Articles by: Niagara Reporter-

Will AI Boom Bypass Niagara, While It Ignites Elsewhere?

Will AI Boom Bypass Niagara, While It Ignites Elsewhere?

Data Campus, Featured, Niagara Falls January 24, 2024 at 9:57 am

While the City of Niagara Falls has stalled a proposed Data Center with a $1.5 billion investment by Urbacon, one of the world’s largest data center developers, and NFR, the city’s largest landowner, other areas in the country, are seeing the need and taking advantage of the AI boom. AnotherRead More

Understanding Gross Income: Expert Advice from Michael S. Gawel, CPA, JD

Understanding Gross Income: Expert Advice from Michael S. Gawel, CPA, JD

Featured, Gawel January 18, 2024 at 10:19 pm

By Michael S. Gawel, CPA, JD I was at Wilbur’s Friday night enjoying a cold PBR and someone asked me, “Mike, what Income do I have to report on my Tax Return?” My simple answer was ALL. Gross income for Federal Income Tax purposes means all income from whatever source,Read More

Urbacon’s Involvement in Niagara Falls Data Center a Good Sign for the City

Urbacon’s Involvement in Niagara Falls Data Center a Good Sign for the City

Data Campus, Niagara Falls January 18, 2024 at 10:14 pm

The proposal of the Niagara Digital Campus, a $1.5 billion data center, allows the city to compete with the big cities in the world of big tech and AI advancements. The project has two of the three main ingredients needed to succeed. The developer, Urbacon, is a successful data centerRead More

Will Niagara Falls Mayor Reject NFR’s Data Center as AI Demand Soars?

Will Niagara Falls Mayor Reject NFR’s Data Center as AI Demand Soars?

Data Campus, Featured January 15, 2024 at 8:31 pm

Niagara Falls Redevelopment Reveals $1.5 Billion Data Center Plan Niagara Falls Redevelopment (NFR) recently revealed a site plan for the first phase of its ambitious $1.5 billion data center project, coined the Niagara Digital Campus. Despite this unveiling, Mayor Robert Restaino has opposed the proposal despite a global surge inRead More

Deciphering Tax Dependents: Expert Advice from Michael S. Gawel, CPA, JD

Deciphering Tax Dependents: Expert Advice from Michael S. Gawel, CPA, JD

Featured, Gawel December 27, 2023 at 1:20 pm

By Michael S. Gawel, CPA, JD Dependency? Who can be claimed as a dependent? Who can claim that person as a dependent? A dependent must be a person, not your dog cat or 56 Chevy. A dependent is an individual who is the taxpayer’s qualifying child or qualifying relative forRead More

John Gross

John Gross Bids Final Farewell

Community News, Local News December 23, 2023 at 4:50 pm

By Tony Farina “There goes another legend,” commented noted Buffalo defense attorney Joel Daniels when he heard of the passing of Niagara Falls plumbing contractor John Gross who died unexpectedly last Monday, Dec. 19, at Mount St. Mary’s Hospital, at the age of 87. John Gross served two different jailRead More

This photo was taken at the Riviera Theater at the cash presentation to Twin Cities Community Outreach from Batavia Downs Gaming & Hotel and 21 local restaurants.  From left are Batavia CEO Henry Wojtaszek, Legislators Rich Andres, Jesse Gooch, Twin Cities’ Bobbie Seekins and Linda Finikin, Legislator Randy Bradt, and North Tonawanda Councilmen Joe Lavey and Joe Marranca.

Riviera Event Raises Nearly $8,000 for Community Outreach       

Local News, Niagara County December 23, 2023 at 4:40 pm

By Tony Farina The Batavia Downs-sponsored holiday movie event on Dec. 13 at the Riviera Theater in North Tonawanda was a big success and along with 21 local restaurants who donated 10 percent of their proceeds that night, cash totaling more than $7,500 was presented to Twin Cities Community OutreachRead More

How Niagara Falls Can Benefit From The Remarkable Demand For Data Centers

How Niagara Falls Can Benefit From The Remarkable Demand For Data Centers

Data Campus, Featured, Local News December 21, 2023 at 10:42 pm

The Niagara Digital Campus is an innovative, $1.48 billion technology and data center hub that will bring thousands of jobs and cutting-edge technological infrastructure to the City of Niagara Falls. The joint project between Niagara Falls Redevelopment (NFR) and Urbacon—a Toronto-based developer of state-of-the-art data centers—is privately funded and willRead More

Demystifying Your Filing Status: Expert Advice from Michael S. Gawel, CPA, JD

Demystifying Your Filing Status: Expert Advice from Michael S. Gawel, CPA, JD

Gawel December 10, 2023 at 2:52 pm

MICHAEL S. GAWEL, CPA, JD NIAGARA BOOKKEEPING & ACCOUNTING FILING STATUS After entering your Social Security number choosing your filing status is the first thing all taxpayers must do. There are five choices: single, married filing jointly, married filing separate, head of household and surviving spouse. Single is for anRead More

WROTB’s Batavia Downs Sponsors Riviera Theatre Holiday Event

WROTB’s Batavia Downs Sponsors Riviera Theatre Holiday Event

Community News, Featured, Local News December 8, 2023 at 12:39 pm

WROTB Revenue Helps Support Local Communities By Tony Farina The Christmas spirit has arrived and there will be a very special holiday event at the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda on Wednesday night, Dec. 13, at 7 when Batavia Downs sponsors a screening of the 1947 Christmas Classic “Miracle onRead More

