Buffalo News Archives

Three men were robbed Wednesday during three holdups in the city's University District, police said Thursday.

Buffalo Police are investigating a strange incident in which a male driver struck one man in his car and then got out of the vehicle to forcibly break into a home through the front window.

The attorney hired to advise the Buffalo Board of Education on potential disciplinary action in the continuing McKinley High School controversy could have a report ready by next week.

A 41-year-old Buffalo man was leaving a party Wednesday morning when he was confronted by four men who robbed him of his wallet, prescription medication and clothes for a baby, police reported.

Buffalo police Detective Dennis Delano, left, announces his plans to run for State Senate with Albert Capozzi at his side.

Things went from bad to worse for a Buffalo man Monday, a day after he was charged with drunken driving and unlicensed driving following an accident in which he seriously injured another motorist.

Associated Press - May 27, 2008 11:33 AM ET EDEN, N.Y. - Nearly 100 years and several owners later, The Original Kazoo Company, southwest of Buffalo, New York, stays true to its name.

Six buildings on Buffalo's West Side were damaged early Sunday by two separate fires that started within 20 minutes of each other, fire officials reported.

A spokesperson for the Catholic Health System has confirmed that James Griffin died early Sunday morning at Father Baker Manor in Orchard Park after a brief illness.

The fire reportedly started around 4 a.m. in the back of an occupied home on Madison Street in the city's Broadway-Jefferson section.

Two men indicted for allegedly beating a University at Buffalo student, leaving him paralyzed, were allowed to remain free on $50,000 bail after a court appearance Friday.

Admitted Buffalo drug trafficker Gabriel Taylor was sentenced to 50 years to life Friday for trying to kill three workers at a Niagara Street store last year.

One of the members of the Lackawanna Six has been jailed in Yemen. Jaber Elbaneh was arrested after an appeals court upheld his 10-year prison sentence.

Even after another weekend push in area churches, Catholic Charities of Buffalo remained shy of its $11.2 million appeal goal for 2008.

Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News Yolanda Mendez of Buffalo uses about three pounds of rice each day at home and says she has been stocking up on rice and now has about 120 pounds on hand.

The focus of a weeks-long report released last week has reportedly been suspended again.

By West Coast Perspective The lease is signed. Law firm Damon & Morey LLP has finalized the lease for 51,000 square feet at Two Hundred Delaware.

The public is getting its first look at Buffalo's $53 million makeover of the original western terminus of the Erie Canal.

NIAGARA FALLS Suspended driver runs into building A woman driving on a suspended license for an alcohol-related offense on April 17 drove into a building on Highland Avenue about 2 a.m. Thursday and was charged ...

Western New Yorkers generally understand that Metro will take them where they want to go.

A unit assigned to battle blight in city neighborhoods lacks adequate controls, and that could lead to inefficiencies and abuse, Buffalo's fiscal watchdog warned today.

Ask U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer about the economy of Niagara Falls and the surrounding area and he'll likely refer you to recent labor statistics that suggest the region has, at the very least, kept pace ...

ALBANY -- Voters will cast ballots Tuesday on school budgets that will increase the tax levy, but not as sharply as in past years.

A former teacher at a private girls' school in western New York has been given a three- to nine-year prison term for having an affair with a 16-year-old student.

A man is dead after being struck and killed by a train near Buffalo while examining a scratch-off lottery ticket.

United Auto Workers members at American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc.'s Buffalo, N.Y.-area plants have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a tentative deal that would end their strike.

The 1984 rape and murder of 89-year-old Alma Strasner in her Willowlawn Avenue home has gone unsolved, until now.

A Buffalo public high school is celebrating a big honor. City Honors High School is ranked number 11 on Newsweek magazine's list of the best schools in the United States.

Gov. David Paterson was taken to a hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday after experiencing migraine-like symptoms.

WBEN's Barbara Burns confirms Buffalo Schools Superintendent Dr. James Williams has removed his name from contention to become the next schools chief in Memphis. via WBEN-AM Buffalo

News 4 has learned the Cheektowaga American Axle Plant has been spared in the tentative agreement reached Friday night between the company and the United Auto Workers.

Buffalo School Superintendent Dr. James Williams has withdrawn his name from consideration for the open position of superintendent in Memphis, Tennessee.

A man is dead after being struck and killed by a train near Buffalo while examining a scratch-off lottery ticket.

Police say 48-year-old Ronald Wittenberg of Lackawanna did not respond to the train's blaring horn as it approached him from behind as he walked between the rails.

Wittenberg was returning from fishing with a friend shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday. Police were told he had his head down and was examining the

lottery ticket.

Police say Wittenberg died from massive head and internal injuries. Read more

Speeds run in excess of 100 miles per hour. A Buffalo police officer was not hurt when the driver of an SUV opened fire early Wednesday evening, shooting the officer's patrol car. via WKBW-TV

“Barkau obtained control of a 12-year-old girl and he groomed, trained and forced her to become a sexual dominatrix”

Federal prosecutors have unsealed an indictment accusing a man and woman of training the woman's child to be a dominatrix, selling her sexual services and photographing some of the acts. via CNN

Pedestrian vehicles that were trapped in the standoff are now being cleared from the scene for their safety.

A North Carolina sheriff's deputy was announced Monday as this year's "America's Most Wanted" All-Star, outpolling seven other finalists, including Buffalo's own Dennis Delano.

Kary's Jewelry & Loan, a longtime pawnshop on Bailey Avenue, appears to be out of business.

Calling it a very, very sad day, Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark told his staff and later the media on Monday that he will not seek re-election. At an afternoon news conference, the 65-year-old D.A. ...

