From a GOP press release:

The Executive Committee of the Erie County Republican Committee today endorsed Chris Collins for County Executive. The Executive Committee voted unanimously to support Collins, who announced his candidacy earlier this week.

“Today the Republican Party in Erie County has endorsed a leader, entrepreneur, and reformer to become our next County Executive,” said James Domagalski, ECRC Chairman. “The other party will offer the voters another politician in November. Chris Collins is a business leader with a proven track record of success. The other party will talk about economic development. Chris Collins has personally created or saved over 500 jobs in Western New York. The other party will say they will reform government. Chris Collins has reformed several local companies, turning them into vibrant, customer based, profitable enterprises. The other party represents the status quo. Chris Collins represents a new generation of bold leadership that can and will do better for the people of Erie County.”

On Wednesday of this week, the ECRC County Executive Search Committee met and unanimously recommended Collins to the Executive Committee for endorsement. A day earlier, Collins announced his candidacy at Volland Electric in Cheektowaga. Just a few short years ago, Volland Electric was in financial distress before Collins stepped in to help stabilize the company, saving 110 local jobs in the process.

“Erie County needs a Chief Executive, not another Chief Politician,” said Collins following the endorsement meeting. “Politicians have controlled Erie County government for decades and they have continuously resisted reform and failed to create economic opportunity for our community. I know how to turn troubled companies around, and I think it is time to take the same approach and apply it to Erie County government.”

“We will do it by focusing on my three R’s - reforming county government, rebuilding our economy, and reducing taxes,” continued Collins. “Just like the three R’s – reading, writing, and arithmetic – provide a roadmap for a successful education, my three R’s will provide a roadmap for true change and prosperity in Erie County. I am grateful for the Republican Party endorsement and the strong support I have received from members of this Committee.”

Collins is married and has three children and one grandchild. He and his wife, Mary, live in Clarence.

This Sunday at 10am on WBEN 930-AM the Professor will be joined by Joel Giambra during the first hour, and Buffalo News political reporter Bob McCarthy during the second hour.

Ricky Gervais. Madison Square Garden. I’ve got tickets.

The ECHDC is taking this deal very seriously - holding meetings, wearing suits, and speaking in moderated tones about a project they’re very excited about.

I attended today’s press conference and ECHDC meeting, and my straight take on it is here. WNYMedia video:

If they can pull this off, it’ll be amazing. I love this project and I based on what I heard, everyone is doing all the right things with respect to its design and implementation. The real challenge will be to do this with the Skyway in place. That thing needs to go - not because it’s dangerous in the snow, but because it’s fugly and physically separates the city from its waterfront while also taking up precious, valuable real estate.

The $25 million to help prep the site and construct the building is a lot of money, and I’m sure many will balk at spending it. Point taken. But rather than the old deal whereby Bass Pro would pay a penny’s worth of rent per year for the Aud, the store will pay $300,000 per year for the right to be located in “Canal Side.” In addition, project developer Benderson will complete a mixed-use project on no fewer than four city blocks. Not one of those blocks has paid a dollar in property taxes to the city in 50 years. That’s about to change.

The idea is not only to give us locals somewhere nice to go along the waterfront, but to give Niagara Falls visitors somewhere else to go whilst on this side of the border. Hell, even Canadians will come there to pay our relatively modest 8.75% sales tax as compared with their GST/PST nut.

The design is no abomination, but pays homage to what the city looked like 150 years ago. I saw that some are decrying the fact that green space is being lost to this Bass Pro store, but people don’t generally come downtown for green space. Especially not in the wintertime. Public access to the waterfront is guaranteed with walkways and plazas. The overall project will also include a large marketplace for local merchants, an aquarium, and a museum.

This is a glorified outdoor mall, yes. But it’s the kind of thing that can really help revive a downtown that suffered rigor mortis decades ago. You want Buffalo to be a cool city with cool things to do? You build cool places to go. I think this project is wicked cool.

Some questions I asked:

Byron, how important was the 30-day deadline to get this done, and how about auctioning off the contents of the Aud?

Eric (Recoon from Benderson Development), what the heck is a “special tenancy?”

A recording of the entire press conference is here.

