Who Owns George Maziarz

In recent weeks, Rus Thompson of Albany’s Insanity has made a big show of listing out what union groups and PAC’s have made significant contributions to Democrats like Lynn Marinelli, Maria Whyte, Antoine Thompson, et al.

The purpose, of course, is to demonstrate that these dirty Democrats do not represent the interests of voters and instead are malleable pawns of the lobbying groups.  However, Rus has yet to list one of these “Who Owns…” segments featuring a Republican (aside from convenient enemy Dale Volker) and I thought it might be time to balance it out.  Let’s pick one at random, perhaps…State Senator George Maziarz.

Alright, it’s not random at all.  George is a “mentor” of Rus’s as he is a frequent guest at the tea party rallies, anti-Albany protests and generally talks a big game as he opposes “big” government and irresponsible spending.

One would then assume that ol’ Georgie boy is clean when it comes to campaign contributions as he is a man of principle!  A man of the people!  Opposed to public unions and the damage they have done to the republic, liberty and good tax paying citizens all over New York State!  A true champion for upstate citizens against the downstate interests who are destroying the very fabric of our state!

Right?  Well, not really.

Search campaign contributions here.

Since 2001, State Senator George Maziarz (FAIL, Niagara Falls) has accepted the following total contributions:

1199 SEIU – $14500

AFSCME – $6450

ASGM PAC (NY Workers Compensation Lobby) – $17,500

Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers PAC – $6,600

Building & Trades Council (The guys who want union apprentice laws) – $2,200

NYSHFA (Nursing Home Association) – $14,300

Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters – $3,700

Empire State Association of Adult Homes (Nursing Home People) – $24,700

FAIR PAC (Healthcare) – $3,500

HANYS PAC (New York State Hospital and Healthcare Association) – $8,200

NY State Association of Healthcare Providers – $13,150

IBEW – $31,815

International Union of Operating Engineers – $13,000

Laborers’ International Union of North America – $27,450

Lawyers Political Action Committee of New York – $18,900

NY AFL-CIO – $14,700

I could continue, but I’ve got other shit to do and I think you get the point. I could keep tallying up all the donations from healthcare interest groups, medical professionals, energy industry groups, unions (public and private), and trade associations, but I’ll literally be here for hours. Each and every one of these groups is fighting to keep much of the NY healthcare infrastructure in place, as is. The others are looking for favorable votes when it comes to union specific legislation. It’s nothing new.

In the end, the purpose is to point out the intellectual dishonesty of highlighting contributions made to Democrats by public interest groups, specifically from labor and public unions. Especially when all of these same interest groups show up on the contributor list for the Republicans as well.

Can we just stop pretending that Albany FAIL is a partisan issue? I know that Rus likes to protest Sen. Dale Volker because everyone thinks he’s a useless prag, but using him to prove your bipartisan bonafides and deflect criticism that you’re not evenly distributing the criticism is just dishonest.

George Maziarz, who voted for the Pataki budgets and has accepted millions of dollars in political contributions from public unions and other associated PACs is just as responsible for the mess in New York State as Antoine Thompson or Crystal Peoples.

So, I guess we’ll see Rus and his protesters out at the next Maziarz fundraiser, right?

If you want to follow the mone and connect the dots on how money raised is used to influence legislation in Albany, follow bill progress at SunlightNY.

The Dummy Chronicles

In a new, irregular and totally random feature, I’ll address a media report that is so incredibly fucking dumb, that it can not be allowed to stand. I’m calling it “The Dummy Chronicles” because the reporter/commentator relaying it is a big, fat dummy or the report itself will result in dummies panicking after seeing it.

As the “computer geek” in the lives of many friends, I am often sent a lot of bullshit rumors/claims/reports about the impending doom of spyware/malware/internet hoaxes and asked to debunk them.  Today, I was forwarded the following clip from The Glenn Beck show on Fox News.  In it, Beck describes how the government is out to take over your computer simply because you are using the Cars.gov website which is the web portal for the “Cash For Clunkers” program.

Watch the dumb pour from your computer screen in this clip as Beck, Jonah Goldberg and some anonymous, buxom Fox news reader describe the site.  Absorb Beck’s Barnum-esque flair for the dramatic and feel the fear mongering.

For the video deprived, in the clip, Beck reads the following end user license agreement language:

Let me show you what it does say when you pull it up. Can you bring up the full screen on what it says?

