Dec 15
2025
Survey: A lot of Bills fans are plowed at home games
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We’re closing in on Christmas, so I’ll start out a little less heavy than usual.
A survey of fans attending NFL games found that Bills fans drink more than almost any fan base. Just shy of 16 percent of fans have at least five alcoholic beverages before and/or during games.
Put another way: Some 11,400 fans are plastered for games.
Tailgating has something to do with it. Six in Ten Bills fans drink before they enter the stadium, according to the survey.
Only the Arizona Cardinals had a higher percentage of fans boozing it up (18.5 percent) than the Bills (15.9 percent). At the other extreme, only 3.2 percent of Green Bay Packer fans consumed five or more drinks.
Then there’s the Sabres. The Athletic, which provides sports coverage for The New York Times, ranked the worst NHL general managers who have held the job for at least five seasons in recent times. The Sabres’ Kevyn Adams rated third-worst. His worst move, according to The Athletic, was trading Jack Eichel.
David Robinson of The Buffalo News reports that the Buffalo-area is losing jobs.
The decline is small – just 500 jobs total during August and September – but it is a concerning downward trend at a time when the country continues to add jobs. And it is an extension of the overall stagnation that has been occurring for most of this year, where one month’s gain has often been reversed by the next month’s loss. Since January, the region has shed an estimated 900 jobs.
Meanwhile, Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said the federal government is probably overstating employment figures nationally.
Reported The Wall Street Journal (gift link):
“Figures published so far show that the economy has added about 40,000 jobs a month since April, the real number could be something more like a loss of 20,000 jobs a month, Powell said.
Charlie Specht, in his Buffalo Muckraker, takes Erie County Sheriff John Garcia to task for the “consistent pattern of the Sheriff’s Office denying public access to records.” Indeed, Investigative Post reporters find Garcia’s office just about the least transparent government entity in Western New York. It’s not just the reluctance to release public records, but the refusal to even return phone calls placed by reporters.
Mayor-elect Sean Ryan wants the region’s foundations to help fund revitalization efforts. Funds could be targeted for housing and neighborhood development, among other priorities. The approach makes sense on one hand, but foundations are already being pressed by nonprofits to help compensate for a loss in federal funds. There’s only so much money to go around.
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik was hoping to snare the GOP nomination for governor without a primary fight, but fellow Trumper Bruce Blakeman has announced his candidacy. The Nassau County executive is a longtime buddy of the president, who at this point is staying neutral. Blakeman’s track record includes refusing to lower the American flag to half-mast when Jimmy Carter died. In other words, a class act.
New York holds its presidential primary too late to make much of a difference. Lawmakers have submitted a bill to move the primary date up to be included in Super Tuesday, a pivotal date on the campaign calendar.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomThe Trump administration is poised to make it even less attractive to travel to the United States.
Tourists to the United States would have to reveal their social media activity from the last five years, under new Trump administration plans.
The mandatory new disclosures would apply to the 42 countries whose nationals are currently permitted to enter the US without a visa, including longtime US allies Britain, France, Australia, Germany and Japan.
In a notice published on Tuesday, the US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) said it would also require any telephone numbers used by visitors over the same period, and any email addresses used in the last decade, as well as face, fingerprint, DNA and iris biometrics. It would also ask for the names, addresses, birthdates and birthplaces of family members, including children.
The requirements do not apply to Canadians, but they’re already staying away in large numbers.
We reported six weeks ago about plans to step up surveillance of travelers entering the United States and Michael Wooten of WKBW 7 News produced a follow-up story last week.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Trump’s Justice Department has instructed the FBI to draw up a list of domestic terrorist groups.
What makes one a domestic terrorist?
According to the DOJ, it involves the use or threat of violence to express “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality” and “adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity.”
The First Amendment be damned.
There’s scant mention of militia, white supremacist and the like, who are responsible for most of the nation’s political violence.
As The Guardian puts it: About 56,000 people control three times as much wealth as half of humanity. The story’s graphics drive home the point.
Given Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza and Trump’s murderous attacks on fishing boats and pending war in Venezuela, John Lennon’s Xmas song is especially poignant.
