I have always thought it crazy that we allow 16 year-olds to drive cars.  Cars are dangerous even in the hands of adults with years of experience and emotional maturity, let alone a teen who was not even allowed to cross the street by him or herself less than a decade ago. Teenage driving is the cause for a major plague of carnage on the roads; a carnage that we as a society tend not to want to pay attention to. 2010 stats from the Centers for Disease Control show that teen drivers are

St. Paddy's day is a great time to wear green, drink green beer, and basically turn green after a bit too much party.  One thing you don't ever want see is green in your water.  These shocking images, from the NOAA Centers for Ocean Science and the NASA MODIS sensor,  were published in the New York Times coupled with a shocking story about recently recurring gigantic algea blooms during the

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise (BNE) has produced a new business attraction video that focuses on why the Buffalo Niagara region is conducive to advanced manufacturers. The video features Galvstar LLC, a steel galvanizing company and prior BNE win that chose to locate their steel coating line in the former American Axle facility on Buffalo's east side.
In the video, which is part of the BNE's "A Million Reasons to Expand Your Business to Buffalo Niagara" marketing campaign, Galvstar Managing Partner Mac MacKinnon discusses many of the regional assets that were important

Concerned citizens, preservationists, and architecture buffs looked on in horror as wrecking equipment attacked the unique architectural features of the Bethlehem Steel Administration building Friday afternoon. A few quick blows to the ornate façade dashed all hope the building would be saved after months of hard work and countless hours by a group of dedicated people. Demolition was halted briefly after a temporary restraining order (TRO) was issued, but resumed after the judge lifted the TRO last Friday.
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Over 100 veteran and first-time Tour de Cure riders gathered March 7 to officially kick-off registration, fundraising and training season for the 22nd Annual American Diabetes Association cycling event.

This year's Tour de Cure will take place June 8, 2013 with more than 1,000 riders of all abilities expected to participate.  In 2012, 970 riders raised $370,271.  The fund-raising goal for this year's Tour is $394,000 and 1,100 riders.

"Every year we get one step closer to finding a cure for diabetes and we couldn't do it without all of our dedicated riders, many of which

The deadline for block clubs and other organizations to order trees for the spring planting has been set for this Friday, March 8.

Any organization that has an interest in reforesting the public areas of Buffalo and the suburbs hit by the October 12, 2006 storm is urged to get in touch with Re-Tree WNY to place an order as soon as possible.

If the organization wishes to plant in the City of Buffalo, log onto www.re-treewny.org and access the "Calendar" section for the link to request trees.

Suburbs should contact their Re-Tree WNY

Change is on the horizon in Niagara Falls and they want your help and input for how to improve Main Street. There is a wealth of historic buildings along Main Street that are totally underutilized and could be real seeds of change for the area with the proper use and tenants.

The 2013 Main Street Symposium will take place Saturday, March 9th from 12 pm to 4 pm at the historic Rapids Theatre, 1711 Main Street, Niagara Falls, NY 14305. It is free and open to the public and includes

The Oishei Foundation recently announced a dollar-for-dollar challenge grant to the Niagara Falls City Council to help restore funding to the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center (NACC). The City Council Majority has recently eliminated $30,000 in City funding to the NACC and has verbally turned down the Oishei Foundation's offer of $15,000 if the City reinstated $15,000 in funding.

Designed by William Ittner and built in 1924, the classic revival building at Pine Avenue and Portage Road served as Niagara Falls' central high school until 2000, when it

The Campaign for Greater Buffalo successfully filed an Article 78 today, which placed a temporary restraining order on the demolition of the Bethlehem Steel Administration Building. This petition argues that the City of Lackawanna issued the demolition permit to Gateway Trade Center without performing environmental review as required by the NYS Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR).

Join the Urban Land Institute of Western New York (ULI WNY) on February 27 starting at 6 PM for an inside look at Ellicott Development Corporation's The Giacomo in downtown Niagara Falls. Ellicott Development completed the $12 million project in 2006, converting what was the formerly vacant United Office Building into the Giacomo - a luxury 38 room boutique hotel, with 24 high-end apartments on the upper floors that have complete access to the hotel's amenities.