A warning box comes up, and it says, “This application provides access to the DOT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a federal computer system and it is property of the United States Government. Or — any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DOT, law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”

Good God Almighty!

Beck uses the following words in his description of the site, the government and what could happen to John Q. Public if and when he logs into the CARS.gov website:

“Frightening”, “seizing”, “track you forever”, “nefarious”, “they can get all your information”, “evil people”, “wicked, crazy, frightening people”, “troubling”, “If you log on to this at your home, everything in your home is now theirs”, “Don’t do it”

All of this from Goldberg and Beck, both of whom supported Bush’s Patriot Act and warrantless wiretapping.

Problem with the segment that 4MM+ people watched live and online?

It is total, unadulterated bullshit.

What Beck fails to mention in this segment is that the part of the website he is referencing is the login portal for auto dealers, not the part of the site your Nana or Aunt Peg in Jamestown will visit when they research if they can trade in their 1975 Plymouth Valiant for a discount on a fancy new Impala.

You might also notice in the clip that the website Beck is accessing is blue in color, not the green one  Joe Six Pack would see while looking at cars.gov.  The login portal and subsequent EULA he is referencing is for dealers who are accessing a government system filled with non-public data; data like your VIN, license plates and drivers license numbers.  It contains sensitive information, so it is protected thusly.

Also, regular users of the site can’t even find the link that Beck references on the site by navigating around, the user would have been directed to the link, presumably through a communication with the Department of Transportation. Interestingly, once logged in, the dealer is redirected to another site administered by the DOT and the EULA the dealer must agree to prior to moving forward is as follows, in its unedited glory:

This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the United States Government. It is for authorized use only. Users (authorized or unauthorized) have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy.

Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign. By using this system, the user consents to such interception, monitoring, recording, copying, auditing, inspection, and disclosure at the discretion CARS or the DoT personnel.

Unless you’re a dummy, reading the entirety of that warning should tell you that an auto dealer is not giving the government the right or ability to look at files on the dealer’s computer.  The EULA references files the dealer would submit ONTO THE GOVERNMENT SYSTEM.

This is all pretty standard language and not shocking in the least. The government is taking steps to make sure files uploaded to its site are clean and inline with the intent of the program. In fact, highlighting the text and performing a rudimentary google search yields nearly 1000 results on state, academic, and federal websites which use that exact EULA language.

Of course, Beck would rather you think that government socialists want to look at your family pictures, check on what porn sites you visit, and examine your .mp3’s to make sure you didn’t download them from a torrent site. None of which is true and is yet another sad chapter in Glenn Beck’s history of creating a sense of creeping totalitarianism while dramtically fear mongering.

Too bad so many people love this guy, it speaks ill of America that this guy gets a paycheck every two weeks to do anything but rinse mops at an adult theater.

This concludes this edition of The Dummy Chronicles. I hope you enjoyed it and you should forward anything you want highlighted to me in comments or via email.

Paladino Responds To Buffalo Niagara Partnership

Normally, I leave the blind and uncritical parroting of Carl Paladino’s missives to the fine folks at Buffalo Rising.  However, this latest email which I received today was too good to pass up, so call me a parrot for the day.

Carl wrote a response to the Buffalo Niagara Partnership’s full page ad in the July 31st edition of The Buffalo News. Click here for the full ad.

Buck Quigley of our partner news site, Artvoice, wrote a cursory and snarky response to the letter earlier today.  However, Carl’s response was WAY more entertaining.

Hey Andy, nice set up buddy. The ad is a real piece of work, but the real beauty is in the timing. I’ll bet your buddies Stan (Lipsey) and Warren (Buffet) stayed up a night or two putting this little tribute of dribble together for you. I wonder why they didn’t give you credit for allowing the sun to come up in the morning. But of course, they didn’t write it. You did. And I am sure that you believe every word of it in your arrogant, condescending, myopic world of Andy.

Of course our community and its future should be in your hands. Who could imagine any other person leading us when for the past 25 years you kept your finger on the leadership group and at the same time abrogated any sense of leadership in advocacy. Ultimately allowing inept, incompetent and in many cases criminal political and elected officials to serve themselves at the trough and ruin any atmosphere or opportunity we may have had that would have been inviting to business and job expansion to our area. NYPA has abused us for years. Not a whimper out of you. Do you think when you take money from the State it compromises your ability to do the best for a community being strangled by the abusive Albany 2 step? How can you claim independence and objectivity when you go to extraordinary lengths to help the parasitic Montantes get unfair subsidies from the State to the detriment of others in your membership. How can you be objective with the press when you are so up the behinds of the Warren/Stan boys choir.

