Friday the 13th in Buffalo
NBC News Washington Bureau Chief and host of Meet the Press, Tim Russert, succumbed to an apparent heart attack today while recording voiceovers at the bureau for this Sunday’s broadcast of the popular news show. He was 58.
Russert, a native son, was one of Buffalo’s most prominent boosters. He frequently ended the Sunday morning show with his familiar cheer: “Go Bills!”
He is survived by wife Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair; and son Luke, a recent graduate of Boston College.
Russert gained fame as an author with the books Big Russ and Me, a tribute to his dad who also survives him, and The Wisdom of Our Fathers. He was named Father of the Year by the National Father’s Day Committee in 1995, and received the same title in 2001 from the National Fatherhood Initiative.
His death comes two days before Father’s Day.
Here’s how Tom Brokaw broke the heartbreaking news to millions of Americans.
May 6, 2008
City Budget Hearing Tonight
Today at 5:30pm, Buffalo’s Common Council holds a public hearing on Mayor Byron Brown’s proposed budget for 2008-2009. This may sound like a dull, wonkish enterprise, but it’s not: It’s a pleasant excuse to visit the Common Council’s beautiful chambers, and anyone can speak. I will be there no later than 6pm to listen to what folks have to say, and will hand out AV swag to the first six people (not counting councilmembers) who figure out who I am and ask me for it.
UPDATE: If you’d like some broad, sweeping questions to ask about the budget, check out this post by Buffalo News reporter James Heaney. I’m a devil-in-the-details guy myself, but Heaney’s got the big picture nailed.
April 21, 2008
Echo Chamber (April 21): News You Could Have Heard Anywhere
- OSHA fined six WNY contractors for safety violations on the job site of the Walden Galleria Mall’s recent renovations. The contractors, OSHA said, failed to provide their workers against falling dangers. The contractors cited were CBO Glass of Buffalo ($16,000), Guard Contracting Corp. of Youngstown ($12,000), Alpha Masonry Construction Co. Inc. of Orchard Park ($7,500), E.B. Atlas Steel Corp. of Buffalo ($5,400), S. Federowicz Construction Inc. of West Seneca ($2,500), and Gordon & Zoerb Electrical Contractors Inc. of Buffalo ($1,500). Falling is the leading cause of death in the construction trades, a fact that was highlighted only 13 months ago when 24-year-old construction worker Jonathan Fundalinski fell to his death while renovating Rocco Termini’s Webb Building in downtown Buffalo.
- The family of local soldier Jonathon Cote was again unnecessarily notified by the military that a body has been found in Iraq that could be his. The body remains unidentified at this point, and it seems like a pointless—not to mention stressful—exercise to alert the Cotes of every Caucasian male body that is discovered in Iraq before it has been identified. Cote, 25, of Amherst, was one of a handful of private security contractors kidnapped and held hostage by militants in November of 2006.
April 15, 2008
Who’s Got the Munchies?
That’s the name of a new snack food delivery business here in the Queen City that promises to make life easier for the busy, the weary, and, it’s implied, the stoned. Who’s Got the Munchies? is run by 25-year-old Mark Czerniejewski, a former heating and air conditioning salesman who “got tired of arguing with the girlfriend about who gets the snacks.” That apparently lit a light bulb in his head, and he started buying snacks wholesale from companies like Frito Lay and Hostess and delivering them out of his Richmond Ave. apartment with a partner. Who’s Got the Munchies? delivers candy bars, Doritos, Hostess snacks, nuts, cookies, granola bars, popcorn, and on and on, each at a modest mark-up from in-store prices.
Czerniejewski says that they’re waiting on a tobacco license right now, after which they’ll offer cigarettes and dutchies (blunts). Depending on how business shapes up, WGM may add fresh-baked, homemade daily specials like cookies and cupcakes. Another fun quirk of the business is that Czerniejewski’s artist-girlfriend will decorate every delivery bag with a unique work of Sharpie art.
Who’s Got the Munchies? can be reached at 828-6927. A downloadable menu is available online at www.whosgotthemunchiesonline.com. There’s a $10 minimum order requirement and a $2 charge for delivery. Cash and major credit cards accepted. Hours: Mon-Thu 5p-12a; Fri & Sat 5p-2a; Sun 2-10p.
April 3, 2008
How to volunteer with Food Not Bombs
So you want to make trashed food into delicious, healthy meals that are free to anyone. That means you want to volunteer with activist group Food Not Bombs right here in Buffalo. For more background on the group, we wrote about them here.
Volunteering with them is easy, as long as you have some free time on Monday. Here’s how you can do it:
- To make food: Go to the Unitarian Universalist Church at Elmwood Ave. and Ferry Street any time between 10:30am and 12:45pm Monday. Knock on the kitchen door, which is around the back at the end of the driveway on Elmwood.
- To give out food: Go to the west side of Lafayette Square (the one facing City Hall) at 1pm on Monday and volunteer your services to the friendly folks giving out food there.
