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Dry grounds combined with today's low humidity and gusty winds have prompted the National Weather Service to issue an alert regarding outdoor fires.

The National Weather Service has issued a "Red Flag Warning" from 11am through 6pm today.

"It's pretty rare for us to issue these. Our fire weather season is usually pretty short," said meteorologist Jon Hitchcock. 

"I'd say once every few years we have a bona fide 'Red Flag Warning' event here in Western New York."

As 16 NHL teams prepare for the start of this week's Stanley Cup playoffs, the Buffalo Sabres will be cleaning out their lockers Monday and answering questions regarding their failure to make the post-season for the third time in the last five years.

A season-ending shootout loss on Saturday to the Boston Bruins gave the Sabres a 39-32-and-11 record,  producing 89 points which ranked 19th in the 30-team league.

One of Western New York's most prominent real estate developers has died.

Nathan Benderson, founder of the Benderson Development Company, suffered a stroke on Tuesday while in Florida and passed at the age of 94. He was the magnate behind the Thruway Mall, Delaware Consumer Square, the Outlet Mall in Niagara Falls and numerous other projects both in the region and nationwide.

The News reports that Benderson, a high school dropout, began following his entrepreneurial instincts while a teenager in the Depression.

He is survived by his wife and three sons.

A youthful game might have been behind the deadly train accident in Westfield on Friday.

Authorities are investigating the possibility that three men being struck by a freight train might have resulted from a dare. All three men are in their twenties. Two of the victims were killed. The third is recovering from  serious injuries in a Pennsylvania hospital.

The accident occurred as the men were running along a railroad bridge in Westfield.

The train was fitted with a camera and authorities believe that the footage will help in their investigation.

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter has returned to Rochester after suffering a broken leg in New York City.

Slaughter fell while in The Big Apple last week. The fall injured her left leg. The Congresswoman expressed relief that the injury wasn't worse and that it won't prevent her from fulfilling her duties and responsibilities to the people of Western New York.

Doctors at the University of Rochester Medical Center claim that her rehabilitation is going well and that they expect a full recovery.
 

An apparent Internet scam nearly cost a student government organization at the University at Buffalo many thousands of dollars.

Two officials with the UB Student Association, working outside of established protocols, contracted with Virtual Academix for website development costing $300,000. The News reports that other officials with the student organization halted the process before money was exchanged.

The investigation continues but criminal charges are not expected to be filed.
 

A Hamburg man will serve jail time for a decades long investment scheme.

Timothy Geidel employed a Ponzi scheme to bilk investors, many who were family and friends, of more than $1 million over twenty years. Geidel was given a three and a half year prison sentence in federal court. He is also required to repay $1.3 million.

Civil suits against the Geidel and the companies he represented are still pending.

UB President Satish Tripathi has announced the hiring of a new school provost.

Chemical engineer Charles Zukoski will fill the $400,000 per year post. Zukoski is the chairman of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He will begin his new job this summer.

On this week's You & The Law, Mike Desmond talks with attorney Modesto Argenio about the need for financial planning, no matter what your age.

Argenio says financial planning covers not only a traditional will, but also health care proxies, living wills and powers of attorney.

Click the play button above to hear's this week edition.

Shoppers by the thousands are stopping by Buffalo's venerable Broadway Market today. 

Good Friday is traditionally the busiest day of the year for market vendors.  The stands selling meats, baked goods, and butter lambs are the most popular, but there are also some new vendors who say they're enjoying some success. 

Delays early this morning offer a reminder that Easter weekend is traditionally a busy time at the area's international crossings.

Last year, the Rainbow Bridge handled nearly 26,000 vehicles heading into the United States during the weekend.

Over 23,000 vehicles used the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge to enter Canada.

Bridge officials say peak traffic along the bridges tend to be from mid-afternoon into the evening while early mornings offer shorter waits.

The state's effort to boost the purchase of new energy-efficient refrigerators and washing machines produced plenty of buyers.

Across New York, $3.5 million in Stimulus funds was handed out in rebates to push the purchase of more than 13,000 washers and refrigerators, according to NYSERDA Assistant Communications Director Dayle Zatlin.

Over $300,000 of the rebates have been distributed locally.

"Erie is one of our largest participating counties. We had over a thousand applications from Erie County," Zatlin said.

The Buffalo Teachers Federation may have had its office at Porter and Niagara closed yesterday but critics of the union and the school system were demonstrating outside pushing for changes in the union contract and in city schools.

The immediate push is for the union to agree to waive a provision in the contract which requires all coaches to be certified teachers, whether they know anything about the sport or not.

Sam Radford is president of the District Parent Coordinating Council and a vocal critic of the school system.

A big batch of federal funding is coming to the Niagara Falls International Airport.  

Western New York Congresswoman Kathy Hochul joined Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority leaders at the Airport Thursday morning.  

Hochu announced that the Federal Aviation Administration will provide $11.7 million to rebuild the main runway at the Falls Airport.  

The long process for speeding up traffic across the Peace Bridge is shifting to improving the plaza on the U.S. end.

That's going to be a relatively small improvement compared to the $300 million plan Washington was pushing but wouldn't pay for.

With plans shown at a public display yesterday in the Niagara Branch Library, the bridge authority wants to demolish a row of houses along Busti Avenue and eventually buy and demolish the adjacent Episcopal Church Home.