Local
Construction on a canal system close the First Niagara Center is expected to begin this week.
The plans are in conjunction with the $123 million plan to create a "multi-purpose complex" outside the Buffalo Sabres' arena. Many are calling the area "Pegulaville," named for the Sabres' owner Terry Pegula.
The Canals was originally supposed to open this November, but instead was pushed back.
The plans for "Pegulaville" include two hockey rinks, space for retailers and restaurants, an 850-car parking garage and a 200-room Marriott hotel.
"If everything holds, and I have every reason to believe it will, we will have a good flow of major openings taking place inside Canalside for the next year or so," said Tom Dee, Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. president, to Buffalo Business First.
National
Last winter, Colorado passed a series of gun restrictions, which many Democrats and gun control supporters praised as a vital step to a safer state. The National Rifle Association (NRA), however, didn't agree.
On Sept. 10, voters ousted two state senators in a recall election because of their support of gun control laws. The movement to remove the two senators from office was largely because of a campaign by NRA.
"This is a state with a wide variety of interests at stake," said Bill Ritter, a Democrat and former governor, to The New York Times. "The Democratic Party cannot be the party of metro Denver and Boulder. It has to be the party who understands the values, views and aspirations of people who live outside of those areas."
The Democratic Party controls the state legislature and the governorship, but officials say the recall shows how volatile the public can be.
Many are calling the recall a major blow to the future of gun control legislation, with some even calling the movement dead.
International
In an interview with ABC News, President Barack Obama called the agreement that Russia will seize and destroy Syria's chemical weapons as a "foundation" that could lead to the settlement of the civil war.
"We don't have an actual, verifiable deal that will begin that process. But the distance that we've traveled over these couple of weeks is remarkable," Obama told ABC News.
Obama took credit for the agreement, saying it was the pressure the United States put on Bashar Al-Assad, the president of Syria, which lead to the 'surrender.'
He hopes the outcome of this situation will be a signal to other countries, like Iran, that the United States will use force if necessary.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry visited Israel this week to seek support in the Unites States stance against Assad and chemical weapons.
"We hope that the understandings reached between the U.S. and Russia on Syrian chemical weapons will yield results," said Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel. "Those understandings will be judged by the results - the total destruction of all the chemical weapon stocks that the Syrian regime used against its own citizens."
