While the shock of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that he wants to build a state-owned “lodge” (read hotel) on Goat Island in the Niagara Falls State Park is still sinking in with many local residents, a preliminary sample of public opinion so far seems to reflect growing opposition to theRead More

By Tony Farina It was a full house last Thursday at the Hyde Park Ice Pavilion for Alan Roscetti’s kickoff fundraiser in his campaign for Niagara Falls City Court judge. Roscetti, a 37-year-old Niagara County public defender and private practice attorney, is running for the seat currently held by JudgeRead More

BY PAUL WOLF, ESQ. The recent convictions of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos provide a great inside view of how campaign cash and political corruption meet. A key player in both trials was a http://southbuffalonews.com0http://southbuffalonews.com year old billionaire named Leonard Litwin who owns and buildsRead More

Gov. Andrew Cuomo rode into Niagara Falls this week full of promises about using state funds from his Buffalo Billion Squared Initiative in his proposed 2017 budget to reclaim underused and vacant property near the state park, an investment he says that will pay dividends for the city. While itRead More

With key members of his staff under indictment, a potential $3.5 billion budget deficit looming, various ill-considered initiatives like free college tuition and selling liquor in movie theaters going over like lead balloons, and being increasingly at odds with a state legislature scratching and clawing to maintain its own prerogativesRead More

It took a lot of guts. Last week on Friday, Niagara Falls resident Ken Cosentino stood up at the end of a presentation given by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s representative, Empire State Development’s Sr. VP Sam Hoyt, in Council Chambers at Niagara Falls City Hall, and spelled out, in no uncertainRead More

A Roman Catholic priest who is proposing to locate what he terms a “not-for-profit restaurant,” run by volunteers, serving low cost meals to low income residents and free meals to veterans, is running into stiff resistance from Mayor Dyster and a self-appointed business group that calls itself Pine Avenue RedevelopmentRead More

When Richard Nixon left office some 45 years ago, he was spared criminal prosecution thanks to a presidential pardon issued by his successor, Gerald Ford. To the best of our knowledge, John Ceretto has received no such pardon from the outgoing Barack Obama. So why isn’t Ceretto being investigated forRead More

Following in the footsteps of his predecessor George Maziarz, Senator Robert Ortt was named last week to the state senate’s powerful Standing Committee on Energy and Telecommunications, or Energy Committee, for short. “The (Energy Committee) oversees the development of legislation and policy related to energy and communications sectors. Committee membersRead More

The Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center’s marquee event, the Premier, was a star-studded success last Saturday night at the Seneca Niagara Casino, attracting close to 1,000 people who clearly had a wonderful time contributing and mingling with some of the area’s biggest names as well as many guests from theRead More

Oblivious to the fact that most have “had it up to here” with his failed policies, and as a dress rehearsal for his run for the White House in a couple of years, Gov. Andrew Cuomo hit the road this week carrying his “Happy Days are here again, the skyRead More

It is a special night. The annual black tie gala sponsored by the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center’s Foundation will be held Saturday at the Seneca Niagara Casino, and will honor two of the area’s best, a medical professional and a veteran lawyer who have distinguished themselves with their contributionsRead More

“Could only happen in Niagara Falls!” That’s what people were saying this week after Councilman Charles Walker – who is still dealing with four misdemeanor charges brought by the state attorney general for allegedly failing to file campaign finance reports – was elected to either his third or fourth two-yearRead More

As part of the implementation of the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly called “Obamacare”, an online insurance exchange was created to enable New York residents to purchase health insurance from private insurers participating in the new internet marketplace. Over 3.3 million New Yorkers purchased health insurance from “NewRead More

      Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster won a third term in 2015, but barely.       Dyster, who had been harshly criticized by former Council President Glenn Choolokian on his handling of city finances and the secretive Hamister hotel project among other development broken promises, defeated Choolokian by aRead More

Finally, something is being done about the stench coming from Albany, and we’re not talking about the recent indictments of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aides. Six years after Cuomo and his NYS Parks commissioner Rose Harvey came into office, 54 large capacity cesspools (LCCs) containing human filth, among 16 NewRead More

      “The citizens of Niagara Falls would be hard-pressed to find a better candidate for a seat on the City Court bench than Alan Roscetti,” says longtime pharmacist Robert Kendzia when asked about the young man’s plans to run for an expected open seat next year on CityRead More

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, through his associates at State Parks and the New York Power Authority, sometime over the past week perpetrated an act of such petty vindictiveness and blatant contempt for Niagara Falls that we thought it appropriate to come up with a special name for his attitude towards us.Read More

There’s not much I can say about the Buffalo Bills that I haven’t said before many times in numerous articles dating back many years, long before the Buffalo sportswriters finally got around to writing the obvious.    I’ll sum it up this way:  the organization stinks. Throw out the four SuperRead More

  A last-minute budget amendment giving hefty pay raises to two appointees of the GOP majority of the Niagara County Legislature is coming under heavy fire today from Minority Leader Dennis Virtuoso of Niagara Falls. Virtuoso told the Niagara Falls Reporter that the raises pushed through by the majority inRead More