Gov. Andrew Cuomo came to Niagara Falls on Tuesday to officially break ground on the long-awaited Hamister hotel project in downtown Niagara Falls and he used the occasion to praise his state development team led locally by Howard Zemsky and Sam Hoyt and paint a rosy picture of the successRead More

  It turns out that nearly everything City Planner Tom DeSantis told the mainstream media last week in connection with a radioactive waste dump on North Avenue was incorrect, and Tuesday he was back peddling in the Niagara Gazette after an investigation by that paper found that the reporting onRead More

Despite Big State Spending, Start-Up NY Falling Miles Short on Jobs Almost lost in the unbelievable feeding frenzy over the indictment last week of political operative Steve Pigeon was the news that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s highly-touted job-creation program Start-Up NY has created more tax-free zones than jobs. Empire State Development,Read More

French cement maker Lafarge, which has several Western New York locations including Buffalo and Niagara Falls, entered into deals with armed groups in Syria, including the Islamic State, to protect its business interests in the country, according to the French daily newspaper Le Monde. According to Le Monde in aRead More

  It all seems so long ago that the state and the administration of Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster announced with great fanfare that the Hamister Group based in Buffalo had been selected for a $25.3 million downtown development project at 310 Rainbow Blvd. that would include an upscale hotel,Read More

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 $35.7 million Niagara Falls hotel project on Rainbow Blvd. that was trumpeted by state and local officials more than three years ago as the city’s bestRead More

Former Councilman Michael Gawel says it is time for new leadership at the helm of the Niagara Falls City Republican Executive Committee and he will be challenging current GOP Chairman Vince Sandonato for the top job at the reorganization meeting in September. Gawel, who has been a highly visible figureRead More

  It was nearly four years ago that people flocked to Niagara Falls and watched from around the world as aerial daredevil Nik Wallenda made his historic wire walk over the roaring waters of the Niagara River and put the cataract city on the world stage for a brief moment. Read More

In perhaps his finest hour in his first year as a Niagara Falls city councilman, Kenneth Tompkins announced Wednesday night there will be a Memorial Day Parade this year only hours after the Veterans Memorial Commission had announced the parade had been suspended due to lack of funding.  And theRead More

The Niagara Falls Republican Leadership is planning to honor their lone elected representative in city government, Councilman Kenny Tompkins, on Thursday, April 7, from 6 p.m. to 8 p. m. at Gagsters, 708 E. Market Street. Tompkins, who campaigned on taking a business approach to running city government, has alreadyRead More

Our friends at Liberty Tax Service have sent us a reminder that the deadline for filing a tax return to get a refund that might be due is April 19th this year as the IRS has extended the filing deadline from April 15 because of Emancipation Day. According to EdwinRead More

It may be bloody and highly controversial, but mixed martial arts will be coming to New York in the not too distant future, and the popular sport will then face the challenge of lining up promoters to meet the re-quirements contained in the bill passed by the Assembly this weekRead More

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 a second-term in the 60th District only days after the Erie County Democratic Committee endorsed him for re-election. Political sources tell this newspaper that his unionRead More

It was in the Sept. 3, 2013 editions of the Niagara Falls Reporter that I broke the story that one of the top prosecutors in the Niagara County District Attorney’s Office was threatening to bring legal action against the county on her claims that she had been discriminated against inRead More

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 senior director of news and public affairs for WNED/WBFO where he will oversee a new regional collaboration that will focus on Great Lakes reporting. Chief ProgramRead More

The state audit released on Wednesday that found that the Niagara Falls Water Board and Water Authority had millions of dollars in excess funds sitting around as the city was looking for help to repair water lines on 72nd Street caught Council President Andrew Touma by complete surprise. “I wasRead More

  The sad truth behind the state development agencies that helped push through the proposed Hamister Hotel project in Niagara Falls four years ago is that silence is indeed golden, because despite all the talk about the city capitalizing on an opportunity too good to pass up, nothing has happenedRead More

Flamboyant and entrepreneurial Rick Snowden, who owned a nightclub and the historic Miller Mansion on Nottingham Terrace in Buffalo where he hosted several spectacular parties between 2004 and 2010 – many of them to benefit local charities – has now become one of Donald Trump’s most ardent and visible supporters.Read More

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 than a celebration of Irish and Irish American culture, it is the starting point of the political season and that’s particularly true this year with DARead More

Frank “Duke” Bayger worked at a bowling alley while attending high school, worked as a dishwasher and waiter at the famed Roycroft Inn in East Aurora, worked as a bartender at the Town Casino nightclub in Buffalo, and won a $12.5 million defamation judgment for the late Niagara Falls restaurateurRead More