NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — A man killed his mother at home and then opened fire Friday inside the elementary school where she taught, massacring 26 people, including 20 children, as youngsters cowered in fear to the sound of gunshots reverberating through the building and screams echoing over the intercom.

The 20-year-old killer, carrying two handguns, committed suicide at the school, bringing the death toll to 28, authorities said.

The rampage, coming less than two weeks before Christmas, was the nation’s second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead in 2007.

“Our hearts are broken today,” a tearful President Barack Obama, struggling to maintain his composure, said at the White House. He called for “meaningful action” to prevent such shootings. “As a country, we have been through this too many times,” he said.

Police shed no light on the motive for the attack on two classrooms. The gunman, identified as Adam Lanza, was believed to suffer from a personality disorder and lived with his mother, said a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation but was not authorized to discuss it.

Panicked parents looking for their children raced to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, a prosperous New England community of about 27,000 people 60 miles northeast of New York City. Police told youngsters at the kindergarten-through-fourth-grade school to close their eyes as they were led from the building.

Schoolchildren — some crying, others looking frightened — were escorted through a parking lot in a line, hands on each other’s shoulders.

Law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lanza killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, and then drove to the school in her car with three guns, including a high-powered rifle that he apparently left in the back. Authorities said he shot up two classrooms, but they otherwise gave no details on how the attack unfolded.

A custodian ran through the halls, warning of a gunman on the loose, and someone switched on the intercom, alerting people in the building to the attack — and perhaps saving many lives — by letting them hear the hysteria apparently going on in the school office, a teacher said.

Teachers locked their doors and ordered children to huddle in a corner or hide in closets as shots echoed through the building.

State police Lt. Paul Vance said 28 people in all were killed, including the gunman, and a woman who worked at the school was wounded.

Lanza’s older brother, 24-year-old Ryan, of Hoboken, N.J., was being questioned, but a law enforcement official said he was not believed to have had any role in the rampage. Investigators were searching his computers and phone records, but he told law enforcement he had not been in touch with his brother since about 2010.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation.

At one point, a law enforcement official mistakenly identified the gunman as Ryan Lanza. Brett Wilshe, a friend of Ryan Lanza’s, said Lanza told him the gunman may have had his identification. Ryan Lanza has a Facebook page that posted updates Friday afternoon that read, “It wasn’t me” and “I was at work.”

Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher. “That’s when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door,” he said. “He was very brave. He waited for his friends.”

He said the shooter didn’t utter a word.

Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter was in the school and heard two big bangs. Teachers told her to get in a corner, he said.

“It’s alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America,” he said. His daughter was uninjured.

Theodore Varga said he was in a meeting with other fourth-grade teachers when he heard the gunfire, but there was no lock on the door.

He said someone had turned on the intercom so that “you could hear people in the office. You could hear the hysteria that was going on. I think whoever did that saved a lot of people. Everyone in the school was listening to the terror that was transpiring.”

Also, a custodian ran around, warning people there was a gunman, Varga said.

“He said, ‘Guys! Get down! Hide!’” Varga said. “So he was actually a hero.” The teacher said he did not know if the custodian survived.

Mergim Bajraliu, 17, heard the gunshots echo from his home and ran to check on his 9-year-old sister at the school. He said his sister, who was uninjured, heard a scream come over the intercom. He said teachers were shaking and crying as they came out of the building.

“Everyone was just traumatized,” he said.

Mary Pendergast said her 9-year-old nephew was in the school at the time of the shooting but wasn’t hurt after his music teacher helped him take cover in a closet.

Richard Wilford’s 7-year-old son, Richie, told him that he heard a noise that sounded like “cans falling.” The boy said a teacher went out to check on the noise, came back in, locked the door and had the children huddle in the corner until police arrived.

“There’s no words,” Wilford said. “It’s sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger, to get to your child and be there to protect him.”

On Friday afternoon, family members were led away from a firehouse that was being used as a staging area, some of them weeping. One man, wearing a T-shirt without a jacket, put his arms around a woman as they walked down the middle of the street, oblivious to everything around them. Another woman with tears rolling down her face walked by, carrying a car seat with a baby inside.

“Evil visited this community today and it’s too early to speak of recovery, but each parent, each sibling, each member of the family has to understand that Connecticut — we’re all in this together. We’ll do whatever we can to overcome this event,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said.

Adam Lanza and his mother lived in a well-to-do part of Newtown where neighbors are doctors or hold white-collar positions at companies such as General Electric, Pepsi and IBM.

Three guns were found — a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols, inside the school, and a .223-caliber rifle in the back of a car.

The shootings instantly brought to mind such tragedies as the Columbine High School massacre that killed 15 in 1999 and the July shootings at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 dead.

“You go to a movie theater in Aurora and all of a sudden your life is taken,” Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis said. “You’re at a shopping mall in Portland, Ore., and your life is taken. This morning, when parents kissed their kids goodbye knowing that they are going to be home to celebrate the holiday season coming up, you don’t expect this to happen.”

He added: “It has to stop, these senseless deaths.”

Obama’s comments on the tragedy amounted to one of the most outwardly emotional moments of his presidency.

“The majority of those who died were children — beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old,” Obama said.

He paused for several seconds to keep his composure as he teared up and wiped an eye. Nearby, two aides cried and held hands as they listened to Obama.

“They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, wedding, kids of their own,” Obama continued about the victims. “Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children.”____

Video: Various reports about Connecticut elementary school shooting

____

Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher.

“That’s when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door,” he said. “He was very brave. He waited for his friends.”

He said the shooter didn’t utter a word.

Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter was in the school and heard two big bangs. Teachers told her to get in a corner, he said.

“It’s alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America,” he said. His daughter was fine.

Mergim Bajraliu, 17, heard the gunshots echo from his home and ran to check on his 9-year-old sister at the school. He said his sister, who was fine, heard a scream come over the intercom at one point. He said teachers were shaking and crying as they came out of the building.

“Everyone was just traumatized,” he said.

Mary Pendergast, who lives close to the school, said her 9-year-old nephew was in the school at the time of the shooting, but wasn’t hurt after his music teacher helped him take cover in a closet.

