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Scorecard: The Week's Winners & Losers

The Week's Winners & Losers

Showcase Showdowns

Thanks to an agreement between Niagara tourism officials and CBS Television, starting Jan. 27 The Price Is Right once again began featuring travel packages to Niagara Falls, NY, among its prizes. Contestants compete by having to guess the number of vacant storefronts without going over. Take that, Plinko.

Human Psychology

The NFTA held the first of five planned public forums on Jan. 27 to address the proposed service cuts. The blowback from riders understandably was fierce; faced with calls to save routes, officials say a 25-cent fare increase may be back on the table. Does anyone else think this was part of their plan all along?

Animal Rights

On Jan. 27 John Faso, the embattled director of the Niagara County SPCA, was removed after weeks of protest by animal lovers over the euthanization of several hundred dogs and cats. In unrelated news, an estimated 23 million non-cute animals in America (chickens, precisely) were killed yesterday for food.

Exit Strategies

After four months of mostly harmonious relations with City Hall, on Jan. 31 the Occupy Buffalo movement’s contract to camp in Niagara square expired, leaving the protest’s future in jeopardy. Look, it was a valiant effort to change the system, guys, but it might be time to find something else to occupy…

Random Potshots

New England quarterback Tom Brady—completely unprompted—dropped a random shot on Buffalo during Super Bowl press on Feb. 1, claiming Buffalo hotels were “not the nicest places”. Granted. But what is this guy’s problem? Is winning twice a year not enough? A pox—A POX—on your knees, Tom.





By the numbers...

57

Percentage of Buffalo adults who purchased a lottery ticket—scratch-off or non-scratch-off—in the past month, according to a survey by the consumer research firm Scarborough. This ranks Buffalo tops among American cities, narrowly beating out Providence, Rhode Island (56 percent). Other upstate cities among the top included Albany (third, 51 percent) and Rochester (tied for 13th, 48 percent). The national average among adults was 39 percent. The odds of winning the jackpot of the New York State Lottery’s “Hey You Never Know” per game is approximately one chance in 175,711,536.

62

Number of New York State Senate districts the US Census and the New York State Constitution demand, according to a lawsuit filed January 31 by Democrats, who call on the courts to reject a Republican-proposed redistricting plan that would add a 63rd seat. The lawsuit alleges that Republicans, who believe a 63rd seat increases their chance of maintaining a majority in the Senate, used two different computational methods in their proposal in order to rationalize the 63rd seat—including a method that the very same Republicans had rejected as unconstitutional in 2002, when the districts were last redrawn. In their proposed reapportionment this year, Republicans have hung the number “63” on South Buffalo Democrat Tim Kennedy.


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