NFTA hires WSP consultants to plan Metro Rail extension, initially $5M

Rejecting advice from Rep. Brian Higgins to shrink its plans, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority board Thursday voted to hire a consultant to plan extensions of Metro Rail. The NFTA said the $5 million environmental study might take three years and then more years for final design - all if Washington, DC pays - and around 10 years from now before the Metro Rail extension would be running trains.

75 years after Midway, U.S. Navy hero honored in hometown

Sculptor Susan Geissler wored on a clay likeness of World War II hero C. Wade McClusky Jr. in her Youngstown, N.Y., studio. The clay model will form the basis for a bronze monument planned for the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park in McClusky's hometown of Buffalo, N.Y. ALBANY, N.Y.>> C. Wade McClusky Jr. faced a tough decision on June 4, 1942: turn his low-on-fuel U.S. Navy air squadron around or keep searching for the Japanese fleet headed for Midway.

Schools brace for impact if Congress cuts Medicaid spending

For school districts still getting their financial footing after the Great Recession, the Medicaid changes being advanced as part of the health care overhaul are sounding familiar alarms. Administrators say programming and services even beyond those that receive funding from the state-federal health care program could be at risk should Congress follow through with plans to change the way Medicaid is distributed.

Cuts to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: A plan to sink American cities

The Great Lakes contain 95 percent of America's fresh surface water and supply drinking water to more than 30 million people in North America. The environmental and ecological justification for improving and maintaining the Great Lakes is undeniable but one must look no further than my of hometown Buffalo, N.Y., to see how Great Lakes cleanup is breathing new life into the economy of once struggling cities.

Plane carrying 6 disappears over Lake Erie near Cleveland

U.S. Coast Guard crews searched Lake Erie on Friday for a plane carrying six people that disappeared shortly after takeoff from a small Cleveland airport along the shore. The Columbus-bound Cessna Citation 525 departed Burke Lakefront Airport late Thursday with three children and three adults aboard and vanished from radar about 2 miles over the lake.

Education Secretary King calls for end to paddling students

In this July 19, 2016, file photo, Education Secretary John B. King, Jr., speaks on a panel with first lady Michelle Obama to college-bound students participating in the Reach Higher initiative's third annual Beating the Odds event in the East Room of the White House in Washington. King is urging governors and school leaders in states where student paddling is allowed to end a practice he said would be considered "criminal assault or battery" against an adult.

First she got the a OK from God.a The she sued to stop the presidential election.

Louise K. Nolley, like so many Americans, is not enthused with either of the major-party candidates for president in the upcoming election. Unlike most Americans, the Buffalo, N.Y., resident has a bold plan to stop both Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton from winning the White House.

Emma Brown:

A surrogate for Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump told a group of urban school superintendents on Friday that Trump would seek to do away with "corrupted, incompetent" public school systems in America's cities, replacing them with charter schools and vouchers for private schools. Such an approach would "encourage competition in the marketplace and eventually dismantle the corrupted, incompetent urban school districts that we have in America today," said Carl Paladino, Trump's New York State co-chairman, drawing audible boos from an audience composed largely of people who run the school districts Paladino criticized.

The Latest: Lewandowski: “Nice conversation with Mr. Trump”

In this April 18, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski walks a rope line as the candidate signs autographs during a campaign stop at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, N.Y. Trump has forced out his hard-charging campaign manager, Lewandowski, in a dramatic shakeup designed to calm panicked Republican leaders and reverse one of the most tumultuous stretches of Trump's unconventional White House bid.

3 Months After Manhandling Female Reporter, Top Trump Aide Leaves Campaign

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski walks a rope line as the candidate signs autographs during a campaign stop at the First Niagara Center, Monday, April 18, 2016, in Buffalo, N.Y. Lewandoswki parted ways with the Trump campaign on Monday. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has parted ways with his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a little more than three months after Lewandowski physically grabbed and pulled a female reporter, leaving visible bruises on her body.