Richard Wilford’s 7-year-old son, Richie, is in the second grade at the school. His son told him that he heard a noise that “sounded like what he described as cans falling.”

The boy told him a teacher went out to check on the noise, came back in, locked the door and had the kids huddle up in the corner until police arrived.

“There’s no words,” Wilford said. “It’s sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger, to get to your child and be there to protect him.”

On Friday afternoon, family members were led away from a firehouse that was being used as a staging area, some of them weeping. One man, wearing only a T-shirt without a jacket, put his arms around a woman as they walked down the middle of the street, oblivious to everything around them.

Another woman with tears rolling down her face walked by carrying a car seat with a young infant inside and a bag that appeared to have toys and stuffed animals.

The shootings instantly brought to mind episodes such as the Columbine High School massacre that killed 15 in 1999 and the July shootings at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 dead.

“You go to a movie theater in Aurora and all of a sudden your life is taken,” Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis said. “You’re at a shopping mall in Portland, Ore., and your life is taken. This morning, when parents kissed their kids goodbye knowing that they are going to be home to celebrate the holiday season coming up, you don’t expect this to happen. I think as a society, we need to come together. It has to stop, these senseless deaths.”

Obama’s comments on the tragedy amounted to one of the most outwardly emotional moments of his presidency.

“The majority of those who died were children — beautiful, little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old,” Obama said.

He paused for several seconds to keep his composure as he teared up and wiped an eye. Nearby, two aides cried and held hands as they listened to Obama.

“They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, wedding, kids of their own,” Obama continued about the victims. “Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children.”

___

Associated Press writers Jim Fitzgerald in Newtown, Pete Yost in Washington, D.C., and Michael Melia in Hartford contributed to this report.

TORONTO – The way the Buffalo Bills played run defense Sunday, you’d have thought all their video of the Seattle Seahawks got lost in cyberspace.

Just two weeks ago, the Seahawks burned the Chicago Bears with read-option running plays. Quarterback Russell Wilson takes a shotgun snap, reads the defense, and either hands off to Marshawn Lynch up the middle or pulls it out of Lynch’s belly and keeps it himself for a sprint off tackle.

The Bills claimed they studied those tapes. They claimed they prepared for it all week.

What a waste of a week of practice.

Wilson and Lynch ran the option runs to perfection in burying the Bills, 50-17.

“We let down our fans, we let down the organization, we let down ourselves,” said Bills linebacker Bryan Scott. “It’s tough because it’s embarrassing. We practice so hard. But it’s embarrassing. I don’t even know what to say.”

The loss was the latest bad statement by the Bills’ players in support of embattled head coach Chan Gailey. Buffalo (5-9) was eliminated from playoff contention. The Bills became the first team since 1986 to give up 45 or more points four times in a season.

“We played poorly and it reflects poorly on him,” said quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. “It just eats me up.”

A crowd of roughly 35,000 (paid attendance was 40,770) at Rogers Centre saw the Bills lose for the fourth time in five Toronto games.

Seattle rushed for 270 yards on a Bills defense that had yielded only 78 rushing yards a game over the last five weeks.

Lynch rushed for 113 yards on just 10 carries against his former team. Wilson rushed for 92 on nine carries and scored three touchdowns.

“That is a type of offense run scheme that we’ve had trouble with this year,” said Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams. “They run that option, that zone read. Since the bye, conventional running games we’ve done some good things against. But we’ve had trouble with that zone read. To be able to defend that, you have to play very disciplined and we didn’t.”

The read-option runs killed the Bills early and often. On Seattle’s first drive, Wilson faked a Lynch run up the middle and ran around right end for a 14-yard touchdown.

Bills defensive end Mario Williams crashed down to tackle Lynch, safety George Wilson came hard on a blitz and got blocked, and Scott couldn’t get over quickly enough from his inside linebacker position to catch Wilson.

“The call we had on, it was take dive,” Mario Williams said of his responsibility on the play. “And there was nobody there to take the quarterback.

“All week we had it installed for us to take one or the other. You can not play them both. If you got two guys playing the back or two guys playing the quarterback, that’s the outcome.”

On Seattle’s next drive, Wilson scrambled 25 yards for a touchdown to put the Seahawks up, 14-0. Bills defensive end Kyle Moore rushed aggressively up the field and the fleet Wilson sprinted up the left sideline. The Bills’ defensive backs were in man coverage and had their backs turned to the play.

“You want to rush and throw a move, but if you get up [the field], he’s going to take off running,” Moore said.

In the middle of the second quarter, the Bills overplayed Wilson and let Lynch rumble 54 yards up the middle to the Buffalo 4. It set up a score that put Seattle ahead, 24-7. Bills linebacker Nick Barnett cheated too far to his left, thinking Wilson might keep it and run off tackle.

“Marshawn got one big run that was a mistake that was mostly me,” Barnett said. “I gotta play it to the B gap [between the guard and tackle], but I got a little too worried about the option. I’ve just gotta play my responsibility on that.”

The next drive was more of the same. Wilson faked to Lynch and burst around right end for a 13-yard score. This time it looked like Mario Williams bit too far in, and Scott couldn’t get over enough to catch the QB.

“I had the alley [inside], and then we’re supposed to have somebody outside,” Scott said. “If you don’t play that exactly the way it’s supposed to be played, you get in trouble. You have to be so disciplined.

“Wilson is such a good athlete. If you don’t get on him right now, and if guys don’t know where to go and what to do, he’s gonna slash you.”

The Bills defenders’ said they studied the Chicago video. Wilson burned the Bears for 71 yards in that game. Obviously, the message of defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt didn’t stick.

“Yeah, we worked against the read option,” Barnett said. “We spent a lot of time on it. We just didn’t execute it the way we needed to today.”

The Bills were within 31-17 at halftime. But Fitzpatrick threw an interception to Seattle’s K.J. Wright on a pass for tight end Scott Chandler. It set up Seattle at the Buffalo 20 and killed any thoughts of a comeback.

“That’s a play I’ve thrown a lot to Scott this year,” Fitzpatrick said. “The backside linebacker kind of snuck in and got it. It’s just one of those plays that I didn’t locate him till late.”