Events Center Belongs West of Casino; Still Time for Two-Project Solution

Events Center Belongs West of Casino; Still Time for Two-Project Solution

Data Campus, Featured, Local News December 8, 2023 at 12:30 pm

By Tony Farina While Mayor Robert Restaino narrowly won re-election with a 3.5 to 1 vote advantage, he still appears committed publicly to building his events center arena on 10 acres of land the city will have to purchase from NFR on John Daly Blvd. if the city wins theRead More

Seneca Snub: Restaino’s Centennial Plan Favors Nation Over Local Businesses

Seneca Snub: Restaino’s Centennial Plan Favors Nation Over Local Businesses

Local News, Niagara Falls November 29, 2023 at 8:35 pm

By Richard Luthmann Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino is a lawyer and former judge. But he sure isn’t acting like one with the Centennial Park deal. Centennial Park and Events Center Proposal Centennial Park is a planned 7,000-seat events center and a small adjacent park. Restaino began an eminent domainRead More

Uncovering Tax Benefits and Avoiding Pitfalls: Expert Advice from Michael S. Gawel

Uncovering Tax Benefits and Avoiding Pitfalls: Expert Advice from Michael S. Gawel

Featured, Gawel, Local News November 27, 2023 at 4:45 pm

MICHAEL S. GAWEL, CPA, JD My name is Michael S. Gawel and I have been a Certified Public Accountant since 1980. I have a BBA in Accounting and a JD from SUNY @ Buffalo School of Law. I am going to write a weekly tax advice column for the NiagaraRead More

Family Member Defends Steve Pigeon Against Niece’s ‘False’ Abuse Allegations; Calls Sister ‘Pathological Liar’

Family Member Defends Steve Pigeon Against Niece’s ‘False’ Abuse Allegations; Calls Sister ‘Pathological Liar’

A Miscarriage of Justice, Erie County, Local News November 24, 2023 at 5:02 pm

Now, a relative of Pigeon has commented after reading Coercive Plea Bargain? Pigeon Chooses Eight Months Over Gambling Life in Prison: By a Relative of Both Pigeon and His Sister I’m a relative of Steve’s by marriage, and he is still a friend of my family and myself. His niece,Read More

Echoes of Injustice: Steve Pigeon’s Case Mirrors Sebold’s Wrongful Accusation

Echoes of Injustice: Steve Pigeon’s Case Mirrors Sebold’s Wrongful Accusation

A Miscarriage of Justice, Featured November 20, 2023 at 10:15 pm

By Marie White Sebold’s Apology Too Late In 2021, Alice Sebold, the best-selling author of the memoir “Lucky” and the novel “The Lovely Bones,” issued an apology to Anthony J. Broadwater, a man she had wrongly accused of raping her in 1981 – 39 years after the fact.  Broadwater spentRead More

The Meridian Centre is an arena located in downtown St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Its seating capacity is 5,300 for hockey games, 5,580 for standing room, 6,000 for concerts, and 4,030 for basketball games. An arena its exact size would fit on land already owned by the city.

Niagara’s Game-Changer: New Arena + Digital Campus to Boost Economy, Skips Eminent Domain Hassle

Data Campus, Local News November 16, 2023 at 7:18 pm

Bold Vision: Leveraging State Land for Event Center, Tech Campus to Spur Growth! With the Mayoral election over, Niagara Falls can now turn its attention to the “two-project solution” as a potential avenue for economic growth and development in the city. This solution aims to provide residents with an arena,Read More

Former Attorney General Sues State for Wrongful Action In Dismantling WROTB and ‘Neutering’ Outlying Counties

Former Attorney General Sues State for Wrongful Action In Dismantling WROTB and ‘Neutering’ Outlying Counties

Community News, Featured, Local News, News November 13, 2023 at 8:35 pm

By Tony Farina Former State Attorney General Dennis Vacco of the Buffalo law firm of Lippes Mathias, is still awaiting responses from the state on the lawsuit he filed in September on behalf of several member counties challenging the language in the state budget in May that, in Vacco’s words,Read More

Coercive Plea Bargain? Pigeon Chooses Eight Months Over Gambling Life in Prison

Coercive Plea Bargain? Pigeon Chooses Eight Months Over Gambling Life in Prison

A Miscarriage of Justice, Featured, Local News November 11, 2023 at 9:45 pm

In a dramatic turn of events, G. Steven Pigeon faced a harrowing decision in the face of serious sexual abuse charges. With the risk of a life sentence looming over him, Pigeon grappled with a gut-wrenching choice: accept a plea deal for a crime he insists he didn’t commit, orRead More

In Race Too Close to Call, Restaino Leads Cain by Thin Margin as Absentee Votes are Counted

In Race Too Close to Call, Restaino Leads Cain by Thin Margin as Absentee Votes are Counted

Elections 2023 November 8, 2023 at 10:51 am

Restaino’s Alliance with the Conservative Party May Have Secured Win Democrat Mayor Robert Restaino has a small lead over Republican Carl Cain in the hotly contested Niagara Falls mayoral election. As of press time, Restaino leads by slightly over 200 votes, with affidavit and absentee ballots yet to be counted.Read More

Restaino’s Pre-Election Blitz: Clever Campaigning or Abuse of Power?

Restaino’s Pre-Election Blitz: Clever Campaigning or Abuse of Power?

Local News, Niagara Falls November 7, 2023 at 6:53 am

In the crunch before election day, Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino displayed a blend of political savvy and desperation. His pre-election tactics were transparent, something he has not been during his four years as mayor. Borrowing the taxpayer-funded city’s emergency alert text system – which reaches residents throughout Niagara Falls,Read More

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