Barbara Miller-Williams

Red, black and green against a bright blue Buffalo sky. That is how the flag of liberation looked as it was raised Friday afternoon in Niagara Square to celebrate Juneteenth.

Buffalo has a new interim City Comptroller, after a Common Council appointment Tuesday. It is an appointment subject to the voters in June and November.

Badr Elwaseem was buried in Hamburg Monday, 12 years after his birth. Who killed him on Saturday is the focus of an intense investigation. Buffalo and other officials went door-to-door distributing leaflets asking the public for help on who killed the School 45 student.

Erie County lawmakers are pushing legislation to raise the age for buying tobacco products and electronic cigarettes to 21.

New York State should slash the number of people who are held after arrest because they can't come up with cash bail. That is the message the Erie County Legislature sent to Albany Thursday.

Majority Democrats passed the Erie County budget they wanted Thursday, with a lot of new spending and a tax cut. That is because the county is awash in cash, particularly because sales tax revenue is so far above expectations.

It was a mix of generational change and backroom politics Thursday, as the Erie County Legislature reorganized after an election that put Democrats in charge.

After an extended debate Thursday, Erie County legislators voted to send a proposed ban on people convicted of some crimes from holding elective or appointive offices in county government back to committee.

Erie County legislators want the start of ride-hailing moved up, to make for a better and safer Fourth of July.

Around 1,500 Erie County workers each will be getting $1,000 before taxes, after a vote Thursday by the County Legislature.

Day care centers across Erie County are suggesting they should be paid through direct deposit into bank accounts instead of checks mailed out which then have to be taken to the bank to be deposited.