Fitzpatrick was 21 of 38 for 217 yards, and he missed a couple of open deep passes. Bills back C.J. Spiller rushed 17 times for 103 yards.

Seattle (9-5) won for the fifth time in six games.

“You get angry at yourself because you did not get the team ready to play at the level they needed to play to win the ballgame,” Gailey said. “When they do not play well, the buck stops with me.”



email: mgaughan@buffnews.com

ALDEN

• 1833 Arlington Drive, Jennifer L. Hsu; John P. Hsu to Craig S. Biden; Debbie L. Biden, $269,000.

• 1071 Clearview Drive, Norma J. Wichlac to David Anasiewicz, $45,000.

AMHERST Highest price: $1,400,000 Average price: $177,214 Median price: $153,900 Number of Sales: 54

• 3620-24 Sheridan Drive, A&M Global Management Corporation to Daisy Holdings, $1,400,000.

• 160 Fairlawn Drive, Kirsten Lawley; Michael R. Lawley to Ronald A. Raccuia; Melissa M. Raccuia, $455,000.

• 1880-1990 Sweet Home Road, Asbury United Partners to Clover Communities Sweethome, $446,160.

• 457 North Rockingham Way, Forbes Homes Inc. to Jon V. Riolo, $389,900.

• 48 Shellridge Drive, David A. Bangert to Russell T. Eiser; Ana J. Eiser, $290,000.

• 18 Pino Alto Court, Helene Carland; Robert J. Carland to Lesley A. Jordans; Robert J. Ellison, $280,000.

• 89 Amherstdale Road, Richard L. Mugel; Tamara G. Mugel to Amy L. Quinlan; Patrick A. Quinlan, $260,000.

• 302 Ruskin Road, Daniel J. Scully; Carol H. Scully to Michelle M. Wardzinski, $255,000.

• 2 Meadow Springs Court, Perry S. Nicholas; Francine E. Nicholas to Jianqiang Wang, $243,800.

• 100 Tralee Terrace, Celtic Enterprises Inc. to Sean P. Lillis; Kim M. Lillis, $230,000.

• 66 Pfohl Place, William Stoeckel; Laura L. Stoeckel to Trey J. Johnson; Jennifer A. Johnson, $224,900.

• 136 Sundown Trail, Carolyn Nerber; Arthur Nerber to Charles T. Simet, $207,000.

• 550 Cottonwood Drive, Margaret Lyons; Patrick Lyons to Brian C. Blake, $200,000.

• 35 Fawn Meadows Court, Jon V. Riolo to Yoshie Fanara; Michael P. Fanara, $195,000.

• 133 Fleetwood Terrace, Stephen A. Tripi to Kristine M. Griffiths, $190,000.

• 45 Morningside Lane, Nancy C. Arlidge; Joseph E. Spaulding to Stanley B. Morgante, $190,000.

• 336 Berryman Drive, Loretta R. Miller to Dennis P. Liberatore; Gloria R. Ruggiero, $189,000.

• 164 Marine Drive, Margaret Hodges to James R. McClellan, $176,000.

• 50 Troy Del Way, Joseph M. Parisi to Tyler Dash, $175,001.

• 14 Sandelwood Court, Ali Khan Pervez; Nighat Pervez to Shannon E. Budin; Eric M. Budin, $174,000.

• 409 Washington Highway, Samantha L. Ryan to Michael A. Kopsa; Maria M. Kopsa, $172,000.

• 33 Labelle Terrace, Mary C. Graziadei; Michael J. Graziadei to Michele A. Witmer; Todd C. Witmer, $167,000.

• 3900 Bailey Ave., Allen Coniglio to Hau Nung Lam; Zhen Qiu Lam, $165,000.

• 71 Shady Grove Drive, Robert C. Hoessel; Robert C. Hoesel; Grace C. Hoessel; Grace C. Hoesel to Paula M. Schiappa, $165,000.

• 73 Callodine Ave., Allen Coniglio to Hau Nung Lam; Zhen Qiu Lam, $165,000.

• 286 Brockmoore Drive, Jessica Vitale to Elizabeth A. Forster, $158,101.

• 161 Lafayette Blvd., Richard Lafountain; Gina Lafountain to James R. Lafountain Sr., $155,000.

• 38 Halwill Drive, Mary Ann O’Connell to Domenic C. Damore, $152,800.

• 47 Shady Grove Drive, Jeffery A. Selnick to Betty D. Barrett, $152,000.

• 862 Edgewater Drive, Janette D. Macritchie to Paul Moukperian; Melissa Moukperian, $150,250.

• 20 Dann Road, Celtic Enterprises Inc. to Sean P. Lillis; Kim M. Lillis, $150,000.

• 372 Hendricks Blvd., Andrew A. Borden; Rachel E. Borden to Brandon P. Jonas, $137,000.

• 970 Hopkins Road, Elizabeth A. Scherer to Arthur Gellman, $137,000.

• 426 Burroughs Drive, Patty J. Kepler; Carol S. Brigham; Barbara R. Pratt to Jonathon M. Gondek, $132,000.

• 1 Beacon Park, Mark A. Bortz to Prameela Rebala, $117,000.

• 569 Burroughs Drive, Donald R. Warren to Pamela J. Spath, $102,000.

• 409 Lakewood Parkway, Otto H. Lindemann; Carol E. Lindemann to Deborah K. Stephens, $100,000.

• 360 Grover Cleveland Highway, Barbara P. Carlson; Alexandra C. Carlson to Yolanda C. White, $86,000.

• 66 Arcadian Drive, Rockingham Estates to Charlene Zoratti; Thomas M. Zoratti, $80,000.

• 83 Daigler Court, CL&F Development to Arthur D. Nerber; Carolyn C. Nerber, $76,000.

• 160 Collins Lane, 2615 Millersport Highway Llc to Natale Building Corp., $75,000.

• 412 Lakewood Parkway, Geraldine Valone; James Valone; James S. Valone; Geraldine A. Valone to Kenneth Bryan; Benjamin Edward Bryan, $75,000.

• 42 Hirschfield Drive, Heather A. Voss to Mary Ellen Canada, $75,000.

• 203 Old Meadow Drive, Adeline Thurston to Patricia Hoyt, $73,500.

