Latino Music Festival this Weekend
The Latino Music Festival will be held this weekend at LaSalle Park. Music ensembles from Buffalo, Rochester, and New York City will be joined by those of Delaware, Miami, Puerto Rico, Columbia, and more.
The Labor Day Weekend Festival starts today and continues Saturday and Sunday. Performers include Steve Balesteri (pictured), La Krema, La Potencia, Tito Puente Jr., and Wendell Rivera.
The Sunday performance by Balesteri will be filmed by air and ground crews. That will be followed by La Krema, Tito Puente Jr., and a large fireworks display.
Also great food, rides, and amusements, right there on the waterfront. Get out and enjoy.
Remember New Orleans
Three years ago today, Hurricane Katrina roared through the Gulf of Mexico and struck the United States coastline with an estimated force equal to a 20-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes.
Follow the link for a timeline of events surrounding the greatest natural and governmental disaster of our age, courtesy of blogofneworleans.com, the blog run by that city’s great alternative weekly, the Gambit.
Citizens there are again preparing to evacuate, as tropical storm Gustav battered Jamaica this morning, en route to the warm waters of the gulf, where forecasters predict it will strengthen into a hurricane as it moves toward the mouth of the Mississippi River.
August 28, 2008
The Mayor’s Impact Team
Today Brian Meyers has a piece in the News in which Darryl McPherson of the City Comptroller’s office describes improvements in the performance of the Mayor’s Impact Team.
You might recall that we here started FOILing for documents related to the Mayor’s Impact Team the day before its supervisor, Bill Buyers, was busted by a Channel 7 news team using team members and equipment to do work on his own property during regular work hours.
In the subsequent fracas, City Comptroller Andy SanFilippo vowed to audit the Mayor’s Impact Team thoroughly—basically, to do what I had hoped to do with whatever documents the mayor’s office would release to me. Nearly a month later, SanFilippo released a preliminary audit report that found few or no controls on the way workers signed on and off duty, the use of equipment and vehicles, the procurement of fuel, etc. The preliminary report concluded:
We will provide the Council with the complete audit shortly. The need for stronger controls and oversight is evident and should be implemented immediately. I should note the vitally important work performed by the Mayor’s Impact Team and the need to have them continue to provide their services to the community. I’m confident that with the proper controls in place, the Impact Team will become even more valuable as a city resource. We will have more recommendations in the full audit report.
No full audit report was released—not “shortly,” not ever. SanFilippo’s staff received raises, then his office went silent on the issue of the Mayor’s Impact Team. In fact, apart from the preliminary audit and this Valentine from McPherson, the Comptroller ’s office has not publicly released an audit since June 2007—a cursory review of the police department’s gun buy-back program.
Back in April, when I asked (former TV news troubleshooter, now assistant to the comptroller) Tony Farina how the office decided to do audits, he told that they might do one when someone asked them to. Here’s a plan SanFilippo released in July 2007 to perform eight audits in the course of the year. Were they ever done? If so, why have they not been released publicly?
And how come the findings of the preliminary audit of the Mayor’s Impact Team didn’t lead to firings? It’s a good thing to establish more stringent controls, if that’s indeed what has happened. It’s also a good thing to remove foxes from the henhouse.
August 26, 2008
Skretny Rules Against the Casino
Bruce Jackson has posted the full text of the judge’s decision here.
And here’s what Bruce is reporting:
U.S. District Court Judge William M. Skretny has ordered the National Indian Gaming Commission to comply with National Indian Gaming Commission regulations in the case of the Senecas’ Buffalo casino, which means they are to shut it down. The government had argued that the judge had no right to tell the Department of the Interior and the National Indian Gaming Commission how to behave in this case and, moreover, they’d changed their rules recently, so he should just step aside and let them handle everything. The judge was having none of that foolishness. He denied their motions entirely and granted the plaintiffs’ request that the NIGC be told it had to do its job.
We’ll have an analysis of it online tomorrow and in Thursday’s print edition.
