Pores

TV’s talking heads and their notoriously fragile egos are in store for a bit of a shock. On Aug. 13 WKBW became the first local station to switch to HD news broadcasts and full view of all those blots, blemishes and wrinkles. I think the make-up department is in line for a much-deserved raise.

Eye in the Sky

Facing sharp resistance from the Common Council, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown announced on Aug. 13 he will abandon his push for red light cameras and focus on installing more poilce surveillance cameras instead. Got it. You’re trading one invasion of civil liberties for another, more politically expedient, variety.

Seatbelts

Four Rochester area teens are seriously lucky to be alive after plunging their car over the edge of the Scajaquada on Aug. 13 and falling some 40 feet onto the I-190 below. Police are still investigating the cause of the crash but one thing was universally certain: that was some Evel Knieval shit there.

German Über-Marts

The city planning board approved a $1.1 million plan on Aug. 16 to build an Aldi supermarket on Buffalo’s East Side, the first non-discount and non-dollar grocery mart in the Broadway Fillmore neighborhood. Cheers to zie Germans for being willing to develop an area Wegmans wouldn’t touch.

Shooting The Messenger

A pizza delivery man was shot in the abdomen in the early morning of Aug. 16 on Buffalo’s East Side, the second time this year a bearer of pizza has been shot in the city. How low. These people bring us sweet sustinence during our most dire moments of the munchies. And all for what—$20 bucks?

Grade received (out of five) by Buffalo Schools superintendant Dr. James Williams at his performance review in May, a mark described as “competent”. Weighed down by a 47 percent graduation rate overall and 25 percent among black males, the Board of Education approved Williams’ resignation on Aug. 17.