News - Page 22

Ethics Reform Needed in Erie & Niagara County

With numerous politicians being convicted in Albany, there has been a lot of focus on the need for ethics reform in the New York

May 5, 2016

News

HIGGINS’ Taxpayer Funded Plan Should be Derailed

Congressman Brian Higgins is urging the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority to spend $43 million to redevelop the DL&W Terminal on South Park along the

May 5, 2016

News

Tear Down the Skyway?

Eventually, we should move away from expressways inside the city limits and toward arterials with a higher speed limit than 30 mph. Concerns about

May 5, 2016

News

Special Grand Jury to be Impaneled in Pigeon Case

We have learned that State Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman is expected to impanel a special grand jury in Buffalo on Monday (May 9) with

May 5, 2016

News

Smokes Creek Conundrum Remains Unaddressed Along Smokes Creek

High priced flood insurance, erosion that eats up your back yard and government inaction are just a few of the joys associated with creekside

May 5, 2016

News

National Fuel: New York Consumers to get Rate Increase while Pennsylvanians get Decrease

National Fuel supplies natural gas to over 730,000 residential and corporate customers throughout Western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. The Williamsville, NY-based oil and

May 5, 2016

News

Schroeder Touts Watchdog Record, Hints Mayoral Run Possible

“I believe I have the right skill set to be mayor,” said Schroeder during a wide ranging interview this week in his 12th floor

April 28, 2016

News

A Libertarian View: War of the Words

If a Martian came to earth and watched what the state does when it “regulates,” she might scientifically report that the government just mugged

April 28, 2016

News

Four Year Terms for Erie County Legislators is a Bad Idea

Every 10 years a Charter Revision Commission is formed by the Erie County Legislature to review and propose changes to the Erie County Charter.

April 28, 2016

News

Steve Cohen calls on Schroeder to conduct BMHA Audit

Since this publication broke that story last month, BMHA Chairman Mike Seaman has come under fire for an alleged conflict of interest.

April 28, 2016

News

Stocker and Jacobs Gearing up for Epic 60th District Republican Battle

Republican County Clerk Chris Jacobs has released a video promoting his candidacy for the State Senate, distributed on his Facebook page and via YouTube.

April 28, 2016

News

Activist Amber Small Running Hard for Democratic Nod in 60th District

Community activist Amber Small, a relative political newcomer, is running an aggressive grassroots-oriented campaign in her bid to win the kind of support that

April 21, 2016

News

Trumping the Left

What better topic to introduce my new column in this paper than Trump’s visit to Buffalo Monday night? So there I was, in the

April 21, 2016

News

Great Lakes Water Withdrawal Scheme on Cuomo’s Desk

By James Hufnagel Later this month, and for the second time during his five years in office, Gov. Andrew Cuomo will make a decision

April 15, 2016

News

Hamister May Need More Taxpayer Money to Revive Failed Project

According to informed sources in the Buffalo development community, Mark Hamister is about $6 million short of the mark in financing for his much-hyped

April 14, 2016

News

ECC Responds to Critical Audit with Corrective Action Plan

rie Community College has filed a formal response to the Jan. 14 audit report by the state comptroller that detailed a “lax control environment”

April 14, 2016

News

For 35 Years, Gramma Mora’s Has Brought Authentic & Savory Mexican Food to Buffalo

By Frank Parlato Take a seat at Gramma Mora’s and they arrive almost immediately – homemade crispy tostada chips with freshly made tomato salsa,

April 14, 2016

News

New CEO of Buffalo Metropolitan Credit Union Started as Teller

The best way to learn a job may still be from the ground up, and the new CEO of the Buffalo Metropolitan Federal Credit

April 7, 2016

News

Dogfighting: Evil Blood Sport All Around Us

> by TONY FARINA According to the Humane Society of the United States, dog fighting is a sadistic “contest” in which two dogs—specifically bred,

April 7, 2016

News

Despite ‘suspension’ Mascia to run for reelection as a BMHA tenant elected commissioner

> by Frank Parlato Joe Mascia, 71, the disputably suspended tenant-elected Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority (BMHA) Commissioner, is running for reelection. He has filed

April 7, 2016

News

Ambitious Picture of Rev. Pridgen or Did He Not Go Far Enough?