August 21, 2008
…And in Other Gardening News
Today, the first steps were taken to convert the 700 block of Main Street into a two-way thoroughfare. Those first steps were to cut down all the healthy, mature trees on the west side of the street—over 20 in all. (more…)
Weeding the Backyard
This morning Buffalo police officers tore up hundreds of marijuana plants in Trinity Place. The house has been a magnet for police for many months. The guy to whom the plants are supposed to belong is out of town, and no one else was at home when the cops came.
What He Said
I was prepared to wax long ad dull about the Sam Hoyt affair, but I happened first to read what Alan Bedenko wrote over at BuffaloPundit. He’s got it just about right, I think.
Carl Paladino: Let’s Change State Constitution
A couple weeks back, we posted Carl Paladino’s radio commercial condemning Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent James Williams and calling for his resignation.
Now Paladino is pushing a bigger agenda: a state constitutional convention to reconsider the way state government does business. Here’s his challenge, coming to your radio soon:
(UPDATE: Here’s the audio of Paladino’s latest radio ad, and the transcript is below.)
CONSITUTIONAL CONVENTION
AUGUST 20, 2008
HEY UPSTATE NEW YORKERS. / IT’S ME AGAIN,/ CARL PALADINO. AREN’T YOU JUST PEACHY ABOUT OUR STATE LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION? / WITH GREAT RHETORIC, ANTICIPATION AND FANFARE, THEY DRESSED UP FOR THE $6 BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET DEFICIT DANCE AND THEN DID THE ALBANY TWO-STEP WITH THE SHREW SHELLY SILVER CUTTING ONLY $400M. / ALBANY IS NOT ABOUT YOU./ IT’S ABOUT A GLUTTONOUS GOVERNMENT PARALZYED IN THE THREE-MEN-IN-A ROOM BOX INCAPABLE OF CHECKING OUR FALL INTO THE ABYSS, / ARROGANT, PREDATORY UNIONS / AND LEADERS ENDOWED WITH UNSHACKLED POWER AS A RESULT OF OUR IRRATIONAL HISTORY OF ELECTING THE IMPOTENT AND MINDLESS TO COMMAND OUR LIVES. /
THEY FAVOR UNIONS AND RAPE THE TAXPAYER MAKING THE FEEBLE EXCUSE THAT THEY DIDN’T READ THE BILL./
HELLO!
WICKS LAW, TAYLOR LAW, REDISTRICTING, TERM LIMITS, RESIDENCY,/ DEBILITATING, OVERREACHING REGULATION./ THE HIGHEST TAXES IN AMERICA, DYSFUNCTIONAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS, REDUNDANT WASTEFUL GOVERNMENTS, INSOLENT PUBLIC AUTHORITIES,/ IT GOES ON AND ON. SO MANY ISSUES, AND NO HOPE FOR AN IMPOVERISHED UPSTATE GROVELING AT THE MERCY OF A THRIVING DOWNSTATE. /
HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH OF THE INCOMPETENT, SELF-SERVING, TWISTED MENTALITY OF ALBANY?/
MAJORITIES OF THE ASSEMBLY AND SENATE CAN CALL FOR A REFERENDUM TO CONVENE AND ELECT DELEGATES TO A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION (THE LAST WAS HELD IN 1938) TO RESHAPE OUR LAWS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. / WE’RE PETITIONING ALL OF THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATES TO PLEDGE, WITHIN 7 DAYS, TO SPONSOR SUCH A BILL AND FILIBUSTER THEIR CHAMBERS ON ALL OTHER LEGISLATION UNTIL THE BILL PASSES./
WE WILL PUBLISH THE RESULTS IN ARTVOICE AND ON ARTVOICE.COM BEFORE THE PRIMARY.
