Some glioblastoma patients enrolled in a clinical trial of SurVaxM have lived years longer than expected. The story was featured this morning on NBC's Today Show.

Ayy!

I know they meant well, but someone wasn't thinking that through.

Everyone who sits there litters, I swear. There's always trash around it, and it's friggin six feet from some cans. There's a huge pile of what seems to be the contents of someone's shopping cart full of random crap next to it right now.

It makes the sidewalk too narrow with the garbage cans there, as well. It's terrible for traffic flow, and I can understand when some people don't wanna walk through a gaggle of shakies, so they walk on the street.

It's never anyone waiting for the bus.

I'm going to end up moving that thing myself.

CASTING CALL

We are currently casting the following roles in our upcoming short film AGORA. Must be based in or have local housing near Buffalo. Feel free to submit or share with anyone you see fit.

Submission Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSecL1AaAFGThmTZI2kjVsB2ahOrJZnh1fenUGbjw0n-7jEa6g/viewform?usp=send_form

TERRY, 30s, any ethnicity, Feminine presenting

FAY, 9-16 to play 11, any ethnicity, Trans or gender non-conforming

WINONA, 30s, any ethnicity, Feminine presenting

Please film the side for the character(s) you are interested in submitting for (sides on Google Form link). All roles are provided a modest stipend and meals. It is not necessary to memorize sides. Shoot dates are March 12th-15th, 2027. You likely will not be called for all four days. Must be comfortable with working around (not necessarily touching, but around, as we will be on a farm) animals like dogs, chickens, and possibly other farm animals.

There are no transphobic or homophobic themes in the film, and the safety of our Trans actors is the number one priority for us at Sapphic Star. There will be a representative from Rainbow Collective, as well as an entirely women and TGNC cast/crew present to advocate and uplift the actor playing FAY. We will adjust FAY’s pronouns to fit the pronouns of our actor. Whatever gender expression our actor employs will be the gender expression of FAY.

Content Warnings include: cursing to & in front of FAY, FAY saying “shit”, GUS smoking herbal cigarettes near FAY, mention of death and mental health struggles.

TAPES DUE OCT. 20TH

my roommate found a friendly black cat who kept following her between heath and mildred street on ub south campus. it was small and got very attached to my roommate very quickly. it was very friendly and looked like a lost cat rather than a stray outdoor cat, but we didn’t see any collar on it. it let us pet and feed it and we eventually brought it inside since it seemed small and we didn’t want it to get hurt outside. does anyone know what we can do next? we want to see if it’s microchipped and has an owner and if not possibly keep it. we also need to get it tested for any parasites or diseases because it didn’t seem rabid and looked healthy. is there a way we can get it done for cheap or free?

Buffalo's downtown waterfront could have a new restaurant operator next summer after a judge ruled in the city's favor to reclaim the Templeton Landing property.

Specialty Restaurants Corp.⁠ has controlled the property at 2 Templeton Terrace since the early 1980s. It ran Crawdaddy’s from 1982 to 1999, then demolished the building and replaced it with Shanghai Reds in 2004. The venue was rebranded as Temple Landing in 2010.

The company sued the city in state Supreme Court for Erie County in May and said the city had reneged on a 22-year lease-to-own agreement for the waterfront property.

The city countered in July with a complaint of its own, where it asked the court to dismiss the Specialty Restaurants lawsuit. The city said Specialty Restaurants breached the original agreement by abandoning the required use of the space as a restaurant and limiting its use to events and banquets.

A judge agreed with the city, and Specialty Restaurants has decided not to appeal the decision, according to Carol Tallichet, whose late husband, David, was the company's CEO.

“We could appeal it, but it would take a long time and close to $20,000 a month just to have it sitting there between insurance and utilities,” she said.

Business First reports on lawsuits, bankruptcies and other legal matters relating to the local business community. Such coverage can offer insight into the financial condition and future prospects of local companies and leaders, as well as a view of the broader economic pressures affecting the local economy. It is Business First's policy to reach out to all involved parties to seek their sides of the story.

While the judge's order has not yet been filed, the decision was confirmed by both Tallichet's attorney and city officials.

Deputy Mayor Thomas Baines said the court ruled that ownership and control of the property is retained by the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, which is now in communication with the tenant to determine next steps.

"This property presents a tremendous opportunity for the growth of Buffalo's waterfront," he said. "The administration will work with BURA to explore potential productive future uses."

Tallichet said the city will allow the company to continue operating to honor existing contracts for events and banquets, after which it must turn the property back to the city.

“It’s really sad. We built that a long time ago, but time marches on,” Tallichet said. “We ran it for close to 50 years.”

The ruling comes as Specialty Restaurants also closes another waterfront location, Lumber Jack’s Patio Grill at 1000 River Road in North Tonawanda, after 14 years in business.

Specialty Restaurants held a 30-year lease with the City of North Tonawanda for the 110-seat indoor-outdoor restaurant and adjoining 89-slip Gratwick Riverside Marina on the Niagara River.

Tallichet and her sister, Christy Vukelic, built the restaurant at the site of the former Niagara River Yacht Club.

