Timing

Just in time for election day, Antoine Thompson is in hot water over an Oct. 21 state report highlighting shady contributions he and five other state senators received from a company seeking casino rights in Queens. Thompson has since pleaded ingnorance and returned the $8,600.

Elderly Entitlements

So when Carl Paladino proposed a $20 billion cut to a bloated government run social welfare program on Oct. 25, take a wild guess which one he targets. If you said Medicaid, DING DING DING. The most politically expedient targets, everyone knows poor people don’t vote, unlike you know who.

Refrigerator Awards

The EPA was in town on Oct. 26 to grant the HSBC Center with its’ prestigious Energy Star designation, an award given to buildings that consume 30% less energy than similar structures. Just think how efficient it’ll be in 2013 with all those lights turned off if HSBC Bank decides to pack up and leave.

The Big Payback

After years of seeing our friends and relatives flee in droves for the Sun Belt, this is just a little too twee for words. On Oct. 26 CNBC ranked Buffalo #2 on their “Best Cities to Relocate” list, citing our high quality of life and low joblessness. Let’s hope those quitters don’t come crawling back.

Trouble Brewing

Already mired in a wasted Bills season, Buffalo fans’ hopes rested on the “good” team coming through like so many seasons before. However the Buffalo Sabres are off to a sluggish 3-6-1 start, capped by a 6-3 defeat to Philly on Oct. 26. As if we needed more reasons to drink with winter just around the corner.

Megawatts of low-cost power—generated via hydroelectricity—approved by the New York Power Authority on Oct. 27 as an enticement for a proposed Verizon data center in the Niagara County town of Somerset. The estimated $1 billion project would bring 145 jobs to the area, or roughly 5,8 jobs per megawatt. Each megawatt is enough power for approximately 1,000 homes.