Investigative Post

The past decade have been tough times for The Buffalo News.  Declining circulation. Smaller profits. Deep cuts in the newsroom staff, resulting in less local news coverage. Things may soon become much more difficult. Alden Global Capital, regarded as the Darth Vader of newspaper chains, has made an offer to buy Lee Enterprises, whose holdings […]

Editor’s note: A version of this column appeared in Buffalo Spree. My wife recently told me of an acquaintance who was moving to California. My response: Who would want to move to California? The land of forest fires, droughts and water shortages? The same could be said of much of the West and Southwest. It’s […]

Editor’s note: A version of this column appears in the current issue of Buffalo Spree. Buffalo voters face a stark choice in November: Byron Brown or India Walton? A lot will be said between now and election day and some of it may actually involve proposals to improve the city. To prime the pump for […]

Byron Brown announced Monday he’s staying in the race for mayor as a write-in candidate, and the manner in which he did so indicates we’re in for an ugly, divisive campaign. Without mentioning her by name, he repeatedly denounced India Walton as a “radical socialist,” unfit to succeed him. “People are fearful about the future […]

India Walton is running for mayor, seeking to dethrone Byron Brown, who is seeking a record fifth term. She is far from the ideal candidate, lacking experience in government you’d like to see in a candidate seeking executive office. I mean, it’s one thing to be an inexperienced legislative backbencher, another to be managing a […]

Western New York is saddled with a lot of bad governmental bodies and departments in need of reform. Some cost a lot of money in the form of high taxes, others are simply ineffective, and still more are outright corrupt. There are some 105 units of local government in Erie and Niagara counties — that […]

Donald Trump’s presidency is about to be past tense. What should our post-Trump politics look like? Joe Biden hopes it’s a time of healing. Conciliation is in his blood and I won’t blame him for trying. But good luck with that. More than 70 million Americans voted for Trump and I question if there’s more […]

Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a column that published in the current issue of Buffalo Spree. It wasn’t long after Byron Brown was re-elected to a fourth term that talk started circulating around City Hall of a “Drive for Five.” As in, a fifth term. Talk quieted down, at least until the […]