The brown house at 133 Northland Avenue has an inglorious recent history: It sat empty for the last year and intermittently over the course of the last decade. When it has been occupied, neighbors say, more often than not it was a crackhouse.

Former State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who resigned his legislative post on July 18, is a legend in upscale Rensselaer and Saratoga Counties, the district he served in the State Senate since 1976. And if you don’t believe it, you can look at any one of the dozen buildings in that area that are named for him. Baseball fans near Troy watch the Houston Astro affiliate Tri-City ValleyCats play ball in Joseph L. Bruno Stadium. To call him a big fish there is an understatement.

When the unanimous vote on the amended resolution addressing funding for the Peace Bridge Expansion Project was taken on Thursday, July 17 by the seven-member Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council, Alfred Coppola gave a restrained but victorious fist pump.