Would Albany be what it is today if we had effective advocacy shedding a light on the bad guys? Was your epistle to the membership last week an attempt to show on the record that you’re open to hearing and acting on input from the members?

Speaking of members why can’t you publish how many actual dues paying members you have that aren’t in it just for the health insurance? Did you lie when you told (Jonathan) Epstein (Buffalo News Business Reporter) 2200 people? Your ad says 2500 members. We can’t find them. I’ll bet the guys who signed the ad don’t even know how many members there are in the organization.

Do you think they have any idea how bad your staff morale problem is? Do you know how many of your former staff members have contacted me to offer their comments on your attitude and ability to judiciously lead? And don’t tell us that you and your staff are working behind the scenes everyday applying your technical know-how. We’ve talked to the staff. You’re infrequently around and give very little direction when you are. The office atmosphere is quiet chaos. And certainly you show us no credible track record. The list in the ad is not worth the time to comment on.

At 4:30 AM last week our honorable, chosen, idiot Sens. Antoine (just this side of plant life) Thompson and Billy (nothing going on) Stachowski sponsored a bill to allow NYPA to spread our WNY allocated power or the profits earned from its resale all around the state. That’s about $200MM per year that should have been used to support economic development right here in WNY. Where were you on that one Andy?

Maybe those who signed your ad find you tolerable. They hurt their public image when they went against their sense of good judgment and signed on. There is something severely wrong when people holding very responsible positions in the community act against their own principals and substantive values for the sake of loyalty and respect for one another. Most of the people in WNY don’t like you Andy. Stop putting good people out on a limb so you can hold on to something this important to thousands of people in the community. Its not about you Andy. Its about them.

It’s about that young person who was so discouraged that he or she had to leave the area and find his or her destiny elsewhere. I’m not blaming you for doing bad things. I blame you for doing nothing tangible about it and for not getting out of the way so someone else can try to stop the fall into the abyss.

I sincerely believe that Margaret, in assigning Epstein to the story, thought that the Rudnick debate had matured to the point that it was newsworthy and I’m sure she knew nothing of the ad. By the way, how much did the ad cost you? Who paid? Did Stan give his old “deep throat” buddy a discount or was it free? For years you have been a collector of power for the sole purpose of gathering information to pass on to the power elite including passing deep background information on every possible topic to Stan and Warren, information gathered from every organization that you sought to dominate from your seat of power.

The talking is over now Andy. Its time to poll the community not only on you, but since the News has reared its head, we’ll expand the target. We’ll ask the people of Western New York to send us all a very clear signal on whether they are happy not only with the Stan and Andy show but also with the other status quo advocates in the community. Take a rest for a week. You’ll need it.

Carl is mad for a lot of reasons. Primarily, that Carl Montante and Uniland get sweet subsidies and benefits that he and his company, Ellicott Development, do not. While some of his motivation is undeniably selfish, he also loves this region like so many of us and is frustrated by the lack of leadership.

It would appear that Paladino is ready to start a war with Rudnick and the BNP. Whether or not the comission of that war or the ultimate result benefits anyone outside the elite is hard to determine. But, it will be good political theater.

The Insurance Industry And You

The debate surrounding “health care reform” in 2009 has been disingenuous, riddled with anecdotal bullshit, straight up lies, and is being treated as a political football more than the lynchpin to the financial health of this country.  Each day that passes, I become more cynical about our ability to do ANYTHING in this country for the right reasons.

Republican leaders like John Thune, John Boehner, Newt Gingrich, Orrin Hatch, and Eric Cantor have appeared on numerous talk shows and panel discussions citing studies from a “non-partisan” think tank which show that a public healthcare option would result in 103 Million Americans losing their insurance.  Of course, none of the dopey “liberal journalists” who host those shows did any research on the veracity of their claim or the connections of the think tank.  They just let the Republicans spout off the numbers without any critical analysis.  Welcome to TV news in 2009.

Along came The Washington Post with a story identifying a few interesting factors to frame the claims from The Lewin Group and the Republicans.

More specifically, the Lewin Group is part of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth subsidiary that was accused by the New York attorney general and the American Medical Association, a physician’s group, of helping insurers shift medical expenses to consumers by distributing skewed data. Ingenix supplied its parent company and other insurers with data that allegedly understated the “usual and customary” doctor fees that insurers use to determine how much they will reimburse consumers for out-of-networkcare.

