Feb 27
2022
Monday Morning Reads
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Editor’s note: WeeklyPost is an email newsletter written by Jim Heaney and published Sunday mornings. It recaps our coverage of the previous week and highlights other local, state and national stories that Heaney finds of interest, along with a bit of commentary. If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so at this link.
Here’s a sampling of the “What I’m Reading” section of yesterday’s newsletter.
It’s been a long time coming, but Louis Ciminelli is finally behind bars for his involvement in the Buffalo Billion bid rigging and Alain Kaloyeros is headed there next month. They were convicted on felony corruption charges in July 2018 and have been fighting their convictions on appeal. So, they’re in prison and Andrew Cuomo, who almost certainly played some sort of role in the wrong doing, is out of his job as governor. It amounts to justice delayed, but not denied.
Mayor Byron Brown has finally gotten around to filling some of the vacancies in his administration. To no one’s surprise, he appointed Joseph Gramaglia police commissioner. Gramaglia was deputy commissioner under Byron Lockwood and essentially ran the department. We reported in October that Gramaglia and his wife had contributed $1,150 to Brown’s mayoral campaign and hosted a fundraiser at their home. Question: Does his appointment mean he’ll stop moonlighting as “officer in charge” for the Village of Blasdell’s police department?
Brown apparently filled the commissioner’s job without doing any outside job search. The mayor likewise didn’t break a sweat when he hired Lockwood, and before him, Dan Derenda. I called Mike DeGeorge, the mayor’s spokesman, several weeks ago to ask about how Brown was going about filling a number of high-level vacancies, but DeGeorge, true to form, failed to respond. Given the appointments announced Friday, including city attorney and inspections commissioner, it appears the mayor isn’t looking beyond City Hall to fill senior positions.
We Buffalonians think we’re so tough when it comes to winter. Jeff Z. Klein doesn’t think so.
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has some interesting things to say about the proposed Bills stadium on The Capitol Pressroom. (Those comments start at 8:30 in the podcast.) He thinks the Pegulas should cover the lion’s share of costs and that the deal needs to receive a full public airing once it’s finalized. DiNapoli expressed the hope that a deal won’t be rushed through the approval process, which is often the way in Albany.
Political junkies take note: Ken Kruly handicaps the race for governor, complete with facts and figures.
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Andrew Cuomo, apparently aching for a second act, had produced television ads that will start to air this week.
Online sports betting, legal in New York as of the first of the year, has taken off in a big and troubling way.
The producer of the Showtime documentary series on Bill Cosby talked with NPR’s Fresh Air about the good (yes, there was), bad and very, very ugly of the legendary and disgraced comedian. A fascinating interview.