Buffalo Councilman and Pastor of the True Bethel Baptist Church, Reverend Darius G. Pridgen has evidently created and had posted on Facebook a photo-shopped,

April 7, 2016

News

Press Release: Preliminary Statement Brief Regarding Plaintiffs:

Artvoice makes no comment on the actual case, however are posting as we received as a press release. Please see the attached Preliminary Statement

April 6, 2016

News

Comptroller Disputes BMHA $3.5M Debt Forgiveness Claim

By Matthew Ricchiazzi Buffalo Comptroller Mark Schroeder issued a letter to the Buffalo Common Council disputing the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority’s claim that it

March 31, 2016

News

Pavers In Niagara State Park An Ongoing Scandal

Two years ago this month, The Niagara Falls Reporter exposed what appeared to be a blatant case of bid-rigging perpetrated by the Saratoga Springs,

March 31, 2016

News

Readers Follow Up With Ghost Stories and Pictures

Following our publication of the picture of “Peg, the witch,” last week, a purportedly ghostly presence which appeared against the backdrop of a black

March 31, 2016

News

Crisis Deepens At ECC: Another Tuition Hike Seen As Inevitable

By Tony Farina Erie Community College is facing a bleak financial future for many reasons, not the least of which is the unauthorized pay

March 31, 2016

News

The Road to Heroin Recovery

5 Tips for the Road to Recovery Heroin is one of the hardest drugs to quit using mainly because of the extreme pain abusers

March 29, 2016

News

BMHA Audit Brings Status of $3.4 Million Debt Into Question

Last Monday a special meeting of the Common Council’s Finance Committee was held to investigate a $3.4 million Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority debt accumulated

March 24, 2016

News

Debunkers and Believers Asked to Weigh In On Ghostly Picture

A family living in the historic Oliver Street District in North Tonawanda submitted to Artvoice a photograph of their almost two-year-old daughter sitting on their

March 24, 2016

News

Three Names Proposed For The Buffalo Zoo’s Infant Gorilla

The Buffalo Zoo is inviting people to vote online for one of three names for an infant male gorilla born on Sunday, January 10 to

March 24, 2016

News

Mixed Martial Arts Promoters Have Tough Road Despite Passage

It may be bloody and highly controversial, but mixed martial arts will be coming to New York in the not too distant future, and

March 24, 2016

News

Shaky Union Support May Have Delivered Key Blow To Panepinto

It could be more than an office scandal and financial pressures that drove State Sen. Marc Panepinto’s decision two weeks ago not to seek

March 24, 2016

News

Jimmy Kemp To Speak At Conservative’s Tribute Dinner To Dad

Jimmy Kemp, son of legendary Buffalo Bills Quarterback Jack Kemp, will be the guest speaker at the Conservative Party of Erie County Conservative Forum’s

March 24, 2016

News

Complaints Against Violante No Surprise To Lawyer Representing Donatello

It was in the Sept. 3, 2013 editions of the Niagara Falls Reporter that I broke the story that one of the top prosecutors

March 24, 2016

News

Brian Meyer To Head Regional News Partnership at WBFO

Award-winning veteran journalist Brian Meyer, who has served as news director at WBFO in Buffalo since 2014, has been promoted to the position of

March 24, 2016

News

As $250 Grant for BMHA is Debated, Delinquent Debt to City Rears Head

Many BMHA tenants pay about 30 percent of their rent [about $100 per month.] The rest of the sum is subsidized by taxpayers. These

March 17, 2016

News

Snowden Seen as Trumpiest of Trumpsters, Develops Line of Campaign Button

Flamboyant and entrepreneurial Rick Snowden, who owned a nightclub and the historic Miller Mansion on Nottingham Terrace in Buffalo where he hosted several spectacular

March 17, 2016

News

Hamburg’s Quinn Eyes Panepinto Seat

Hamburg Councilman Michael Quinn, a lawyer, former ironworker and an infantry paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, has reportedly told Erie County Democratic Chairman

March 17, 2016

News

State Bureaucrats, Hamister Silent on Failed Hotel Project

The sad truth behind the state development agencies that helped push through the proposed Hamister Hotel project in Niagara Falls four years ago is

March 17, 2016

News

Great White Hunter Opens Sandwich Shop on Elmwood

Some of the menu items at the recently-opened Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches on Elmwood Avenue may lend a whole new meaning to the term

March 10, 2016

News

Flaherty, Flynn to Mix Politics, St. Patrick’s Celebration At Famed Irish Center Luncheon

Just in case you are a newcomer to these parts, we’d like to remind you that St. Patrick’s Day next Thursday (March17) is more

March 10, 2016

News

A Modest Suggestion for Change of Emblem for the National Security Agency

At Artvoice we seek to serve the interest of the people. And, as we reviewed our cover story this week, it occurred to us