The Bush Administration has been using the GSA (General Services Administration) for political ends. Specifically, a meeting of GSA managers included a powerpoint presentation explaining how best to distribute GSA funding so as to help turn certain congressional districts from (D) to (R).

Because we’ve returned to that quaint anachronism of “checks and balances” as set forth in that other quaint anachronism the “Constitution”, tough questions are being asked, and lame answers are being given.

GSA resources should be spent where they’re needed. Not where they’ll most help the Republican agenda.

Watch Brian Higgins go:

1. Check out the 27 must-visit restaurants in WNY as decided upon by Spree writers.

2. Barry Muskat has an exquisitely written roundup of the now-deceased Elmwood / Forest hotel. Bloody BANANAs.

3. Jen14221 checks out some local blogs, and some not-so-local ones, too.

4. I have a review of the Bistro Europa on Elmwood, as well as the premiere of my car column, including a roundup of the Detroit Auto Show and a review of the Saturn Outlook.

5. What wine to drink with Buffalo food.

After 4 days and about an hour with Apple technical support, I returned the not-working-properly Apple AirPort Extreme router, received my refund, and purchased a D-Link 801.11g router. Its price was 25% of that of the Apple, and it works perfectly, right out of the box.

Iran’s M.O. when dealing with international issues hasn’t changed much since 1979. Problem? Take hostages!

What’s amusing to me is that Britain is having none of it and has proven through GPS that its troops were well within Iraqi territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, engaged in a UN mission.

I can’t fathom why Iran pulled this stunt, but it’s not great PR.

On the Mayor Brown’s car got stolen story:

The thief who stole Mayor Brown’s sport utility vehicle probably had a key, Buffalo Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson said today.

“I guess it would appear that’s a distinct possibility,” Gipson said as he mentioned that the steering column of the Chevrolet Equinox had not been damaged … one way thieves override the ignition system to rip off a car.

Gipson also said there was no discernible sign the Chevrolet Equinox had been broken into.

The “thief”

- had a key
- didn’t damage the glass or the steering column to get in or get it started
- was driving towards the Mayor’s house at the time the accident happened
- got out of the car and walked towards the Mayor’s house after the accident happened.

Somehow doesn’t seem to me to be some random grand theft auto.

Brian Higgins is confirming that the Bass Pro deal is signed, and will be announced on Friday.

I actually spoke with a representative from the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation and Bass Pro on Tuesday, and you can get some more details about that here.

UPDATE: From the Buffalo News:

The agreement forecasts a spring 2008 construction start, with Bass Pro and other retailers opening by mid-2009 on the five-acre site, which is bounded by Scott and Main streets, the historic Commercial Slip and the Buffalo River.

In addition to construction of a Bass Pro store, designed to resemble a circa 1800s commercial building, the plan also calls for an adjacent cluster of retail shops, linked to a 300-car parking garage.

An Erie Canal/Great Lakes Museum, waterside promenade, public plaza, and a linear water feature on the former site of the Prime Slip are also part of the blueprint.

Under terms of the predevelopment agreement, Bass Pro would receive $25 million in public funding to open a waterfront store. Bass Pro would be required to pay a common area fee of $300,000 a year to help support the Erie Canal Harbor district.

The deal also provides the city with $10 million to pay for demolition of the vacant Memorial Auditorium, which had long been the hoped-for site of a Buffalo Bass Pro Shops store.

Buffalo-born Benderson Development will act as the project’s developer, overseeing construction of the outdoor store and additional retail on the waterfront site, as well as mixed used projects on the Aud site, Donovan State Office Building site, and the vacant Webster Block, in front of HSBC Arena.

The development process “will necessarily” include fresh environmental impact studies to evaluate the feasibility and appropriateness of bringing the mix of retail, entertainment and historical venues to the site, according to the harbor panel source.

These guys were on Stern yesterday and did album-perfect versions of “Day in the Life”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, and “Penny Lane” using all real instruments; no samples.

Even the alarm clock in “Day” and the chatter at the beginning of “Guitar” was re-created by the band, many of whom played several different instruments during the same song. It literally brought chills up my spine to hear it.