• 203 Old Meadow Drive, Janice M. Schuler to Patricia Hoyt, $73,500.

• 223 Buckeye Road, Adam Saleh to Charity L. Mathewson, $63,000.

• 89A Foxberry Drive, Mark D. Mitschang; Diane L. Caruana to Colleen M. Sterner, $62,667.

• 125 Rosedale Blvd., Alice Joan Landel to Thomas J. Doran, $61,000.

• 597 Grover Cleveland Highway, Carol A. Wysocki to Fred Stanton, $40,000.

• 89A Foxberry Drive, David H. Mitschang to Colleen M. Sterner, $31,333.

• Vacant Land/70 Fairgreen Drive, Cimato Enterprises Inc. to Erik Mikos, $25,000.

• Vacant Land/2331 North Forest, Sean P. Lillis; Carol A. Lillis; Tara B. Lillis to Mark A. Niederpruem; Tara B. Lillis, $8,625.

• Tralee Terrace, Celtic Enterprises Inc. to Carol A. Lillis, $8,000.

• Tralee Terrace, Celtic Enterprises Inc. to Sean P. Lillis; Kim M. Lillis, $8,000.

AURORA/EAST AURORA

• 23 Paine St., Diane M. Worral to Daivd Samuel Shapiro, $165,000.

• 574 Oakwood Ave., Melissa Millonzi Vlavianos to Stephen A. Zagrobelny; Paula H. Zagrobelny, $118,000.

• 270 Buffalo Road, RJ Gullo Properties Inc. to Andrew M. Green, $100,000.

BOSTON

• 7119 Boston Cross Road, Darlene L. Jerge to Clifton P. Cole, $147,500.

BRANT

• 264 Lotus Point Road, James J. Manning Jr. to Barbara Morin; Ronald Morin, $20,000.

BUFFALO Highest price: $730,000 Average price: $95,237 Median price: $49,000 Number of Sales: 63

• 605 Niagara St., Gateway-Longview Inc. to College D’Youville, $730,000.

• 95 Windsor Ave., Judith M. Dean; Anthony J. Colucci III to Christine L. Sabuda, $560,000.

• 779 West Delavan, Margaret M. Sullivan to Susan Hakala, $320,000.

• 150 Lancaster, Kevin M. Gibson to Lindsay D. Brooks, $299,000.

• 372 Parker Ave., Rosemary McGrath; William M. McGrath to Henry Taubenfeld; Maryjo A. Taubenfeld, $232,000.

• 198 Anderson, Todd Geise to Heather J. Anderson, $225,000.

• 40 University Circle, Lisa Marie Sherman; Hillard M. Sherman to Jennifer B. Seitz; John P. Seitz Jr., $182,000.

• 113 Lovering Ave., Kathleen Palma to Jeffrey N. Sipos, $180,135.

• 149 Willett St., Darryl Sittniewski; Joyce M. Sittniewski to Jeffrey D. Conrad; Katherine M. Conrad, $161,500.

• 247 Roesch Ave., Syndicated Development to Community Services for the Developmentally Disabled Inc., $152,500.

• 2080 Delawar Ave., Helen Duncan; David P. Duncan to Lifetime Real Estate Holdings, $150,000.

• 61 North Park Ave., Jennifer B. Coniglio to Sandra Cottis, $147,000.

• 335 Bedford Ave., Thomas E. Syroczynski to Alex Edward Brown, $141,000.

• 5 North Park Ave., Taylor M. Miranda to Denise M. Rizzo, $135,000.

• 36 Carmel Road, John Coggeshall to Todd M. Geise, $134,500.

• 20 Tuscarora, Mary P. Shanahan; Terrance J. Shanahan Jr. to Kelley L. Comerford; Charles P. Comerford, $132,500.

• 424 Dingens St., Dolores T. Krigier to Sunoco Inc., $130,000.

• 338 North Park Ave., Gary Lamartina; Jeffrey Lamartina; Mark Lamartina; Michelle Deschenes to Gregory Lamartina, $123,650.

• 60 Shoreham Parkway, Fay S. Koch; Russell J. Savasta to Ruth Fierro-King; Mark A. Kin, $114,500.

• 535 Main St., Seymour Investment to 535 Main Street Llc, $109,500.

• 27 North Parker Ave., David E. Myers to William F. Whelan; David J. Whelan, $103,000.

• 28 Rutland St., Maria Chmura; David B. Chmura to Robert J. Lingle; Shannon E. Lingle, $91,000.

• 50 Strathmore, Colleen L. Chase; Michael J. Chase III to Kathryn C. Ryan, $90,722.

• 37 Redmond Ave., Ignatius Pecoraro to Jon Spitz, $89,900.

• 179 Avery Ave., James Donald Simpson to Kelly J. Faust; Michael N. Faust, $84,000.

• 12 Vandalia St., Norman Stramowski; Norman E. Stramowski to August L. Patuto, $80,000.

• 175 Brinton, Anthony Harris to Antoinette Harris; Douglas L. Harris Jr., $79,900.

• 208 Culver Road, Julia K. Horhota to Norman E. Stramowski; Linda M. Stramowski, $78,000.

• 109 Plymouth Ave., Anthony J. Durante; Jason L. Durante to Dennis K. Durante, $55,000.

• 111 Easton Ave., Clara Sinicki; Patricia Achtyl; Chester E. Sinicki to Jameka M. Spencer, $54,000.

• 344 Warwick Ave., Venus L. Greggs; Donald J. Greggs to Corey B. Granberry, $52,500.

• 33 Gold St., Clifford Alf to Genevieve M. Eich, $49,000.

• 57 Rachel Vincent Way, Dato Development to Maria Joseph P. Santa; Maria Laurie A. Santa, $47,000.

• 67 Evanston Place, Angelo C. Arcuri to Vernon G. Campbell; Linda L. Campbell, $45,000.

• 91 Chadduck, Joseph S. Bubas; Barbara A. Shea to Ben L. Properties, $43,000.

• 81 Riverside Ave., Michael N. New to Toma Walton, $40,280.

• 85 Chadduck, Barbara A. Shea to Ben L. Properties, $37,000.

