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The wrecking crew
While Buffalo knocks down thousands of dilapidated houses, some wonder if any of the houses could be saved, and if the city has a master plan.
Alzheimer's Disease
The local chapter of the Alzheimer's Association estimates that 55,000 people in the Western New York region are currently living with the disease.
No Sporting Chance
Buffalo spends a fraction of suburban districts on interscholastic sports, denying students playing opportunities, adequate facilities and the benefits that come with sports participation. Meanwhile, playing opportunities for female athletes lag in numerous school districts in the region despite Title IX requirements.
- Coaching still a man's world, even for girls varsity teams
- Gap narrowed, but not closed
- Getting there is half the battle
- Union contract keeps city facilities off-limits at night
- Uneven playing fields
- Benefits go beyond the field
- Facilities, funds put phys-ed at disadvantage
- At nonpublic schools, a way of life
- No Sporting Chance
Rx for Danger
Prescription drug abuse has exploded nationally, and particularly in Western New York, leading to addiction, overdoses and deaths.
- Families seek system to track drug use
- Concerns aired over prescription drug crisis
- State eyes tough reporting system for dispensing of prescription drugs
- System sought to track painkillers
- Defense points to 'uncharted seas' in Falls doctor's painkiller case
- Falls doctor indicted on charges of illegally dispensing meds
- Two women arrested on prescription drugs charges
- Schumer taking aim at painkiller abuse
- Study finds multiple painkiller prescriptions
- Concord widow seized in raid as major pain-pill dealer
The Houses That City Hall Built
Government subsidies for newly built houses sometimes rival what homeowners themselves pay. But foreclosures undermine the effort to restore neighborhoods through new housing. And some worry about the impact on older neighborhoods the new homeowners have left.
- The houses that City Hall built
- Tearing down, building up homes in Buffalo
- Plan to build 50 rentals on East Side is dead
- The Housing Shuffle
- Rochester ends building of subsidized new homes
- Michigan Avenue pastor is one of city's top developers
- Housing upgrades — at any cost
- Sycamore residents devoted to East Side revitalization
- Developers critical of city regulations calling for soil remediation
- Living the dream in Rebecca Park
Who's Flying Your Airplane?
With the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407, Buffalo learned the hard way that there's at least one gaping hole in the U.S. aviation safety record: the regional airlines.
Where the Money Went
City Hall lending to businesses dropped by almost half, but barbershops and beauty salons are among the biggest recipients of grant money handed out for economic development.
One Sunset: The Deal That Brought Down BERC
Buffalo's economic development agency poured thousands of dollars in public money and untold hours of staffers' time propping up a failing - but politically popular - restaurant.
Buffalo's Abandoned Homes: Forgotten, But Not Gone
Buffalo's vacant housing crisis, decades in the making, has exploded in recent years and streets like Ruhland Avenue and nearby Harmonia Street are the poster children in the war against it.
Public Pensions: Cashing In
Some firefighters, police officers and school superintendents were able to retire with annual pensions bigger than their base pay. Overtime or unused vacation and sick time inflated their salaries in their final years on the job.
- No crime too big to take away a public pension
- Politics plus pensions equals big bucks
- Overtime pays big dividends when some WNY police officers retire
- Police chiefs share in big retirement benefits
- Overtime is endemic in Buffalo Fire Department
- Loophole allows educators to collect both salaries and pensions
- Waiver isn't the only way around income cap
- New York State educators hit pay dirt with pensions
- Gipson’s salary-pension double dipping lacks state authorization
- Government double-dippers collect pensions while on the job
Children of Poverty
In Buffalo, one of the poorest cities in the United States, poverty is severe. It's pervasive. And children have become its biggest victims.
- A model for successful schools
- Looking for a blueprint to fight poverty in Buffalo
- Program offers the gift of literacy for Buffalo’s babies
- Day in, day out: trying to fill the emptiness
- Looking for a way out: One family's struggle on the East Side
- Dramatic turnaround produced model student
- School offers a safe haven for learning, but no easy answers
- Poverty line numbers don’t add up in 2008
- Charity Vogel: Poverty shrinks life’s choices
The Downfall of Brian Davis
Writing a bad check for $3,595 to cover back rent at the failing One Sunset restaurant was just the start of Brian Davis' problems.
Charitable Foundations: The Fortunes' Favorites
Private foundations come through for their favorite causes, like the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. But that doesn't always bode well for agencies serving the poor or fighting crime in distressed neighborhoods.
The Child Porn Pipeline
After a spike in the number of local men charged with child pornography, The News followed a trail to Russia. The young victims are apparent on the streets of St. Petersburg, where pornographers are often spotted recruiting homeless children.
- Wife turns child porn addict over to a system overwhelmed and ill-equipped
- A plea to other addicts: 'You will regret not paying attention to this message.'
- An addiction he couldn't break away from
- Abused children get help at Finger Lakes facility
- Dmitry's story: Betrayal and despair
- 16 local men arrested in Regpay case
- Making a million a month from the suffering of children
- United States is a major distributor of free child pornography, too
- U.S. Web servers oppose plan to get child porn off the Internet
- Russia and U.S. bound in illegal cyber-trafficking of chid pornography
Downsizing the Diocese
A generation of Catholics on the move from the city to the suburbs - along with a shortage of priests - explains why Bishop Edward U. Kmiec announced closings and mergers that changed the landscape of Catholic churches across Western New York.
The High Cost of Being Poor
Every day, the working poor face a kind of Alice-in-Wonderland reality where those who can afford the least pay the most. From huge markups at rent-to-own stores to illegal charges for check cashing, those on a low income face an array of added costs - call it poor tax - that the middle class never has to deal with.
Power Failure
Politicians and bureaucrats are squandering the low-cost electricity generated at the nation's second-largest hydropower plant in Lewiston. Instead of helping the local economy, the hydropower is used to provide subsidies to select companies and underwrite the State Power Authority's bureaucracy.
- Outlook is green for area economy
- Making smarter use of region's hydropower
- Politics as usual stymies a unique opportunity to maximize benefits from the power project
- Niagara plant a huge moneymaker, but region sees little of the payoff
- Region home to cheap power, high bills and huge corporate subsides
Jailhouse Highs
Illegal drugs seep into New York state prisons like rain through a leaky roof, with some inmates staying doped-up until their release - only to commit more crimes - and others dying behind bars.
Losing by the Numbers
The poorest among us not only buy a disproportionate share of lottery tickets, they lose disproportionately as well.
Entertainment Calendar
Best bets:
- Thu 5/17: Tyler Perry's Madea Gets a Job
- Fri 5/18: An Evening with Yanni
- Fri 5/18: Michael Feinstein presenting the Sinatra Project
- Fri 5/18: Lee "Scratch" Perry
- Sat 5/19: Collective Soul
- Sat 5/19: Louis Prima Jr.
- Sat 5/19: Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
- Wed 5/23: Jazz vocalist Jane Monheit
- Thu 5/24: North Sea Gas
- Fri 5/25: An Evening of Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake and Serenade
- Sat 5/26: Rich Little
- more events »
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