Check out their site here. I hope their tour brings them by us soon.

The guy’s been exonerated. The DA was the one who broke the news to the family. Yet, it’s to take a month to release him?

The past 22 years have been a tragedy. One more second that this man remains in jail is a travesty. He should be released forthwith to his family.

As for compensation, a good start would be about $100,000 for every year of his improper imprisonment, together with free health care, including mental health care, for life. It doesn’t take away the fact that he’s been in jail since I was a senior in high school, but it would be a good start.

Finally, ECMC deserves a bitch-slap for its handling of the evidence and what appear to be several requests for production of it to authorities.

UPDATE: Dave Staba wrote an article on the subject for the New York Times, and adds these details:

Mr. Capozzi, who has schizophrenia, was originally suspected in six attacks that took place in or near Delaware Park in 1983 and 1984. He was tried in three rapes and convicted of two.

His family consistently maintained that he was innocent. They argued that his mental illness left him incapable of planning the attacks, in which the victims were threatened with a gun, taken to a secluded area and ordered to remain on the ground for 10 or 20 minutes after the rape.

At the time of his trial, Mr. Capozzi had a prominent three-inch vertical scar above his left eye. The victims who testified did not mention the scar and estimated the weight of their attacker at 150 pounds, at least 50 pounds less than what Mr. Capozzi weighed at the time, Mr. D’Agostino said, adding that there was no physical evidence linking Mr. Capozzi to the rapes.

“Eyewitness testimony is devastating, but you’ve got to be very skeptical,” Mr. D’Agostino said. “In Anthony’s case, the problem was that you had three victims who came in and each one said it was him. You get to a point where jurors say, ‘Maybe the first one was wrong, but all three of them can’t be wrong — they’re all saying it was the same guy.’ ”

Mr. Capozzi was sentenced in 1987 to 11 2/3 to 35 years in prison. The State Parole Board has rejected his application for release several times, in part because he did not admit to the crimes, his lawyer said.

“Anthony has never, ever wavered,” Mr. D’Agostino said. “He has known what it would mean to say, ‘I did it.’ If he said that, he would have gotten out. And he wouldn’t do it.”

The News has a story today wherein some cops dismiss the Housing Inspector’s allegation that Mayor Brown’s consigliere, Steve Casey, intervened in the attempt to shut down permitless work at the Webb Building.

OK. We’ll wait and see. Someone’s recollection is…shaky. But it remains clear that Termini’s instinct wasn’t to call Tobe about it, but Casey. That, in itself, is fascinating.

Here’s the kicker, though. It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup, goes the saying. When it came to light yesterday that construction crews were busily erecting a barrier from the area from which the worker fell to his death, I called it out as being a possible case of evidence tampering or obstruction of justice. That’s what’s actionable in criminal court - not the lack of a barrier to begin with (that’s handled in a civil action).

Well, Frank Clark’s political hazmat team is on the case:

“The construction workers seem to be more concerned about potential liability than concern for their colleague,” said Clark. “Does a hazardous situation equate to a criminal negligence? No. Not necessarily.

“Criminal negligence is a high standard to reach,” he said. “There has to be substantial and unjustifiable risk, and that risk has to be a deviation from the standard of care a normal person would use . . . There has to be hidden defects that are inherently dangerous that they did nothing to try to rectify.”

He added: “It may not be a criminal charge, but it could be an OSHA charge.

Yes, but what about tampering with the scene?

This whole story is just bizarre.

But this is classic:

What did Cutler think of the fact that the SUV hit the parked autos as it was being driven back toward the mayor’s home, from where it had been stolen?

“Who knows the mind-set of someone who steals a car?” Cutler responded.

In the News today:

Buffalo needs a “housing czar” who focuses solely on fighting neighborhood decay and other property issues, according to two Common Council members.

They’re concerned that Richard M. Tobe, the head of economic development, permits and inspections, has been spread too thin by a departmental restructuring that took effect last year.

Sounds like a good idea. I nominate Michele Johnson for that position. Her tireless, uncompensated work as a housing court liaison with City Judge Hank Nowak, together with her leadership role in the fight against flipping and MBBA inaction make her an ideal candidate.

