Rational Decisions

It was announced on Apr. 29 that head coach Lindy Ruff would be back for a 13th season with the Sabres. Rumors swirled that this might have been the end of the line for the longest tenured coach in team history due to the team’s early playoffs exit.

Tax Assessments

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown outlined plans on Apr. 30 to cut residential property taxes by 2.7 percent—in spite of the city’s estimated $24 million funding gap. Anyone else wanna bet their house just got a whole lot nicer in the eyes of the city?

Gun Safety

A 46-year old Genesee County man was shot in the face on May 3 by his own father while turkey hunting, just two days after a similar case of mistaken identity led to an accidental shooting in Niagara County. Both are expected to survive.

Flaming Drinks

A Hamburg teenager was hospitalized with severe burns over half her body on May 1 after a flaming drink was spilled on her at a Fredonia house party. A 20-year old man is facing charges for mixing and spilling the highly flammable concoction.

Uncharted Territory

Congratulations New York! With Gov. David Paterson’s decree on May 4 that absent a new budget, 100,000 state workers will be furloughed starting May 17, you are about to enter a fiscal abyss the likes of which only debt disaster California has seen.

Millions of dollars in federal stimulus money awarded to Western New York health insurers, the largest of 15 grants announced on May 4 in the field of electronic record keeping. The award, which is aimed at diabetes patients, intends to make Western New York a “beacon community”—in the words of the Obama administration—for streamlining medical records.