The man who has been steering efforts to revamp Buffalo’s permits and inspections process has been tapped by Mayor Byron W. Brown to serve as the department’s permanent commissioner.

An unprecedented gathering of four U. S. senators — including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — highlighted a fundraiser Friday evening in the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.

Another original piece of Frank Lloyd Wright artwork is coming home to the Darwin Martin
House on Jewett Parkway.

After calling for a study into the consolidation of volunteer fire companies, Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz conceded the issue’s hot-button nature, telling reporters he was glad he lives in Buffalo because he feared retribution.

ERIE, Pa. &#8212 Nine.

The temperature soared to the mid-80s late Friday afternoon on the steps of the Masten
Armory, but Army National Guard Spc. Pat Hahn of Kenmore was cool as a cucumber in his
fatigues and dark shades following a 10-month tour in Iraq.

An anti-sprawl bill approved Friday by lawmakers directs the state to curb its encouragement of “dumb growth.”

The Buffalo Urban League is on a mission to improve educational and social services in Buffalo’s Kensington-Bailey neighborhood.

The U. S. Justice Department and Erie County asked a federal judge to sign off Friday on their agreement to better prevent suicides in the county jails.

The crumbling Episcopal church at Niagara and Vermont streets has been sold to a New York City business for $150,000 by the Bronx woman who acquired the property in a tax-foreclosure sale four years ago, according to Buffalo Housing Court Judge Henry J. Nowak.

Area food retailers announced Friday that ConAgra Foods has issued a voluntary recall of Marie Callender’s Cheesy Chicken and Rice single-serve frozen entrees.

Host families are needed for about half of a group of 25 high school students from France who are coming to the Buffalo area for a three-week immersion program in July.

The Muhammad School of Music will host its 11th annual youth concert at 2:30 p. m. Sunday in the Mason O. Damon Auditorium of the Central Library,

In a world where things are a Google search away, people and places with local ties inhabit many corners of the Internet. People who used to live in the Buffalo area, as well as others who still call this place home, have a habit of making news elsewhere.

This garden occupies a serene spot high above a neighborhood scarred by empty lots and
boarded-up buildings. It is a haven where gardeners tend to tomato plants, herbs and flowers.