March 4, 2016

News

Unkind, Bud

After waiting almost two years for the rollout of New York’s medical marijuana program, many people who have sought to use medical cannabis to

March 4, 2016

News

Delaware North Loses Yosemite Contract

News of potential import to the city of Niagara Falls broke late last year when details of an epic legal showdown at Yosemite National

March 4, 2016

News

Congratulations to Lawyers for the Arts

Over $37,000 was raised at the 5th Anniversary of the Lawyers for the Arts. The musical performance by ten bands comprised entirely of lawyers

March 4, 2016

News

State Money Flows Again, But Question Remains: What Happened?

The carpenters, all 70 of them, are back on the job at SolarCity, but more than 120 plumbers were still out as of Tuesday

March 4, 2016

News

Panepinto Ready to take on all challengers for 60th district seat

State Sen. Marc Panepinto may face a Democratic primary in the 60th District this year and if he is victorious he will likely face

March 4, 2016

News

THE CULT OF NXIVM SERIES PART 13: SHOULD THERE BE AN INVESTIGATION BY LAW ENFORCEMENT?

>BY FRANK PARLATO Frequent readers of Artvoice have seen our long running series The Cult of NXIVM. The series exposes over and over again

February 18, 2016

NXIVM

CULT OF NXIVM PART 12: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR HAREM

>BY FRANK PARLATO Keith Raniere, 55, the founder of NXIVM, keeps a harem that averages about 20 women – a few of whom come

February 11, 2016

NXIVM

CULT OF NXIVM SERIES PART 11: RANIERE HANDLES HIS HAREM AND A LOT MORE

>BY FRANK PARLATO Recap from last week: I was hired as a consultant by NXIVM, in September 2007 when the company was embroiled in

February 4, 2016

NXIVM

KING CON SHMUELI SUES OWN MOTHER, PROVING ONCE AND FOR ALL HE’S A CLASS ACT

> BY FRANK PARLATO We were shocked at the number of emails complaining that we had omitted a story about the notorious swindler and

February 4, 2016

Shmueli

‘THE RAT’ SPEAKS ABOUT ‘MOLESTER’ NXIVM FOUNDER, KEITH RANIERE

Next week we will feature shocking and lurid tales of people who were inside NXIVM. Here is an excerpt from comments one person calling

January 28, 2016

NXIVM

CULT OF NXIVM SERIES PART 10: THE LOVE CULT OF EL-SICKO

BY FRANK PARLATO When I was hired as a consultant by NXIVM, in September 2007, the company was embroiled in multiple litigations. In addition,

January 28, 2016

NXIVM

SHMUELI TO BE ARRESTED? THE POWER OF THE PRESS AND THE POLICE MAY TOPPLE THE KING CON

BY FRANK PARLATO This publication has been running an ongoing series on the notorious conman and serial defrauder, Shmuel Shmueli, who we have dubbed

January 21, 2016

Shmueli

CULT OF NXIVM PART 9: A BOILING POT OF POISON STEW

>BY FRANK PARLATO Some of our readers probably feel that over the last few months they’ve read all they need to read about Keith

January 21, 2016

NXIVM

KING CON SHMUELI: FACT OR FICTION

BY FRANK PARLATO Several readers have commented that my series on Shmuel Shmueli must be a fabrication. No one could be such a rascal.

January 14, 2016

Shmueli

CULT OF NXIVM SERIES PART8: THE RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF ENEMIES

>BY FRANK PARLATO NXIVM leader Keith Raniere made it clear that for NXIVM to thrive, its enemies must be destroyed. Lawsuits and crimi-nal indictments

January 14, 2016

NXIVM

KING CON: SHMUELI DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE

BY FRANK PARLATO Last week the notorious conman Shmuel Shmueli was evicted from a Niagara Falls luxury condo at the Parkway Condominiums on Buffalo

January 7, 2016

Shmueli

CULT OF NXIVM SERIES PART 7: “DON’T CALL ME ‘PAPA'””

BY FRANK PARLATO Every December more than a billion people celebrate the birth of Christ, a child born of immaculate conception who would change

January 7, 2016

NXIVM

KING CON SHMUEL SHMUELI CHALLENGES ISRAELI NATIONAL HERO

BY FRANK PARLATO This week in our series on that fascinating conman, Shmuel Shmueli, we go to Shmueli’s native country Israel. Shmueli, who by

December 23, 2015

Shmueli