Auron Casey Wasiewicz Slayton. Born 4 September at 1:25 a.m. 7 lbs, 5 oz. Big feet. Bald. Does not look like Winston Churchill. He was amazingly alert and talkative. Mama & baby both doing just fine. Photos later.
Maria & James make beautiful babies, and I am proud as all get out.
A Grandson!
September 4th, 2009Terminal Loses another Friend
August 28th, 2009First Russ Pawlak, and now Mike Miller.
Mike was a tireless promoter of the East Side and the Central Terminal. Although never one to gloss over shortcomings of the areas, he always told me that big improvements were on the way. A truly great man who will be sorely missed.
My deepest condolences to Mike’s family and friends.
Early Rising Stuff
August 26th, 2009This morning it was 4:30. Not totally rational at that time so I made a pot o’ joe with Hendrix’ “If 6 were 9″ running through my head.
Found out the following:
Ted Kennedy passed at age 77. In the tradition of comments on the News site, first one brings up Mary Lo Kopechne. True style…
Lewiston Jazz Festival, Elmwood Festival, and rain in the forecast this weekend.
Two sites have become must – reads: Brian and Colin.
Until my daughter has the baby, I will have this thing about having fully charged phones next to me at all times.
Have a seriously good day y’all…
Mayors say the darndest things
August 22nd, 2009So now the ECIDA has egg on their face due to the One Sunset fiasco. It doesn’t seem like anyone did their homework on this one. Business as usual. And what does the Mayor chime in with?
“At the end of the day, the Erie County IDA had a responsibility to provide oversight and review of any loans that were being made, and I think there was some due diligence there that needed to kick in as well,”
Wait. This is a member of the BERC speaking. The one who said he had no clue this was going on and damn well should have. The one people are already anointing as the next Mayor.
Lord help this city..
County Attorney to feds: We negotiate our incompetence
August 14th, 2009Also known as “Move along folks, nothing to see here”. Let me put this in a nutshell. The county wants:
1. To negotiate”Constitutional requirements”
2. To be present at all interviews, or have a videotape of the interview if not present. Obviously this is to facilitate retaliation process improvement.
3. Findings will result in “Discussions” on an out of court settlement. No lawsuits allowed
I guess incompetence begets arrogance. Is this what they mean by “Good business practices”?
Prevailing or Fair. You Decide
August 10th, 2009These two terms have been bandied about quite a bit lately, with some feeling that they are interchangeable. Here is the list (current) as determined by the New York State Department of Labor. These rates are usually set after a survey has been conducted by region.
Argue if you will about the County Legislature throwing prevailing wage into the mix, but they are only following the example of the federal government. See all those rules that basically say “You want Fed cash? Pay prevailing wages”.
Now as to the term Fair. Do I think it fair that a flagman on the roadside makes as much as I do? No. But then again, I don’t have to dodge cars moving a 40 – 50 mph in a construction zone.
The original idea behind prevailing wage rates was to even the playing field for those who employed union labor at a higher wage when it came to bidding on government contracts. Of course when trying to create balance,the end result was creating imbalance in the opposite direction. So higher cost organized labor actually has an unfair advantage over smaller firms, family businesses that may be able to provide an equal or better product at a lower cost. The free market that so many love to speak of has absolutely no sway in this situation.
So here are the figures, read and enjoy.
And by the way, these are private sector wages set by the government. They are not the wages paid to public employees.
Mayoral Race cancelled due to lack of interest
August 3rd, 2009First, The Dems don’t officially endorse either of their candidates.Kind of a “Gives us a call when somebody wins” type of enthusiasm.Now the Buffalo GOP isn’t even going to make an effort.
I know being on the short end of a 7-1 registered voter ratio can be a bit of a bummer, but throwing in the towel before the fight starts will not do anything to increase your number.
Some of the other reasoning slays me.
They are laying low to keep from riling up those darn city democrats and giving them a reason to vote so that the Republican candidates for County office have a better chance.
Some observers say the situation is fine with Domagalski; that he would just as soon suppress the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic vote to boost countywide Republicans in competitive races—especially Timothy M. Howard for sheriff and Philip C. Kadet for comptroller.
Competitive? Does this sound like someone who is competitive for the office of Sheriff?
And as for the candidate for Comptroller, this is all I could find on the retiree Kadet.
Now if they are pulling in their horns to give these two a better shot at winning, they are in dire straits indeed.
I won’t dance – don’t ask me..
July 30th, 2009With apologies to Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields, and Jerome Kern…
This is what my wife read to me on the way home from work in the Niagara gazette.
Imagine you see two cars coming at you at high speed. You finally stop the one, adrenaline’s pumping, you yank the driver out, and you get this:
Deputies said Harris began using expletives, saying, “You all got me with the (expletive) squeeze play! You all (expletive) set Joe up. Old Joe got played! Old Joe angry.”
The best part (hence the title):
When asked to perform field sobriety tests, Harris replied, “I won’t dance.”
Nothing beats the Falls for entertainment.
Ethics? Government?
July 29th, 2009Yes, there is a panel for that in Buffalo. And they look into things. Mickey “Pay attention to me, dammit!” Kearns thinks that looking into emails which may have contained unethical content is free campaign material “A good first step”.
Now color me cynical, but I am pretty sure that this type of activity, in various shapes and sizes happens in just about every city at this time of year. Of course when it pops up, the accused will have no comment. Here, you are referred to Cutler Communications, and as usual, he is un-communicative.
Now the panel will have their secret meetings as allowed by law. And if they find out that the allegations are true, they may refer it to another entity for possible disciplinary action. Or they may do nothing. Same thing. And they may find that the emails in question were not a violation. And do nothing. Although if that is the case, I am sure that Mr. Cutler will communicate that to us.
But for all the excitement this has generated, I will still place it in the “tempest in a teapot” category based on the initial excitement to actual result ratio.
The Weekend
July 24th, 2009Positives – Garden Walk, festivities at the Broadway Market, Canalfest.
Negatives – Washer AND dryer both went down last night. The patio roof is leaking worse than ever.
Oh yeah – I have decided that today will be bowling shirt day at work again. Now a little coffee and off I go!
Enjoy!