Next up,  Rachel Maddow did some digging and had this to say about the Republican cited “non-partisan thinktank“.

Yes, the Lewin Group is “non-partisan” if by “non-partisan” you mean wholly funded, subsidized and managed by United Healthcare, the second largest private insurance group in America.

The Lewin Group is an Ingenix company.  Ingenix, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, was founded in 1996 to develop, acquire and integrate the world’s best-in-class health care information technology capabilities

As mentioned in the WaPo story and the Maddow segment, Ingenix and United Healthcare were at the center of an investigation by NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo’s investigation concerned allegations that the Ingenix database intentionally skewed “usual and customary” rates downward through faulty data collection, poor pooling procedures, and the lack of audits.  That means many consumers were forced to pay more than they should have.  The investigation found the rate of underpayment by insurers ranged from ten to twenty-eight percent for various medical services across the state.  The Attorney General found that having a health insurer determine the “usual and customary” rate – a large portion of which the insurer then reimburses – creates an incentive for the insurer to manipulate the rate downward.

While the actions taken by Cuomo were necessary to reform a system which intentionally defrauded patients and doctors, Republicans and Libertarians will no doubt claim it was just New York and big government getting between you and your Doctor and “meddling in the free market”.

The fact that Ingenix and The Lewin Group are cited as policy experts and/or non-partisan in any debate after Cuomo’s investigation and settlement defies the bounds of logic.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an honest discussion about the costs and benefits of public healthcare policy without disingeuous talking points and intentional fraud?

A Simple Question

I’ve been running around like a scalded dog this week for work and haven’t had much time to add spicy content to the fancy new website, so my apologies.

As I sit here tonight suffering from blogger block, I thought I’d pose a couple of questions to the entirety of Western New York.

• As a region, what are we doing well? Do we excel at anything?
• What broad based municipal goal are we moving toward?
• How will we know when we’ve achieved that goal?
• Who is measuring progress towards achievement?
• Who is held accountable if we fail to achieve that goal?

I think we focus heavily on what it is that we do poorly, perhaps to our detriment.  Instead of focusing on the constant deluge of FAIL, why don’t we take a different approach and identify what, if anything, we are successful in accomplishing.

We might be doing something well in town/city/county government, arts and culturals, urban planning, economic development, private sector business, anything.  Seriously, what are we doing well?

This exercise has a dual purpose.

1. If we can’t readily identify what it is that we are doing well, we have a larger problem.  We’ll need to set goals, establish measurements for progress and move towards them.
2. If we can identify a core list of successes, we should find ways to transfer the methodology to other projects and issues.

I moved back to Buffalo four years ago, this month.  After all of that time, I’m still not certain what it is we are trying to accomplish in this region.  Nor do I know who is empowered to make decisions to move the region forward.  Nor do I know if anyone is doing anything well.

So, how are we doing?

Campaign Platform For A Greater Buffalo

I’ve been giving some thought as of late to running for political office.  Aside from creating a derivative campaign poster, I haven’t gotten very far in the planning.  I’m not really sure I want to run or what office best suits my abrasive, arrogant, know-it-all, smartypants style.

Decisions, decisions.

So, I thought I’d turn the decision making process into a blog exercise for all of us.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, I think you’re probably acquainted with most of my political positions.  Generally speaking, I favor clean money/clean elections, regionalism, consolidation of local government, public health care, efficiencies/cost savings through technical modernization of services delivery, landbanking, a return to neighborhood schools in Buffalo, smart code zoning practices, consolidated IDA’s, light rail expansion, high speed rail, cooperative economic development initiatives with Toronto and Rochester, etc.

In short, I’m a good government centrist progressive.  Make sense?  I think my mix of progressive planning ideas and aims to reduce government waste would position me well to raise money from the urban goo-goo hippies as well as the corporate guys with fat wallets.  I can’t lose!  Well, I would undoubtedly lose, but that’s beside the point.

On the other hand, I know little about the political positions of my readers and potential loyal subjects constituents.

If you were going to run for elected office, what would be YOUR platform?  To make this even more concise, tell me what office you’d like to run for and what your top three platform issues would be.  I’d really like to know.

Let’s consider this the beginning of the obligatory bullshit “listening tour” that every candidate seems to launch prior to running for office.  Let’s share and care and cuddle with our principles.