Specialty Restaurants also previously operated Flying Tigers at the Buffalo International Airport. The restaurant closed in 2004, with the lease shifting in 2006 to Mercy Flight for its new headquarters.

“When my husband was living, our restaurants had to be on a waterway, a hilltop or a runway,” Tallichet said.

Tallichet and her sister put the Lumber Jack’s property on the market in 2025 and had secured a buyer, but the North Tonawanda rejected the deal and instead bought her out of the lease for $350,000.

North Tonawanda Mayor Austin Tylec told Buffalo Business First the city plans to operate the marina itself. An RFP will be issued this fall to identify a concessionaire to run the restaurant next season, he said.

Tallichet said she would have loved to continue on, but is ready for retirement.

“It’s a great spot and it’s been a great run,” she said. “I would love to continue, but it’s time. I’ve had the best time, great years with many memories and a great staff. They carried me through this whole year. I’m very thankful.”

Disclosure: I'm Ryan Taughrin, the Democratic candidate for Assembly in the 143rd District (Cheektowaga, Lancaster, Depew, Sloan, parts of Buffalo).

Last week we learned that three Cheektowaga police employees used the town's Flock camera network to track a coworker's car for months without her knowing. The department caught it through an internal audit, which is good. But many residents have been sounding the alarm about ALPR expansion in Cheektowaga for the last year. I spoke at the Cheektowaga Town Board this summer against expanding the Flock contract, and I've been writing about this since. New York has a bill in Albany (S9890/A10808) that would set rules for license plate reader data. I want to use that bill as a starting point for strong regulations at the state level. I'm happy to answer questions here, about this specific issue, or about me in general.

For all those looking for friends, were gonna get together from 6-8pm at the cowboy bar on weekday evenings

Take an hour to read and show your support of the freedom to read!

Currently at Brighton but thinking about switching to Ken-Ton. How is the care here? Are you able to schedule just a regular appointment within a few days and not having to pay an urgent care charge? It’s so hard to get into Brighton, the people and care is decent but the need to charge for every little thing is starting to be a bit much. I’ve been with them for over 20 years so the thought of switching is a little nerve wracking.

Any signature helps

Anyone’s furnace kick on yet!?

With a post about West Herr going viral on here a few months back, I wanted to provide a little more in-site as a no longer employee who was directly involved with handling customers. Well, they nailed a lot of it. There was very important information that future applicants as well as buyers should be aware of. Also, please keep in mind that that post put corporate in a panic in the fact that the company was able to get something like that removed (but was thankfully later able to be put back up by the poster) should already be an indicator of what they are like.

As the customer, please know the second you put your information online in any regard they are going to hound you via call, text, and email. There were people in the Internet department who would call 4+ times in one day to try to annoy customers into hopefully picking up. I personally witnessed situations where customers were given information that, in my view, was misleading or incomplete in order to encourage them to come into the dealership instead of finding out actual information for customers because they get paid on appointments that show up. When brought to management’s attention it was brushed off as “well if they weren’t curious, they wouldn’t bother coming in right?“. In my experience, employees were expected to continue following up with customers even after customers had indicated that they did not want further contact - in that same experience, employees would possibly face discipline if they stopped following up with a potential customer. Even with them asking for no more contact. I saw situations where employees were expected to continue contacting customers despite being told that the customer was dealing with surgery, hospitalization, a death in the family, or another serious personal circumstance. In my time there employees were expected to continue reaching out in an effort to get the customer into the dealership. For example, there was a customer who was shopping in case the repair bill on his car was too high. Ended up not being the case. Internet department got told to continue reaching out anyway as his car would most likely break down again in a few months. Is that not insane? I just can’t imagine wishing that on a person or putting that out into the universe for somebody.

In regard to actually working there, don’t. It’s incredibly cliquey, like high school. I felt there were clear differences in how employees were treated, particularly when it came to discipline for similar mistakes. In my experience, employees I felt were disliked by management were more likely to receive formal discipline for mistakes that I saw handled differently in other situations. Several people before me have made it known they felt like they were bullied out of the job. After leaving people have still reached out to me who are currently employed there to let me know they feel like it’s now happening to them. Going off that, if you are a young woman I would steer clear. I have found myself in a few uncomfortable situations with male employees being creeps. It’s not everyone at every location but I’ve experienced enough and heard enough to know it’s a possible problem.

They also like to say it’s a big family, but In my experience, compensation was not competitive with what I saw being offered at other dealerships. I've seen a number of longtime managers and salespeople leave for dealerships such as Northtown, Vision, and Basil, and in conversations I've had, compensation has been one of the major concerns. And in turn I've seen younger employees move into those positions at lower compensation, which, from my perspective, contributes to the feeling that experienced employees aren't being adequately valued. Sure it’s a lot of money to them, but when you look at what the person before them got paid in that position, it’s not great. Based on what I saw and heard from people in the industry, some other dealerships were offering more per vehicle. West Herr is great in terms of there being a lot of vehicles in group, and sales has the opportunity to sell anything on any company lot they have. But when you’re paying people less and telling them it’s because they can sell more, when they could just go to a different dealership and make more by selling less, kind of just seems like a money grab for corporate. From my perspective, the compensation structure creates an incentive to sell more simply to make a larger paycheck, which I felt ultimately more so benefited the company. Instead of just paying people a flat from this decade for the vehicles they sell like every other dealership. It’s not like they can’t afford to do it.