“…the city is interviewing candidates for director of housing, a $65,000-a-year job that has been vacant since last year. But Franczyk said he doubts a midlevel manager would have enough clout to “ride herd” over the complex housing process.

The city’s focus on housing has intensified, not diminished, as a result of changes that occurred in the department last year, Brown insisted. He noted that business leaders and others clamored for reforms in the way the city was handling inspections, permits and other housing issues.

Call it whatever you want, as long as the position comes with authority to promote change.

You can listen to Michele’s weekly podcast at WNYMedia.net (here’s a link to yesterday’s show), and her upcoming guests include:

I watched last night’s results show - it’s the first episode I’ve watched since the auditions ended. Chris Sligh, whom I actually liked, got s-canned. Sanjaya revels in his William Hung-esque comic status, thanks especially to the movements at the Howard Stern show via votefortheworst.com.

But why does anyone care? Does anyone anymore? Seriously, if you’re trying to be a pop idol and you can’t sing “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” to the beat after a week’s worth of rehearsal, you’re gone.

Despite its ratings, I think the show has left the ramp and is directly over the shark right now.

Via Andrew Sullivan comes this article about a “history” book that has the Bush White House like, totally putting posters of author Andrew Roberts all over their walls.

Why they love him:

Bush’s embrace of Roberts’ book is hardly surprising, given how it glorifies his presidency. But it does suggest that all the heavy reading he’s been doing lately may not be opening his mind.

Why they’re idiots:

Roberts is as sloppy as he is snobbish. I am seldom bothered by minor errors from a good writer, but Roberts’ mistakes are so extensive, foolish, and revealing of his basic ignorance about the United States in particular, that it may be worth noting a few of those I caught in a fast read. The San Francisco earthquake did considerably more than $400,000 in damage. Virginia Woolf, who drowned herself in 1941, did not write for Encounter, which began publication in 1953. The Proposition 13 Tax Revolt took place in the 1970s, not the 1980s—an important distinction because it presaged Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980. Michael Milken was not a “takeover arbitrageur,” whatever that is. Roberts cannot know that there were 500 registered lobbyists in Washington during World War II because lobbyists weren’t forced to register until 1946. Gregg Easterbrook is not the editor of the New Republic. “No man gets left behind” is a line from the film Black Hawk Down, not the motto of the U.S. Army Rangers; their actual motto is “Rangers Lead the Way.” In a breathtaking peroration, Roberts point out that “as a proportion of the total number of Americans, only 0.008 percent died bringing democracy to important parts of the Middle East in 2003-5.” Leaving aside the question of whether those deaths have brought anything like democracy to Iraq, 0.008 percent of 300 million people is 24,000—off by a factor of 10, which is typical of his arithmetic. If you looked closely enough, I expect you could find an error of one kind or another on every page of the book.

But we’ve known for some time that facts are anathema to this White House, so we go for truthiness instead.

Debut here today.

I have to say that I prefer forums to listservs, so hopefully this will nicely complement BIA.

Thus, a constitutional conflict beginneth:

A source from the office of Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) tells the New York Observer that subpoenas to compel White House adviser Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers to testify before the Judiciary Committee regarding their roles in the dismissals of eight US Attorneys have been authorized and are ready to be issued.

This will be programmed on many a DVR.

20 years needlessly lost. How does one compensate for that? Thankfully, we didn’t have a death penalty in place then, or now.

The evidence from the 1984 and 1985 Delaware Park rape cases was recently found at ECMC. That evidence has been tested in the Erie County lab, and it clears Anthony Capozzi of the two Delaware Park rape cases he was convicted of in the mid-1980s.

District Attorney Clark says the new DNA evidence matches the DNA of accused bike path rapist Altemio Sanchez.

Capozzi is the Buffalo man who has been in prison for more than 21 years for two Delaware Park-area rapes in 1984.

Clark has said previously that he needs hard evidence to support Capozzi’s claim of innocence, something investigators have not been able to provide.

“Recently found” at ECMC? Anyone else as troubled by that as I am?

Really exists.