Kearns Needs Money

Today was an important day in the “race” to be the next Mayor of Buffalo.  It’s the day the July 2009 Periodic Campaign Finance Disclosure Reports are published by the New York State Board of Elections.  As a campaign junkie, report filings get me as excited as Navin Johnson on phone book delivery day.

Aside from miraculous upsets, the guy with the most money in the bank is usually a stone cold leadpipe lock to win an election.  So, with Mickey Kearns’ chances already in doubt, I was interested to see if he could shake loose some sheckels from the Buffalo hoi polloi for his Mayoral campaign.  After reviewing his finances, I think the answer is a resounding “no”.

His July Periodic summary shows that Kearns was able to raise $82,919.17 in cash and “in-kind donations”.  Of that $82,919.17, Kearns spent $66,925.23 which leaves him with $15,993.94 to fight the remainder of the primary against Mayor Byron Brown.  Of course, he’ll raise more money in the months ahead, but his poor showing thus far and the general perception that he’s in over his head will not help future fundraising efforts.

Kearns raised about $31K in individual donations, $2,750 in corporate donations, $2,900 in union money, roughly $35K of in-kind donations and a transfer of $11,500 from his Common Council warchest which is now in the red to the tune of $2500.

The money is tight because no one wants to throw money at a candidate who lacks a serious chance of winning nor do they want to get on the bad side of Mayor Brown’s steamroller political machine.  Byron Brown’s filing has not yet made public on the NY Board of Elections site, but it is estimated he has in excess of $1,000,000 on hand.  Brown’s January 2009 periodic report showed a balance of over $750K and he has been holding frequent, big ticket fundraisers ever since.

If I’m Mickey Kearns, I’m praying that Jim Heaney at The Buffalo News finds a meatier Byron Brown scandal than the One Sunset story.  Mickey’s only chance at victory comes from a total implosion by the Brown campaign.

Mickey Kearns Can’t Win

He can’t win and he’s wasting his time.

There, I said it.

I’m not the only one who is saying it as several local Democratic operatives, journalists, legislative staff members and politicos have shared the same feeling with me.  Kearns hasn’t been able to drum up support from much of anyone in the elected ranks.  The other politicians who overlap his district (Schroeder, Higgins, Stachowski, etc.) have all pledged support to Byron Brown.  Kearns was able to wrangle a tepid endorsement from Assemblyman Sam Hoyt earlier this week, but Hoyt and the Mayor have been locked in mortal combat for years.  It’s not like Hoyt had any other options.

We’re just going through the motions with a primary challenge to Mayor Brown that will precede an inevitable 70%-30% general election trouncing of whatever Republican decides to take a bullet for the team.  Which is a shame, because we have a petty, small minded autocrat running this city without a vision for success.

In every single interview I have seen or heard with Kearns, he comes across as completely unserious.  He lacks the soberness, gravitas or political will to run a city as troubled as our fair Queen City.  His “platform“, such as it is, is woefully lacking any bright shiny initiative that differentiates himself from the incumbent.  Mickey’s “issues” page is  filled with schlock about neighborhood quality of life centers, improving failed processes and “streamlining” red tape.  It’s the agenda for a councilman, not a serious candidate for Mayor of the second largest city in New York State.

Take, for example, his interview with Elena Buscarino at Buffalo Rising, it’s total and utter crap…no offense.

He’s sitting face-to-face with a person who isn’t going to ask him a tough question and he comes across as a kid running for Student Council Vice President promising Coke Machines in the lunchroom.  She lobbed more softballs than the drunk guy from accounting at the corporate picnic and the best he could come up with was some vague process improvements and a promise to do something the Mayor has already pledged to work on (Smart Code).

There is a hard truth in this campaign.  For many citizens of Buffalo, Mayor Brown is a pretty solid guy.  His administration has reduced crime in some of the city’s most distressed neighborhoods and he always appears to be “doing something“.  In Buffalo, that goes a long way.

Those of us who pay attention to the inside baseball stuff, the corruption, the half-assed machiavellian tendencies, the political machinations, overpaid staff,  and the general lack of a vision…we all know Brown is as useless as tits on a bull.  For those schooled in public policy, Citistat is bullshit.  It’s a garbage in-garbage out data collection system which simply allows for the Mayor to look very serious dozens of hours each week on public access television.  For those of us who care about ethics, this administration is an embarassment.