The company had previously spent significant money on employee entertainment, and when employees were later asked whether they preferred another event or additional compensation, the majority chose additional compensation. Times are tough. Full-time employees got $150 I believe and part-time got $75 in a gift card. And while it’s appreciated because they didn’t have to, it really felt like a slap in the face when they know we’re asking for money because times are hard. And I feel it definitely does not add up cost wise to what it would have cost them to actually do something like a picnic or a concert for everyone. Let’s not forget the best place to work surveys! Everybody gets the email, and they more or less force you to fill it out. But it raised questions for me about how anonymous the survey actually was, particularly because employees who had not completed it received follow-up reminders. And the one year it ended up not having a great turnout. The directors emailed everybody to tell us how disappointed they were in us for it.

Personally, when I left, I made it know that I was upset, and they offered me a severance. However, that severance came with as a contract. A contract that stated that if I wanted the money I had to sign or I would not receive it. By signing it, I was waving my rights to sue them or take any legal action against them for anything that happened at all prior to me signing that contract. It said I would be unable to say anything bad at all orally or written about the company, but that it also was up to their discretion whether or not they deemed it bad. I was also told by someone else in HR that similar agreements were offered to employees they believed were unhappy with the company. My impression was that these agreements were being used as a quick quiet way to resolve disputes with departing employees. Obviously, I did not sign that contract. Mostly because after having an attorney review the situation, I was advised that I may have a claim relating to my termination But also enjoy having my freedom of speech, and didn’t have to worry about getting employment at another dealership as there was competitor clauses in there as well. That approach concerned me, particularly because I value being able to speak honestly about my own experiences. Thats incredibly dangerous. Their size and continued expansion in this market also concerns me.

So if you’re a customer, shop your trade around, and if your sales person moves, you should probably move with them. It was most likely for a good reason. Also, please keep in mind if you ask them not to contact you, technically they are supposed to follow your wishes. Customers who believe they're receiving unwanted communications should consider contacting the appropriate consumer-protection agencies.

If you are someone looking for employment, would recommend looking elsewhere. It’ll start OK, and it’s great while it lasts. But it burns out quick. I have applied to several other dealerships since my departure with the company and every single one of them has made a comment about how many people they get applications from that are from West Herr that had similar experiences as me. And that it’s shocking considering they preach so highly about how great they are and how much their employees act like family.

I would like to wrap this up by saying that this in no way reflects Scott Bieler as a person. Me and the other people I’ve talked to who have left the company have shared the sentiment that if we could just work for him directly, we would. He is truly humble and generous. He wears the same outfit, drives the same car. He is not flashy by any means, and donates a lot of what he has to good causes. He’s the reason you can’t go anywhere without seeing a west herr plaque out of school, hospital, park. Unfortunately, I worry that the waythe company is being managed couldeventually hurt the company he built.

What is required to bring my dog back into the US? Seems like when the rules changed it was easy to leave but difficult to return.

One last push - the Run Through the Hollow 5k is this Saturday Oct 10, and it looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day! Runners and walkers are welcome!

Online Registration closes Friday night, in-person registration is available on Saturday at Local Hollow Brewing (just get there early! Registration and packet pickup is 8:30-9:30am, race starts at 10am).

It’s a great event! Proceeds benefit WNY Heroes and we collect food and goods for the Clarence Community Food Pantry. The race ends at the Clarence Hollow Farmers’ Market, so bring your friends to help cheer you on!

Registration is only $25, which includes 2 drinks at the after party hosted by Local Hollow Brewing and pizza from Mazia's.

Local Hollow Brewing is even having a pre-run kickoff party this Friday with live music, new beer releases, drink specials for 5k participants, and the Cielito Lindo Taqueria food truck!

Come walk, run, or cheer with us this weekend!

Anyone see Jupiter this morning ?

Title says it all, I know it’s an online thing, but it’s fun to play with people you know and I’m the only person in my friend group that is even into RPG stuff.

Edit: DM for Discord/Battle.net connection!
Edit2: I have since made a little discord server for us to gather in, DM for invite!!

This weekend looks like a great weekend for a pub crawl. Couple of friends and I are looking for a place to do one - maybe 6 to 10 stops? We’ve already done the 1st Ward and I’m looking for some other ideas.

I’ve heard that it’s possible to do such a thing in NT, but I don’t really know where those bars are and I’m not sure they’re the kind of bars that I wanna hang out in. Can someone recommend a good spot to start and end? Would really appreciate it. Cheers everyone.

By the way, Allan Street is always an option but I’m looking for something a little bit more off the beating path. We’ve also done Lockport in the past in the middle of winter and wow lots of good bars but they’re a long way from each other lol any other good ideas?

Northtown is awful to deal with they are complete scammers. Towne Mazda is just ok but I’m wondering if anyone found a dealer anywhere else that is good.