Imagine, if you will, that the County is your delinquent little brother who’s way overextended on his credit and, therefore, has a FICO score so low that even Billy “Huge” Fuccillo would think twice before arranging financing for him. By contrast, the control board is like someone who just came up on the credit bureaus’ radar, yet has a FICO score of around 700. That’s because the control board gets to take about $1,000,000 from each year’s county sales tax take to fund itself - money that the county could otherwise use, or even rebate. Last year, it took a bit under $500,000 to fund its operations. Now that it’s a hard control board, chances are it’ll cost more in 2007.

Interestingly, the control board would like the county to refinance all of its debt through it, because it has a better credit rating and can presumably get cheaper interest rates. But instead of presenting the County Executive and the County Comptroller with a comprehensive set of facts and figures that show just how much money would be saved over a period of time, the control board held a meeting where it blasted both Giambra and Poloncarz without giving either a heads-up that he would be on the agenda or a topic of discussion. Control Board chairman Andrew Baynes told reporters,

“We are waiting for two politicians to say, ‘Yes, go ahead and do this,’ ” said board Chairman Anthony J. Baynes, angry that taxpayer money was being sacrificed by inaction. “It’s not up to us. They have to ask us.”

Yeah, because the state-appointed control board isn’t populated by politicians.

Poloncarz transmitted a letter to the control board suggesting that it might be more persuasive for them to actually present him with facts and figures, rather than ultimatums.

Poloncarz wants to see computations that prove the control board can save taxpayers $4.1 million over 13 years, as it claims, even after paying underwriters, lawyers and financial advisers.

“Only until we have reviewed the supporting documentation can we perform a detailed analysis and engage in an informed discussion,” Poloncarz wrote.

The irony here is that when the control board was pushing to go hard, it criticized the four-year plans as being unrealistic and not supported by facts or verifiable, predictable numbers. The control board told the county to stuff the plan, and went hard anyway. But now, it expects elected county officials to just react to whatever proposal, regardless of whether it’s supported by facts or predictable numbers. All they gave was some bar graphs.

To quote control board Executive Director Ken Vetter,

“Wanting it so doesn’t make it so.”

Rocco Termini has oftentimes been hailed as the hero of downtown housing. He has figured out ways to maximize tax incentives, credits, and other programs to make the renovation and rehabilitation of dilapidated downtown buildings economically feasible. He was golden two weeks ago.

Last week, all hell broke loose beginning with the tragic death of Jonathan Fundalinski while working on the Webb Building renovation on Pearl Street. Soon thereafter, it was reported that city inspectors had issued a stop-work order, and that Termini contacted Mayor Brown’s Deputy and political guru, Steve Casey, in an effort to permit work to continue. Richard Tobe is the city official directly in charge of the inspections department, and the call to Casey raised red flags of political payback and corrupt special favors for campaign contributors; Termini was one of Mayor Brown’s most generous benefactors during the 2005 election.

I hadn’t commented on any of these developments because they happened while I was gone, and I wanted to see how it all played out - there is a lot more to this than meets the eye, and the city denies any wrongdoing.

Today’s News story is much more troubling, however. It is now being alleged that while emergency crews tended to Fundalinski’s body, work continued at the construction site despite the foreman’s order to vacate the premises. Not only that, but workers (it remains to be seen under whose authority) busily constructed a safety railing at the level from which Fundalinski had fallen - a railing that wasn’t there at the time. The whole thing smells of evidence tampering and obstruction of justice, combined with the already-simmering allegations of special favors and the subverting of an inspector’s authority.

The rules, cumbersome thought they may be, must be adhered to by people who seek to do work in the city. If the authorities order you to stop work, you do it. Then you go and try to fix the problem through the proper channels, not by seeking special attention and favor. If someone on a work site falls to his death, you don’t try to manufacture a relevant condition that didn’t exist at the time of the fall.

Termini, or anyone else for that matter, doesn’t get to play by a separate, more lenient, set of rules than any other businessman in the city. This story stinks to high heaven, and a person died in the process. I hope the truth comes out sooner than later, and I’m relieved that the FBI is involved, rather than DA Frank Clark’s political hazmat team.

Okay folks. Buffalo Amy here. Obviously you’re all coming to this site to read BP - as I do everyday. However,