“I don't know where we're at because the company changes their position every time we turn around.”

American Axle & Manufacturing wants to close its Cheektowaga machine shop as well as its Tonawanda forge, exiting the Buffalo area completely, it was revealed Saturday. via Buffalo News

Crews were called to Strauss Street in Buffalo, near Sycamore, shortly after 1:00 a.m. on Sunday.

The Republican controlled New York State Senate voted to suspend the sales tax on gasoline from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

The University of Buffalo has received $5 million from one of its graduates. UB this morning announced that John N. Kapoor, a 1972 graduate, has given the money to construct a new home for the School of ... via Buffalo News

“We haven't had the community-wide discussion about poverty that we need to have”

Maria Whyte's two-day experiment living at the poverty level left her with debt, a parking ticket and probably a few gray hairs. via New York Daily News

Sheriff's department looking for missing Newfane girl Staff Reports The Niagara County Sheriff's Department has issued a missing child alert for a Newfane girl. via Niagara Gazette

“It will again take a community-wide effort.”

With bragging rights and a $10,000 prize on the line, Binghamton will go for a repeat as Capital of the Pierogy Pocket. via Press & Sun-Bulletin

Buffalo police still are trying to confirm the identity of the city's latest homicide victim, a man who was shot to death and found lying inside a vehicle on Rapin Place late Wednesday night. via Buffalo News

“This transaction will serve as an incredible opportunity for economic development and job creation within the City of Buffalo, and Steelfields Ltd. is proud to have played a small part in the process”

BUFFALO Mayor Byron W. Brown announced that the City of Buffalo has finalized acquisition of the South Buffalo former brownfield property known as "Steelfields." This acquisition will bring 185 additional ... via Empire State News

A major Buffalo law firm has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a state Attorney General's investigation into improper classification of lawyers as school district employees. via Buffalo News

Buffalo Poilce are investigating the stabbings of two brothers Friday night at a Louisiana Street gas station. via WKBW-TV

The first member of the so-called "Lackawanna Six" to plead guilty to attending an al-Qaida training camp has been moved from prison to a halfway house in Detroit. via New York Daily News

“That's why I believe I had Post Tramatic Stress Disorder. All I remember is waking up in the hospital.”

Today children of the late Joan Giambra took the stand in the murder trial against Dennis Donohue. via WKBW-TV

Buffalo Police Officer Cariol J. Horne was fired today by Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson based on the recommendation of a hearing officer who heard testimony about her November 2006 altercation with ... via Buffalo News

“It appears there may have been an individual who was acting somewhat suspiciously who appeared to have tossed something into the UPS box”

The report of a man acting suspiciously and delivering a package to a United Parcel Service drop-off location in the 500 block of Delaware Avenue late Monday afternoon resulted in the evacuation of two office ... via Buffalo News

“I guess it goes so far as to close the parks if you can't maintain 'em”

It was supposed to be a celebration of regionalization, an agreement between the city of Buffalo and Erie County where the county would run and maintain the city's parks. via WGRZ-TV Buffalo

“By far the best pizza around. I eat there two to three times a week and have never had anything but great food and great...”

State police say a South Carolina man faces drunken driving charges after driving the wrong way on a Buffalo-area highway and colliding with a tractor-trailer Troopers say 45-year-old Derrick Chisholm of ... via Middletown Times Herald Record

A search firm helping Memphis City Schools find a new superintendent has named five finalists, one of them, Buffalo's superintendent. via WBEN-AM Buffalo

Delaware Avenue, between Allen and North Streets in the City of Buffalo is closed right now after a suspicious package was found inside of a UPS drop box in that neighborhood. via WKBW-TV

Health officials warn anyone who recieved a tattoo from John Portik III of Niagara Falls in the last 7 years should be tested for bloodborne diseases.

Two men, one armed with a gun, robbed the McDonald's restaurant on Grider Street on Sunday night, police reported Monday.

A Main Street deli and pizza shop was burglarized over the weekend, and a significant amount of food and cash was stolen, according to Buffalo police reports.

A five-hour standoff on the East Side ended peacefully at about noon Sunday when members of the Buffalo police SWAT team entered the home of Christopher M. Wright on Zelmer Street and took him into custody.

Fire officials Sunday continued to search for the cause of the explosion Saturday morning that blew off the roof and outer walls of a vacant Riverside house and sent pieces of the structure flying across the ...

A game of hide-and-seek ended with the rape of a teenage girl in an abandoned house on Buffalo's West Side, police report.

Four men knocked on the door of a Buffalo woman's apartment at about 11 p. m. Saturday, barged in and beat her in the head and body, Ferry-Fillmore District police report.

“We have received signed documents from Bashar Issa requesting a franchise agreement”

Bashar Issa, owner of the Statler Towers in Buffalo, has applied to make the building part of the Wyndham Hotel system. via Buffalo News

Police officers are on every corner in the neighborhood surrounding Canisius College today. via WKBW

The local chapter of a national gang has been busted in Buffalo. 300 police officers from 20 local agencies spread out this morning executing 36 arrest warrants and eight search warrants and so far, 30 members ... via WBEN-AM Buffalo

Visitors to the Columbus Zoo got their first look on Tuesday at three female Asian elephants from the Buffalo Zoo. via WGRZ-TV Buffalo

Two Buffalo homes were hit by gunshots overnight Thursday, but the residents were not injured, police reported today.

A 19-year-old man has been charged with raping a 13-year-old girl after one of her family members told him to stay away from her, police reported.

Stella Szudzik, 82, was last seen walking home from the Broadway market and has not been heard from since.

Striking workers at American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. say they have been told the union and company are close to a deal that would end their two-month strike.