• 44 Martha, Keith Canazzi; Equity Trust Company to Cloverlawn 9350 Llc, $36,500.

• 315 Herkimer St., Asmaa H. Alasri to Xiao Wei Yang, $31,000.

• 19 Zelmer St., Buffalo Edge to 19 Zelmer Street Llc, $30,800.

• 626 East Utica St., Elvira P. Brinson to Odin Holdings, $28,750.

• 480 Seventh St., Raphael Rodriguez to Guo Ping Lu, $28,500.

• 57 Alice Ave., BCG Nadlan Llc to Nessia Arbel, $27,000.

• 39&41 Weiss, Bozena Lewandowski to 41 Weiss Llc, $26,200.

• 235 Rounds Ave., Leslie Y. Jackson to TR Homes & Properties Inc., $26,000.

• 88 Haven, KC Erie Niagara Properties to Manhattan Consultants, $25,500.

• 552 Fargo Ave., Henry Legge to Tmaria Llc, $25,000.

• 85 Kentucky St., Carmen M. Irizarry to Bill J. McAdams, $25,000.

• 138 Hertel, CDD Enterprises Ltd. to Yankee Holdings, $24,500.

• 17 Calumet, Adam Berti to Frank Pleto, $19,500.

• 326 Virginia St., Angeline Randazzo to Susan C. Dold; Samuel M. Dold, $18,000.

• 38 Hillside Ave., Dennis H. Werner; James F. Werner to James H. Werner, $18,000.

• 771 Broadway, Reecie Dickson to Assad Elbanna, $18,000.

• 181 Jewett Ave., Ambia Khatun to Rosma Khatun; Zamil Hussain, $15,000.

• 18 Richlawn, Zhanna Demydova; Dennis G. Allen to WNY Dream Holdings, $14,800.

• 384 Herkimer, John M. Leair to Daud Sheikh-Omer, $14,200.

• 403 Benzinger St., Leo P. Schriver to MDB Property Fund New York, $14,000.

• Vacant Land/114 Brayton, 31 & 33 Shields, City of Buffalo to Massachusetts Avenue Project Inc., $11,500.

• 51 Schmarbeck Ave., Christine Mincel to Queen City Property Management Inc., $9,500.

• 80 Rickert, Jonathan Mims to Domingo Rivera, $5,600.

• 518 Wilson St., Cheryl D. Maye; Cheryl D. Brooks to Bradsville Properties Holdings Inc., $5,000.

CHEEKTOWAGA Highest price: $1,223,000 Average price: $181,013 Median price: $82,400 Number of Sales: 20

• 2331 Union Road, 2331 Union Road Llc to Colvin Oakdale Llc, $1,223,000.

• 2331 Union Road, 2331 Union Road Llc to 2331 GB Properties, $900,000.

• 3125 Walden Ave., New Turnpike Realty Corporation to 3125 Walden Llc, $275,000.

• 81 St. Joan Lane, Robin A. Guadagno to Thomas Golombek Jr., $140,000.

• 16 Oehman Blvd., Appropriate Properties to Adeline A. Thurston, $123,000.

• 95 Candace Lane, Philip A. Fleck; Richard J. Vorwerk Jr. to Michael D. Kline; Deborah L. Smigiel, $119,000.

• 235 Banko Drive, Thomas S. Sprankle; Helen C. Sprankle; Thomas C. Sprankle to Mariano Chirico IV; Stephanie R. Chirico, $116,000.

• 52 Delray Drive, Thomas Kubiniec; Jean Strand to Fannie Mae, $115,569.

• 36 Beale Ave., Kimberly A. Bracci to Lisa J. Miller, $101,000.

• 1225 George Urban Blvd., Deborah L. Wozniak; David W. Lytle to Shannon M. Spruill, $100,000.

• 211 Curtiss St., Victoria E. Szymaszek; Theresa C. Szymaszek to Robert G. Hammer II, $64,800.

• 920 Dick Road, Timothy D. Lafferty to Mauro Dipasquale; Bonnie Lynn Hicks, $60,000.

• 10 Normandy Ave., Bonnie L. Cooper to Jacob Harris Jr.; Audrey Harris, $57,400.

• 73 Marne Road, Barbara Pinson to Ladon Rogers, $57,000.

• 2074 Clinton St., Shirley Ann Wozniak; James J. Wozniak to David R. Fronczak, $52,000.

• 26 Vera Ave., Olden T. Ingram III to Kevina N. Collins, $45,500.

• 113 East End Ave., Clive Kefford to JDNK Holdings, $25,000.

• 14 Olcott Place, Shaun Maddox; Equity Trust Company to Marcellus L. Coleman, $13,000.

• 3125 Walden Ave., Mark J. Schlant to New Turnpike Realty Corporation, $10,000.

CLARENCE

• 5052 Shale Bluff Court, Mary M. Comerford to Rajat Shah, $800,000.

• 5903 Monaghan Lane, Ryan Homes of New York; Nvr Inc. to Yasmine Aboueldahab; Ahmed F. Abdelwahab, $386,595.

• 4210 Shisler Road, Albert H. Meyer to Mindy Robins, $42,500.

• Vacant Land/Shisler Road, 10001 Grand Corp. to Mindy Robins, $42,500.

COLDEN

• 9010 Caroline Lane, Laurie Ann Balas to Amy L. English; Garret J. English, $380,000.

COLLINS

• Vacant Land/14998 South Quaker Road, Sherwin E. Allen to Robin Liszkiewicz; Michael P. Liszkiewicz, $21,820.

CONCORD

• 34 South Cascade Drive, Indus Foods Inc. to Indus Real Estates II, $500,000.

• Vacant Land/Mill St., Vincent G. Sabia to James P. Linsler Jr., $39,000.

ELMA

• Vacant Land/Ostrander Road, Nancy S. Clark; Daniel L. Clark to Archaeoloical Conservancy, $36,756.

• Vacant Land/Bullis Road, Kimberly J. Demme; Vincent N. Demme Sr.; Vincent N. Demme Jr. to Sunok Beasor; Russell D. Beasor, $30,500.

EVANS

• 6746 Old Lake Shore Road, Glenn T. Lista to Kenneth Williams; Pamela Williams, $960,000.