 

After 5,692 days as head coach, the Buffalo Sabres have fired Lindy Ruff.
The Sabres announced the news on Twitter.
The Sabres have made no announcement as to who the next head coach will be. 
Ruff was the longest-tenured coach in the National Hockey League and the second longest-tenured coach in professional sports. 
He became head coach of the Sabres in 1997. 
Ruff's career record as Sabres head coach was 571-432-78 and earned 56% of possible points. 
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By Dan Leonard-
This past weekend, organizers of the Labatt Blue Buffalo Pond Hockey Tournament were forced to pull the plug on what has quickly become one of the city's quintessential wintertime events.  For the second year in a row, Erie Basin Marina was more suitable for water polo than ice hockey and in the six-year history of the event, unpredictable weather has forced drastic location changes, game cancellations and poor ice conditions almost every year.  
For those who haven't checked it out, the Pond Hockey

The Lackawanna Industrial Heritage Group (LIHG) has engaged the services of a team of well-respected preservation and planning professionals. The group, funded in part by a private donation, will assist in creating both feasibility and adaptive reuse studies for the 1901 Bethlehem Steel Administration Building. Declared structurally sound by an August engineering report, LIHG wants to show the public just what is possible at the site. They will announce more details today during a press conference at 12:30pm outside Lackawanna City Hall Wednesday,

The Western New York Regional Economic Development Council (WNYREDC) met Thursday and for the first time released its full report on the Buffalo Billion Investment Development Plan.  The plan, which serves as a roadmap for implementation and details the market analysis, stakeholder interviews and best practices that led to the the Council's six signature investable initiatives, can be found here.  The move kicks off the Council's implementation of the Buffalo Billion strategic

The fight is far from over in Lackawanna to save the Bethlehem Steel Administration building. Although demolition at the rear of the building started two weeks ago, it has been halted for the last six days for unknown reasons. So far only the small chemistry lab, which was a later addition, has been demolished. The remainder of the structure remains standing.
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Statler City is hosting the first annual Valentine's Day Dinner Dance with great food, dancing and big-band style music for an all-inclusive price on Friday, February 15. The event for 500 guests will be held in Statler City's stunning Golden Ballroom. Clarinetist Sal Andolina and his BPO Big Band with vocals by Nick Battistella will provide the evening's entertainment.
"We're bringing back the big band era to the historic Statler," says Statler City CEO Mark D. Croce. "It promises to be a great event."
The dress-up affair begins at 6:00

Most tech conferences cost you or your boss money. Most tech conferences don't have presenters show up in full Joker-in-The Dark Knight makeup. And most tech conferences have their presentations, their social opportunities, and their attendance list plotted out months in advance.

That's not the case at BarCamp Buffalo, which is rebooting and launching today, Saturday (Feb. 2, 2013) at Medaille College. Everyone participates in some way in the presentations and learning, and everything is taught by people who attend. A BarCamp

Voters are invited to give "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" to commercials in the Super Poll.  Travers Collins, Buffalo's leading integrated advertising/PR agency, will once again host the Super Poll to measure Western New York's real-time reactions to the commercials that air on Sunday.
The public is encouraged to visit the Super Poll website before (you can see the ads now on the polling site), during and after the big game and make their voice heard in the localized poll.

The following comes from Dana Saylor-Furman with the Lackawanna Industrial Heritage Group

The 1901 Beaux Arts-style Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company Administration Building (later known as the Bethlehem Steel Administration Building) is currently falling to the wrecking ball, despite the efforts of local citizens who have spoken out for its adaptive reuse. The Lackawanna Industrial Heritage Group (LIHG) has learned that Gateway Trade

The John R. Oishei Foundation recently awarded a $200,000 grant to the Isaiah 61 Project. The grant will be dedicated to an ambitious home renovation/on-site job training program in the City of Niagara Falls over the next three years. The Isaiah 61 Project is a faith based organization affiliated with Destination Life Fellowship Church. It is focused on rehabilitating Niagara Falls housing stock and providing skilled trades training in the process. 
"We recognized the commitment of the Isaiah 61 Project and its Project Coordinator, Jim Haid to positively impact