Man admits killing woman in his North Street apartment
Kevin R. Baker, a previously registered Buffalo-area sex offender, pleaded guilty today to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter for the suffocation murder of a 24-year-old female escort he had called to his North Street apartment three months ago.

State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia told Baker, 39, he faces a prison term of between 15 to 20 years on plea deal worked out by prosecutors and his attorney, Joseph J. Terranova, in the suffocation of Jillian M. Flagg, 24, of Amherst on Oct. 13.

Baker, who last year served a brief local jail term on a misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment charge for a September 2005 incident with an 11-year-old Cheektowaga girl, was remanded pending his March 19 sentencing.

I wonder what part of North Street - at least this one was not 11 years old.

I am going to say it - I hate how Buffalo Rising has become so sensationalist. Maybe I just hate Queenseyes posts - which is just about all of them.

It is so contradictory so often and a lot of times I just can't find any common ground with his writing and my beliefs in the City of Buffalo and what makes it great. Remember when Buffalo Rising was more of a website with lots of authors. To me it just seems like his personal blog now and that he is desperate for sensationalist articles to feed his advertising agenda.

Today, he was talking about how BSC Group's Bashara Issa workers have voted to unionize when working on the Statler tower. He says?

Would you pay $30 to $40 ((e:paul) note ->I think originally originally this said $50 but it got edited because all the comments refer to a $50 amount) or more to an employee who pushes a broom or dumps bricks into a dumpster? What if you were made to do so? That is the labor issue that BSC Group's Bashar Issa is facing at this moment....This past Saturday he told me that Local 210 had finally succeeded in luring his unskilled workers to vote union. ... when asked about the Buffalo City Tower? Well, he doesn't think that he can pull it off if his workers are unionized. For Bashar, that is a sad thought, but at the same time he knows that there are plenty of other opportunities around the world that will keep him (and his money) busy. ... The BSC Group is employing many laborers who have not had steady jobs in construction before. Bashar feels that he has been fare all along and is visibly upset that it has come down to this.

Originally this blog claimed that BSC Group's Bashar Issa was going to lose out as his "unskilled" labor unionized and started costing $50/hour for broom sweepers. That is totally ridiculous.

First of all, did Bashar Issa not know that Buffalo is a generally unionized city for construction? And secondly, who pays even unionized broom sweepers even $40/hour. I am sure if they are being paid that much, they are doing way more than just pushing brooms and maybe something very dangerous. As a highly educated, highly trained NYS union worker I do not make even close to that. In fact almost no one in my department makes even close to that in terms of NYS union work. I guess it is a different union but I would find it hard to believ a broom sweeper is making $50 for just broom sweeping.

I am also so sick of people putting down unions. Ya, if he built in in Arizona, he could use non-unionized Mexicans but then people would complain about all the jobs being lost. Some unions did/do abuse power but if you honestly look at it, don't almost all corporations abuse/misuse power and why should the people at the bottom of the ladder be denied things like living wages and healthcare so the people at the very top and squeeze out the extra pennies for their yachts and $10 million dollar vacation homes.

Maybe there would not even need to be unions if living wages and health care were considered in corporations instead of massive wages for the highest in the totem polls.

All in all I really don't care about the big stupid glass tower that might never be built. I am so sick of all the rich people trying to convert Buffalo into something that is going to be glamorous only for the cream of the crop. I guess most people probably think that sounds hypocritical considering my own financial status - but honestly, I would rather pay skilled union workers to build big glass towers hovering over my downtown, than unskilled, underpaid workers who will have much less pride in there work if they feel ripped off.

Okay I got to go pick up (e:terry) from his union job and pick up some stuff at my union job.

I think the best comment on their site was this one. I found it when looking back at their comments.

thisoldcrackhouse - Today, 21:15

"I have a degree, an MBA, a PHD and I don't make that much money" Are you kidding me? Do you think that just because you survived the "rigors" of higher education that you somehow deserve to be compensated better than some guy who busts his ass day in,day out, especially in this climate? Was the poor fellow who lost his life working on the Webb building being overcompensated? Please, if you have never done this type of work before, refrain from making comments about how much someone should be paid. I have a four year degree, spent several years in the banking industry, but for the last 18 years have been employed as a skilled union craftsman. I can tell you firsthand that sitting in a cozy cubicle or classroom does not make any of you experts on what "menial" labor is worth.

Intestines... I know that you are probably so tired about hearing about this as I am tired of living it, but I figure it will be good to look back on the whole experience someday.

I thought it was all better. Well, not all better but seriously from the scope on wed to sat I was doing so good. I took my medicine with every meal and I ate exactly what i was supposed to. I was even abe to go out all afternoon on saturday with no real problems. Then starting last night at like 11PM it all started getting achey again. My intestine started getting all achy and spastic and painful. I didn't eat anything weird and I know what is in all my food as I cook everything now- at every meal.

I haven't had any dairy since the scope to see if that made a difference and I thought maybe it did. I hadn't eaten any wheat either - that is until yesterday afternoon when I had two slices of wheat bread. Maybe that was it.

I really need to get tested for food allergies just to make sure I don't eat anything I am allergic to with my already stressed system. It makes me so sad to think it will not get better. In fact, when I was in line at the coop buying some soy yogurt and ocean perch I almost started crying because I thought - now food is ruined for me and some sad 80s song was playing. The one social, kind of nice thing I liked to do besides compute was eat and it is all ruined. Living with Crohns is seriously going to kill me mentally if not physically.

I was also freaked out by a white guy dressed as an muslim with desert head garb thing and all. Call me ethnocentric but he was white as white bread, with a black dude and looked weird to me. It was just a strange combo and apparently my medicine makes me moody.

Just imagine this guy but a white looking white bread guy inside.


As soon as I found that pic above, I found this one, which explains it so much better


If this continues I am seriously going to need some sort of anti-depressant, pain medication myself.

Now that I cook every meal in the kitchen I figured I better clean it out a bunch. I threw out all the old disposable plastic tupperware which I am convinced is cancerous and replaced it glass in a similar fashion to throwing out all the teflon (e:paul,39134) a few months ago and replacing it with stainless steel.

These are the lids, the actual containers didn't fit in the pic.


Here are the new ones.


I even threw out all my candy supply.


Yes, even the candy canes.


I ate clams and pills for dinner. I am feeling so much better.




3 pills are asacol but the rest is all spirulina, fish oil, friednly bacteria dn a mashmellow root which really seems to help.



There is no snow anywhere - how crazy is that?


This dude at the Galleria needs help.


Damn, this tower is ugly. I know I have already talked about it ten times but the rust drips just take it to the next level.


We drove down Dodge street today as directed by my brother's GPS a few weeks ago and saw this building - what was it? It is on Dodge, in the east side right near the 33.




The pigeons really like McDonalds on elmwood near the Regal. I like to call it Mc Shooters.



Back in 1997 - on elmwood near great arrow, the only time I was hit by another car. It was my fault, the other driver was black - the firemen who worked there screamed at him and took me inside to rest. I tried to explain. Racism at its finest.

I stopped by my mother's house today to drop off some artichockes as they are too high fiber for my low residue diet. She had some old papers for my and I seriously have worked my whole life.

My father was particularly good (pronounced - god damnit paul get a job) at making me have a strong work ethic. Same with (e:hodown)'s mom and her. And I guess both of us have stable long term jobs, so maybe it pays off. However, the point of this is that I have worked pretty much non-stop since 1989 - almost 20 years ago - when I started my first paper route. Yes, there were a couple months here and there when I was between jobs but all in all, I worked every year I could and that is insane.