• 7112 Lake Shore Road, Kenneth Williams; Pamela Williams to Glenn T. Lista, $580,000.

• 7611 Delamater Road, Tammy S. Barry; James A. Barry to Keith R. Kibler; Jeannette M. Kibler, $309,000.

• 449 Lakeside Road, Barbara Klopp to Jaclyn C. Rice; Todd R. Rice, $90,000.

• 147 Timber Ave., Mary Ann Karalus; Joseph R. Karalus to Wesley Schunk, $45,000.

• 9629 Kenmore St., Kenneth J. Sceusa; Denise M. Sceusa to Tiffany L. Bauer, $45,000.

GRAND ISLAND Highest price: $365,000 Average price: $177,661 Median price: $155,000 Number of Sales: 9

• 2571 West River Road, Millard E. Walck; Patricia A. Walck to David M. Pratt; Celia N. Spacone, $365,000.

• 3541 West River Road, Karen M. Gleave to JJ Manor Llc, $235,000.

• 269 Waterford Park, Ryan Homes of New York; Nvr Inc. to Craig P. Newell; Lisa M. Newell, $224,950.

• 1091 Ransom Road, Michelle Muscoreil; James V. Muscoreil to Astrid Lopez; Edgardo Lopez, $180,000.

• 1133 Sheree Drive, Jennifer L. Kam; Christopher D. Kam to Matthew R. Rang, $155,000.

• 365 Laurie Lane, Diane L. Patterson to Jillian Lajoie, $134,000.

• 1524 East Park Road, Stacey Dawson to Taralyn Bielaski, $130,000.

• 3020 East River Road, Geraldine C. Iacono to Patricia A. Rink, $115,000.

• 310 Park Lane, Maria Derubeis to Forbes Homes Inc., $60,000.

HAMBURG Highest price: $415,000 Average price: $191,715 Median price: $190,000 Number of Sales: 9

• 5827 Shamrock Court, Amy L. English to Brian M. Duff, $415,000.

• 2340 Agassiz Drive, Marrano/Marc Equity Corporation to Tracy L. Roach; Raymond C. Roach, $267,670.

• 4678 Mosey Lane, Essex Homes of WNY Inc. to James Matthews; Sarah Matthews, $234,763.

• 134 Foxcroft Drive, Andrew E. Bruno; Kathleen M. Bruno to Charles W. Dye, $218,000.

• 3794 Hoover Road, Robert F. Whalen Jr. to Laura Haas, $190,000.

• 5508 Sterling Road, Harry Curtis; Harry T. Curtis to Giovanni Palumbo; Summer F. Sherk, $142,500.

• 4239 Polly Lane, Denise Gebauer to Glen J. Echeverria, $134,500.

• 4818 Clark St., Carol A. Kummer; Gary L. Maybach Sr. to Eugene J. Wehrfritz, $73,000.

• 4779 Mosey Lane, Essex Homes of WNY Inc. to Josette A. Fisher; Tara L. Taddio, $50,000.

HOLLAND

• 9589 Savage Road, Robert Frazer; John Grennell to Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, $86,111.

LACKAWANNA

• 16 Barlow Ave., Laura J. Kowalczyk to Ashley Otoole, $90,000.

• 315 South Shore Blvd., Sandra S. Drozdowski to Marlene A. Espinosa; Ronald S. Espinosa, $71,500.

• 232 Orchard Place, Fannie Mae to Nicole Vescio-Noblett; Philip J. Noblett, $54,000.

• 60 Beech St., Mary Ann Suleski to Adalis Davila, $52,000.

LANCASTER Highest price: $2,600,000 Average price: $507,210 Median price: $235,000 Number of Sales: 11

• 6729 Transit Road, Hansaay Associates-Lancaster to First Berkshire Business Trust; Ronald Benderson, $2,600,000.

• 4993 Transit Road, 4993 Group Llc to McDonalds USA, $900,000.

• 6627 Transit Road, Matajis Inc. to Ved Llc, $700,000.

• 490 Lake Ave., Wendy D. Nunn; Paul R. Nunn to Ronald G. Schrader; Teresa M. Pacanowski, $280,000.

• 82 Heritage Drive, Daniel J. Fox; Theresa M. Lehner to Brian A. Schmidt; Katie P. Schmidt, $241,000.

• 8 Devonshire, Carmelanne Caterisano; Daniel J. Caterisano to Michael J. Quigley, $235,000.

• 71 Michael Anthony Lane, Kevin R. King; Donna M. Fial to Lisa Shea; Matthew Shea, $210,000.

• 6 Cobblestone Court, Miguel A. Serrano; Martha L. Serrano to Ann M. Vanyo, $182,000.

• 69 Hanover St., Marrano/Marc Equity Corporation to Deanna M. Ballistrea, $169,315.

• 302 Penora, Walter Francis Niespodziewany to Crestview Property Holdings, $32,000.

• 40 Crans St., Larry Rawa to LR Property; David R. Lambert, $30,000.

MARILLA

• 11420 Porterville Road, Barbara S. Perry to Eric V. Levulis, $218,000.

• 2751 Four Rod Road, Jennifer E. Doraski; Joseph J. Scinta; Joseph J. Doraski to Ameriquest Mortgage Securities Inc.; Deutsche Bank, $134,395.

NEWSTEAD

• 12433 Clarence Center Road, Douglas E. Kokanovich to Michael D. Kokanovich; Lisa M. Kokanovich, $250,000.

• 7636 Greenbush Road, Nancy V. Frey; Norman C. Frey to Erick P. Durick, $193,000.

• 6409 Utley Road, Patricia A. Schultz to James P. Jendrowski; Paul P. Sardina, $60,000.

ORCHARD PARK

• 40 Braunview Way, Barry L. Radlin; Susan J. Gibson to Kathy L. Drew; Bryan J. Drew, $350,900.

• 6 Curley Drive, Ronald J. Torgalski to Thomas K. Frederick; Sarah A. Frederick, $310,000.

• 270 Lawrence Woods, Muirfield Properties Inc. to Terrance J. Shanahan II, $280,000.

