On July 6th former Buffalo Sabre Matthew Barnaby was sentenced to community service stemming from a domestic violence incident. Erie County DA Frank Sedita III said the ex-hockey player turned TV analyst, was “over-charged” and that if convicted of the original charges he would have been deported, back to his native Canada.

DA Sedita says his team, along with Barnaby’s lawyers, and the victim worked out an agreement that includes misdemeanors and could potentially be dismissed if he complies with the judge’s conditions. Those conditions are to perform 500 hours of community services and continue with his anger management counseling.

Some of the comments that this story received made it seem that most people in Buffalo think that because Barnaby didn’t physically assault his wife then it wasn’t domestic violence. According to domesticviolence.org the definition of domestic violence is:

A Statement Released by the Erie County Executive’s Office and Travers Collins & Company

Buffalo, NY – A trio of Erie County businesses have seen growth spurts courtesy of a new Erie County Industrial Development Agency (ECIDA) loan program which targets established companies that have difficulties obtaining traditional bank financing due to increasingly strict lending policies.

The Business Stimulus Loan Fund has provided more than $800,000 to three fast-growing Erie County firms since its establishment last fall, leading to expansion of their workforces and client rosters.

Congressional Budget Cuts Force Reduced Public Hours

Effective August 15, 2011, Social Security field offices nationwide will close to the public 30 minutes early each day.  For example, a field office that is usually open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. will close daily at 3:30 p.m.

While agency employees will continue to work their regular hours, this shorter public window will allow them to complete face-to-face service with the visiting public without incurring the cost of overtime.   Congress provided Social Security with nearly $1 billion less than the President requested for the budget this fiscal year, which makes it impossible for the agency to provide the amount of overtime needed to handle service to the public as we have in the past.