From Pete Cutler allegedly drunkenly hiding under a car after allegedly hitting a motorcyclist, to Brown’s son joyriding around the east side and destroying property, allegedly confiscating Syaed Ali’s underpants and deodorant, to the epic FAIL of One Sunset, to slamming crappy hotels for cronies into plum waterfront development sites, to the staffers pulling multiple salaries from multiple departments and all the other bullshit…this administration makes the Masiello crew look like choir girls.

Sadly, most people in the third poorest city in the nation don’t give a rat’s ass about any of that.  They know they have cameras on their corners, lower crime rates, the taxes have gone down a couple of bucks and shitty houses on their blocks are being demolished.  And everywhere they turn, Mayor Brown’s smiling visage is seen on billboards and the TV screen.  He’s everywhere, the king of press conferences and studies to plan studies that will assemble committees to fix problems.

What does Mickey have to counter that?  Not much.  He needs a message, an idea, a vision.  In the Buffalo Rising article I referenced above, Mickey claims to be a “big picture” kind of guy.  Sadly, everything he says makes him look like he hasn’t the slightest idea of what he’s gotten himself into.

And we’re all going to be the worse for it…guaranteed another four years of incompetent and misguided leadership from the Brown Administration.

Volunteers Needed for Project Homeless Connect

In fall of 2008, the United States Census Bureau released a special report naming Buffalo as the third poorest large city in the United States, with approximately one-third of its adult population living below the poverty line, and 42% of its children living in poverty. Approximately 2,000 people (including people in families) are homeless on any given night, a number that has not changed dramatically in recent years.

On July 17th, the WNY Coalition for the Homeless in partnership with the Homeless Alliance of WNY, Neighborhood Legal Services and the City of Buffalo will be bringing Project Homeless Connect to Buffalo for the first time.

Project Homeless Connect is a national best practice model that was pioneered in San Francisco in 2004 and has since spread to over 200 communities around the world. The event brings all sorts of service providers and resources to one place, on one day, to connect with the community’s homeless and near-homeless population. Homeless individuals will receive onsite services as well as information and referrals.

Buffalo’s Project Homeless Connect will take place at the:

Buffalo Convention Center
July 17th 10am-6pm

For more information visit our website at:

http://projecthomelessconnectbuffalo.org/

We are still in need of about a 100 volunteers to help with the activities of the day. We are asking volunteers to sign up for either a morning shift (that will begin with set up at 8am and will end at 2pm) or an afternoon shift (that will begin at 2pm and end with tear down at 8pm). If you can only commit to parts of either of the shifts, that is also fine.

If you’re interested in volunteering please email Joyelle Tedeschi at wnyhomeless@gmail.com and visit the Volunteer Opportunities section of our website.

The goal of the event is to bring the entire community together to reach out to some of the most marginalized and neglected folks in the area and directly provide them with important services they are not able to afford. While not a solution in itself to the root economic and social causes of poverty and homeless, Project Homeless Connect is a vital step towards building a broad based public-private movement to end homelessness and poverty in Buffalo.

We need your help to make this event a success.

Spotlight Buffalo

As we ramp up content on the new site, Marc Odien and I are planning a new feature and we’re going to need help from our readers/commenters in order to implement it.

We know that it takes a lot of effort to create a blog, maintain it and nurture an audience, it’s not for everyone.  We also know that many of you would like to contribute your thoughts, experiences and opinions, but don’t have the time to manage your own blog.  We’d like to offer an opportunity for you to make small, meaningful contributions to the local scene by asking you to tell us about things you care about.

It’s called Spotlight Buffalo, an ongoing series about the people/places/things that make Western New York a great place to live.  Your contribution can be a review of a local restaurant, a profile of someone who is making a difference in your neighborhood or community, a piece of local history, interview with a local business owner, or an issue/event/group that needs a little coverage.  Generally speaking, if you’re interested in it, we’re interested in it.

The idea came from a series of videos we produced for this year’s Buffalo Homecoming Citybration in which we profiled those who are making a difference in our community.  Here are a few samples:

We’ve already signed up a few interested writers and we’ve got them out working on stories now.  We’ll start publishing articles soon, but I wanted to find others who might want to contribute.  There will be compensation for your efforts, but the compensation will be based on the number of page views your article generates.  We think this is an excellent way for you to become an advocate for your writing/video, helps the subjects of your work market themselves and spreads the word about the good stuff happening in the region.

Leave a comment or send me an email to chris @ wnymedia . net and we’ll get you the details and set you up to start publishing!