• 61 Burbank Drive, Jeremy C. Dejong; Lisa D. Domanowski to Andrew E. Bruno; Kathleen M. Bruno, $275,500.

• 112 Reppien Place, Michael Wolanczyk; Donna J. Heximer-Wolanczyk to Martha E. Mauro, $128,000.

• 3301 Abbott Road, Angela R. Sardo to KJA Properties, $125,000.

CITY OF TONAWANDA

• 37 Warren Drive, Michael P. Fanara to Amy L. Skidmore, $118,000.

• 152 Frederick Road, Dennis Liberatore to Daniel K. Scott, $95,000.

• 413 & 421 Main St., Donna Young; Donna L. Young to Christopher C. Fisher; Julia C. Finucane, $65,000.

TOWN OF TONAWANDA Highest price: $200,000 Average price: $107,405 Median price: $104,500 Number of Sales: 22

• 24 Willowgrove E, Mary E. McBride to Juliana E. Kotwicki, $200,000.

• 45 Sweet Briar Road, Karen A. Cuviello; David J. Cuviello to Kari A. Buscaglia, $170,500.

• 276 Curtis Parkway, Peter Wyzykowski to Taylor M. Miranda, $170,000.

• 562 Lynbrook Ave., John P. Zenger to Susan L. Mazur; Martin G. Mazur, $170,000.

• 35 Cleveland Drive, James Raymond; Michelle S. Raymond to Kevin Sweeney; Ashley Sweeney, $149,000.

• 105 Patricia Drive, Paula M. Fish to Heather Wheeler, $135,000.

• 182 Willow Breeze Road, Brian T. Badgley to Florence M. Sortino-Aman; George F. Aman Jr., $125,000.

• 229 Grandview Ave., Rozalia Gorog; Leslie J. Gorog to Alexander M. Bruno; Phillip T. Bruno, $123,000.

• 268 Northwood Drive, Ronald G. Allshouse Jr. to Florence M. Dunn; Frank B. Dunn Sr., $115,000.

• 334 Joseph Drive, Barbara V. Schneider; Anna H. Stanuuszko to Kenneth Wigdorski, $111,000.

• 142 Kelvin Drive, Ida Fenno; Rocco Fenno to Suzanne L. Forman, $110,000.

• 142 Wendel Ave., Christa L. Sheppard to Nicholas Tomasula; Malissa M. Eterginio, $99,000.

• 395 Shepard Ave., Kimberly A. O’Neill; Jason R. O’Neill to Jillian M. Eberle, $94,900.

• 60 Parkhurst Blvd., Lillian E. Nichter to Benjamin K. Elford; Cara M. Fisher, $92,500.

• 176 Willowbreeze Road, Laura Hayes to Kevin M. Gibson, $92,000.

• 283 Bannard Ave., Mary Sokoloski; Carol Rees; Joan Aquilina to Racheal M. Barraclough, $92,000.

• 281 Fairfield Ave., Julius F. Ferrand; Norma I. Ferrand to Stephen A. Campbell; Julie A. Campbell, $85,000.

• 294 Woodgate Road, Frances A. McNeely to Andrew J. Harvey, $83,000.

• 78 Washington Ave., Timothy J. Hook; Mary D. Hook to Justin Neri, $56,000.

• 44 Princeton Blvd., Betty Ann Schaertel; Dorothy S. Schaertel to Susan S. Murphy; Michael J. Murphy, $52,000.

• 276 Wilmington Ave., Leslie Kaplan to CP Joseph Real Estate Group, $30,000.

• 308 Ensminger Road, Marie T. Fullagar; Edward J. Fullagar to Town of Tonawanda, $8,000.

WALES

• 11141 Big Tree Road, Lisa A. Batt to Auctions International Inc., $125,000.

WEST SENECA Highest price: $261,414 Average price: $137,731 Median price: $127,500 Number of Sales: 10

• 119 Caldwell Drive, Marrano/Marc Equity Corporation to Thomas J. Catuzzi; Lisa M. Catuzzi, $261,414.

• 5370 Seneca St., Sharon M. Acker to Michael A. Ehman; Joanne L. Ehman, $150,000.

• 346 Potters Road, William J. Mullen to Ronald D. Wittmeyer; Patricia A. Wittmeyer, $145,000.

• 524 East & West, Gail A. Bartholomy to Susan C. Scott, $133,000.

• East Side of North America Drive, West Seneca Joint Venture to Sustainable Biopower, $128,000.

• 244 Seneca Creek Road, Kevin R. Lufkin; Christine M. Lufkin to Matthew Schieber, $127,000.

• 429 Fisher Road, Cecilia A. Stack to Lucyanne Georger, $120,000.

• 89 Bayberry Ave., Christine Mary Woodring; Carole Monica Kocher; Frank L. Koch to Joseph P. Ciraulo; Michelle M. Kmitch, $119,000.

• 180 Woodcrest Drive, Carol L. Weitz; Paul E. Weitz to Molly Marie Erickson, $104,000.

• 180 Barnsdale Ave., Gary T. Dejames to Wayne R. Stevenson, $89,900.

LEWISTON

• 310 Oneida St., William G. Clark; Bonnie H. Clark to Michelle Stevens, $185,000.

• Lower Mountain Road, Franklin D. Silvernail to Robert Kavanaugh, $142,000.

• North Hewitt Drive, Kenneth G. Keiper to Joshua J. Patterson, $104,940.

• Annwill Condo/Unit 28, Victor Talarico; Bernard T. Critelli Jr. to Greta Kargatis, $63,000.

NEWFANE

• Bixler Road, Carol H. Malcomb to Nancy Wright; Jeffrey P. Wright, $145,000.

NIAGARA FALLS

• 81st St., Jeremy M. Mixon Sr. to Amy M. Feidt; Alan J. Feidt, $92,700.

• Delancey Road, G. Betty Einstein; Paul H. Einstein to Raymond R. Granieri; Mary E. Granieri, $86,000.

• 73rd St., Maria Steele; Hans D. Fuhrmann; Erica Gephardt; John Steele to Melissa E. McCauley; Justin M. McCauley, $66,250.

• Niagara Ave., Jennie Beswick; Karen Beswick to Christina A. Betton, $48,000.

