Mar 24
2025
Sheriff John Garcia goes Sergeant Schultz
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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia pulled a Sergeant Schultz the other day, saying, with a straight face that he knows nothing about the hit-and-run antics of Daniel “D.J.” Granville that Geoff Kelly reported on two weeks ago. And, get this, he proclaimed he will “do the right thing” if ongoing investigations turn up evidence of wrongdoing on Granville’s part.
What a bunch of, ah, hooey.
Granville is a ranking member of Gracia’s command staff and it’s inconceivable that he was not aware of his narcotics chief’s conduct last April when he smashed into seven parked cars.
Sorry, but the time to do the right thing was last year.
Add this to his track record of managing Erie County’s two jails – the pace of inmate deaths has not slowed since he succeeded Tim Howard – and Garcia has presented the Democrats with a golden opportunity to challenge him when he faces re-election in November.
Party Çhairman Jeremy Zellner doesn’t plan to field a challenger, however. His bench is that thin.
For a guy who decries Republicans, Zellner sure likes to play footsies with them, as evidenced by his practice of cross-endorsing judicial candidates to deny voters a choice at the ballot box, and now giving our pants-on-fire sheriff a free pass to a second term.
Someone wants to buy Lee Enterprises, which owns The Buffalo News. We couldn’t do any worse.
Donald Trump is running the federal government as an extortion racket. Consider who has capitulated to his bullying the past week.
- Columbia University, which surrendered without a fight when he threatened to cut off $400 million in federal funds. (On the other hand, the president of Princeton University says schools should fight the extortion.)
- The prominent law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton agreed to provide $40 million in pro bono legal services in support of Trump-friendly causes in exchange for the president withdrawing his executive order that sought to punish the firm for its Democratic leaning work. The legal community is “disgusted” by the settlement.
- Major League Baseball has dropped “diversity” from its careers page. This follows the National Football League removing “End Racism” in the end zones of last month’s Super Bowl.
There’s one word for this collective action: Gutless.
There are a few Democratic politicians who are rising to the occasion. Unfortunately, none of them represent New York in the United States Senate.
Speaking of Trump, in a long list of racist outrages, this one may take the cake. There’s this one, too.
The Trump plan to sabotage the Social Security Administration predictably targets the most vulnerable. The story notes “improper” Social Security payments amount to … less than 1% of total Social Security benefits paid and 0.1% of the federal budget.”
According to this review, there’s a much better search engine than Google, but it will cost you.
Switzerland used to have dirty waterways. Now their cities boast pristine rivers and lakes that residents can safely swim in.
Book review: Peter Wolf, of J. Geils fame, just released his memoir, Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses. I devoured it in five days. The guy has hung with a who’s who of the rock and blues world, from Muddy Waters to Mick Jagger to Van Morrison. Married a Hollywood starlet, too, Faye Dunaway. As Rolling Stone wrote, “Peter Wolf literally knew everybody.” One quibble: He has little to say about life with the J. Geils Band, which booted him in 1983. The resentment apparently lingers. Kinda sad.
John Oliver’s latest, on the parasitic online sports gambling industry.
