale
I have spent the bulk of the last two decades working in tourism here. With nearly 40,000 hours in, I can call myself an expert on the attractions of Niagara and the people who visit them.

SCREEN SCENE

'GET LOW' IS CHARMINGLY ECCENTRIC
By Michael Calleri
Would you like to hear what will be said about you at your funeral? In 1938, in the mountains of Tennessee lived a real-life hermit, who had once been charged with murder, but wasn't convicted. "No Damn Trespassers" read the sign on his property.



©2010 The Niagara Falls Reporter
1625 Buffalo Avenue, Suite 2A, Niagara Falls, N.Y. 14303
Phone: 716-284-5595 Fax: 716-284-5597



Publisher: Dan Cipollitti
Editor in Chief: Mike Hudson
Senior Editor: Rebecca Hudson
Design Editor: Margaret Coghlan
Contributing Editors: Michael Calleri, Frank Thomas Croisdale, Bob Kostoff
Contributor: Mary LeFevre
Advertising Director: Jim Bower