Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown tells everybody that a tax-exempt gambling joint in downtown Buffalo is inevitable, so the only thing people around here can do is work really hard to make it as pretty as possible so it will make as much money as possible so Buffalo’s cut of the slot machine drop will be as large as possible.

Erie County health officials are raising concerns about what they’re calling a syphilis outbreak in Buffalo. In only the first seven months of 2006, the number of confirmed cases of syphilis—22—has nearly doubled the 13 cases discovered in all of 2005. “We’re expecting to at least be in the mid 30s by the end of the year,” says Michael Chase, a public health educator with the Erie County Department of Health. What makes the outbreak truly remarkable is that 21 of the 22 cases have ocurred in the gay community.