IT’S NO LONGER A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE. / THERE IS NO MORE IMPORTANT ISSUE IN THIS ELECTION. /
A GREAT MAN ONCE SAID ALL THAT’S NECESSARY FOR EVIL TO SUCCEED IS THAT GOOD MEN DO NOTHING./
IF THEY DON’T MAKE THE PLEDGE, VOTE FOR THEIR OPPONENT AND LET THEM GO FIND ANOTHER CAREER.
CARL P. PALADINO
CEO
ELLICOTT DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
August 15, 2008
CPO Club Update
Peter Koch wrote a story about the jeopardized CPO Club in Artvoice a few months back, which you can read here.
The good news is that the club’s membership is banding together and beginning to right the listing institution, as evidenced by this recent email, sent to all members:
Dear Member of the CPO Club,
Over the past several months, the club has endured dramatic changes that have affected the operation of our club. This letter is sent to you with the intent to inform you of these changes and how you can assist to keep our club alive and moving forward.
The building has been saved through historical designation, acquired by Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, and cannot be demolished. Most of the furniture in the club is still inside. Charles Poremba has resigned as board president. An interim board comprised of members who have been devoted to saving both the club and the clubhouse have been formed with Karl Page elected as interim president. This board is in the process of presenting our landlord, the Department of Military and Naval Affairs (DMNA), a concise plan for future operations of our club. We are confident that this plan will be accepted and our lease will be approved. The liquor license has been approved and extended through March 2010.
A general meeting will be held on August 19, 2008 at 1900 hours at the Maritime Charter School located at 266 Genesee St. in Buffalo, at which time all members are invited for updated information on the status of the club. Also, committees will be formed at this meeting. They are: Constitution Review, Membership, Fund Raising/Grant Writing, Entertainment, Public Relations, Building & Maintenance, House/Food & Beverage.
Many of our members have enjoyed the benefits of the CPO Club but have not been current with their dues. As a result, we need additional funding to meet operating expenses. If your 2008 dues have not been paid, please pay them now. This is still your viable club. Dues are only $40 and cover your membership and fees associated with daily club operations. Without this support, our club will not survive. Please make your check payable to the CPO Club, update the attached form and mail both to:
Your membership card will be mailed to you.
CPO Club
5 Porter Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14201-1015
We also need to address specific repairs to the building, and we are asking those who are able, to dig into their pockets for additional financial support. The main reason that the club was closed was due to state building code requirements. Those repairs still need to be addressed before we can have any public functions or gatherings in our clubhouse, and will be discussed at the general meeting. Please consider an additional contribution. This contribution will be fully refunded to you, if the lease should not be renewed. Also anyone that would be able to contribute their expertise or knowledge and can donate some time to help would be greatly appreciated.
Your support of the CPO Club is crucial in this time of need. We look forward to seeing you on August 19, 2008.
Sincerely,
Karl Page and Interim Board
If you’ve been a member of the CPO Club in the past, but didn’t receive the email, you can download an application to join or renew your membership here. Affiliate memberships are also available to “those who have not served but who possess the core values of this organization.”
Terence S. Underwood, A Vanishing Breed
Artvoice has published a number of letters sent to us by a dapper gentleman named Terence S. Underwood, or Ted, as he prefers to be called by friends. Underwood’s life story—he’s in his eighties—would make a sweeping cinematic spectacle to rival Lawrence of Arabia.
Today he dropped by for a brief chat, to share some photographs of himself and his father in late 1930s India, where his dad served as an official for Britain. He also shared some pictures of his lovely wife and children, and some pieces he’d written for various hunting magazines over the years.
He was quick to point out that he rarely hunted “the big cats,” but he had stumbled upon the two leopards above while they were mating. They charged, and he replied. He also spoke about the importance of conservation, and preservation of habitat. He added that war not only destroys human habitat, but also affects animals—a fact too often ignored.
Underwood served as an officer in the British Army in Palestine, and he has a keen perspective on current events, formed through years of experience. He is passionate when speaking or writing about the United States, his adopted home. He also has some tales to share that would make Ernest Hemingway envious.
This brief but astonishing account, published years ago in Outdoor Life is but one example of his adventurous exploits.
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