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Brian Higgins has confirmed he’s leaving Congress in February to take over the reins at Shea’s Performing Arts Center. The move has been in the works for a while, as our Geoff Kelly reported back in September.
Higgins, in an interview with The Buffalo News, said Congress is “in a very, very bad place right now.” Yeah, Congress is a mess, but he’s known that for a long time. If he didn’t want to continue, he shouldn’t have run for another term. Once re-elected, he owed it to the voters who returned him to office to stick it out. Higgins is leaving, what, to run a cultural nonprofit? It’s a waste of his talent.
What is it with these politicians who run for offices they don’t really want? I mean, Byron Brown has been pining for the presidency at Buffalo State University since shortly after winning re-election. Now he’s making noises about the seat Higgins is about to vacate. Good luck with that; I don’t think the mayor could get elected dog catcher, for obvious reasons.
Higgins deserves the praise that will be directed his way in the coming days. Indeed, he’s the best elected official serving WNY. But this is no way to go out.
Ken Kruly did a nice job wrapping up election results in his Politics and Other Stuff.
The Buffalo Bisons have hired former Mayor Tony Masiello to lobby for public funds to update the downtown ballpark they play in. I’m curious what work the Bisons have in mind, as the Toronto Blue Jays sunk a lot of money into the stadium during the pandemic to bring it up to major league standards so the team could play there while it was exiled from Canada.
Terry Pegula bought the Buffalo Sabres in 2011 for $189 million. The team is presently valued at $900 million. Hey Terry, pony up for renovating KeyBank Center. You can afford it.
Gov. Kathy Hochul disappoints again. Her administration’s updated “database of deals,” to help track corporate subsidies in New York State “does not provide simple answers to the basic subsidy questions,” according to Reinvent Albany.
Warren Buffett appears to have violated his own conflict of interest rules in three stock purchases, ProPublica reports.
The Pew Research Center has published its annual update on the state of the newspaper industry. Print circulation last year dropped 13 percent during the week and 16 percent on Sundays. Website traffic for the Top 50 dailies fell by 20 percent, although there are multiple ways of interpreting those digital numbers. Advertising revenue is down 5 percent. In all, depressing.
Phil Meyer is not a household name like Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein. But to journalists who cut their teeth on computer assisted reporting, he was a pioneer and a huge influence on the profession. He died last week at the age of 93. RIP.
The man is bonkers, Part 1: Donald Trump on the 202o election, and I quote: ‘“Fifty states. We won every state.”
The man is bonkers, Part 2: GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy wants to build a wall … between the United States and … Canada.
The Washington Post explains what went wrong Tuesday for the Republicans. Or, as The Intercept put it, abortion rights and weed.
The Marshall Project offers a nuanced analysis of the latest crime statistics.
It used to be tough to get a beer at a college football game. No more.
You think Jim Kelly was tough when he quarterbacked the Bills? You are probably aware he’s had health issues since he retired, but they’ve been worse than you may realize. The Athletic has a moving profile. Kelly tough, indeed. |