• Walnut Ave. & Memorial Parkway, Clive Kefford to Real Estate Development and Housing, $36,500.

• 27th St., Randy Newtown; Kari M. Newtown to Craig Waldeck, $36,000.

• Michigan Ave., Clive Kefford to Capital Group Enterprises, $34,500.

• 2309 Orleans Ave., Double K Consulting III to BCM NV Llc, $29,000.

• Liberty Ave., Mary R. Ryan; James S. Ryan to James L. Ryan, $26,000.

• Jerauld Ave. & 24th St., Irene Tegda; Robert V. Genova; Helen Zaninovich to Bradley Clay Miller; Patricia J. Miller; Charles F. Miller, $25,000.

• Memorial Parkway, Catherine O. Byrd to Allstar Property Holdings Inc., $25,000.

• Niagara Ave., KC Buffalo Enterprises to Armitage Properties, $23,000.

NORTH TONAWANDA

• Backer Alley, A.E. Gombert Lumber Co. Inc. to Joseph H. Sander Jr., $45,000.

• Simson St., Colleen A. Wells to David Dzikoski, $13,000.

PENDLETON

• Cloverleaf Lane, Ryan Homes of New York; Nvr Inc. to Patricia A. Behe; Andrew J. Behe, $273,950.

PORTER

• Lockport Youngstown Road, Truva Properties to Richard Shears; Suzanne Shears, $142,500.

• Porter Center Road, Elizabeth M. Grizanti to Ian D. Carr, $15,000.

TOWN OF LOCKPORT

• Akron Road, Holly M. Zamerski; Holly M. Bombard to David J. Colbert, $130,000.

TOWN OF NIAGARA

• Liberty Ave., Mary R. Ryan; James S. Ryan to James L. Ryan, $26,000.

WHEATFIELD

• Skylark Lane, Ryan Homes of New York; Nvr Inc. to Alexis R. Yanulevich; Ryan M. Hogan, $227,775.

• Arnold Drive, Patrick C. Canty; Jacqueline S. Canty to Melissa K. Ely; Erich D. Ely, $182,500.

• Ward Road, Melissa K. Scroger; Erich D. Ely; Melissa K. Ely to Scholl Saylor, $145,000.

• Townline Road, Rachel E. Wall; Philip D. Wall to Barbara A. Massey, $91,000.

WILSON

• Ide Road & Cambria-Wilson Townline Road, Robert C. Leggett; Linda A. Leggett to Fighting Irish Rentals Inc., $25,000.

Former Buffalo Bills wide receiver Naaman Roosevelt has been invited for a tryout today with the New England Patriots, a source close to Roosevelt told The Buffalo News.

The St. Joe’s and University at Buffalo product was one of the final cuts from the Bills following training camp, and has since been working out at the Northtown Center at Amherst.

Roosevelt, who turns 25 on Christmas Eve, went undrafted out of UB in 2010 and was immediately signed by the Bills as a free agent.

In two seasons with the club, Roosevelt had 25 receptions for 396 yards and one touchdown, a 60-yarder in a loss last season to the New York Giants.



— Rodney McKissic

Houston and Green Bay clinched division titles with victories over their closest pursuers, and there is a three-way tie for the lead in the NFC East as a result of Sunday’s Week 15 games in the National Football League.

The Texans also clinched a first round bye when New England lost to San Francisco, 41-34, on Sunday night. There were no Andrew Luck late-game heroics as Houston defeated the Indianapolis Colts, 29-17, and took the AFC South title. Green Bay wrapped up the NFC North by defeating the arch-rival Bears, 21-13, in Chicago.

The defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants were embarrassed, 34-0, by the Falcons in Atlanta to fall to 8-6. Meanwhile, Washington and Dallas won their games to pull into a first-place tie with the Giants.

49ers 41, Patriots 34

The scoop: The 49ers and Colin Kaepernick (four touchdown passes) shredded the Patriots early, then took advantage of New England miscues to build a 31-3 lead but needed a late Kaepernick-to-Michael Crabtree pass for 38 yards to pull out the victory. Kaepernick began with a 24-yard TD pass to ex-Patriot Randy Moss. New England scored 28 unanswered points to tie the game with 6:43 left. The Niners needed only 18 seconds to reclaim the lead.

Why the 49ers won: Their pass rush overpowered New England’s front and they outmuscled the Patriots across the board.

Cowboys 27, Steelers 24 (OT)

The scoop: Brandon Carr intercepted a pass from Ben Roethlisberger to set up Dan Bailey’s 21-yard field goal in overtime. Carr picked off Roethlisberger’s pass along the sideline and returned it 36 yards to the 1.

Why the Cowboys won: Tony Romo completed 30 passes for 341 yards, two touchdowns with no turnovers.



Texans 29, Colts 17

The scoop: Houston is the AFC South champion for the second straight year. Andre Johnson had 151 yards receiving and a touchdown, Bryan Braman scored on a blocked punt and Shayne Graham kicked five field goals. The Colts needed a win to clinch a playoff berth. J.J. Watt had three sacks for Houston.

Why the Texans won: They kicked a field goal following a blocked punt after Indy had closed to within six points in the fourth quarter.



Packers 21, Bears 13

The scoop: Green Bay won its second straight NFC North title. James Jones caught all three touchdown passes thrown by Aaron Rodgers. Green Bay has now won six straight over Chicago and 12 straight against NFC North opponents.

Why the Packers won: They limited Chicago to only 107 net passing yards and a long reception of only 18 yards. NFL receiving leader Brandon Marshall had six catches but for only a 9.3 average. Also the Bears went 0 for 9 on third down.



Falcons 34, Giants 0

The scoop: Matt Ryan threw three touchdowns passes as the Giants suffered their first regular-season shutout since 1996. Julio Jones caught a couple of scoring throws from Ryan, who finished 23 of 28 for 270 yards.

Why the Falcons won: They intercepted two Eli Manning passes deep in Giants territory and New York came away with no points twice inside the Atlanta 20.



Redskins 38, Browns 21

The scoop: Rookie Kirk Cousins threw for 329 yards and two touchdowns filling in for injured star Robert Griffin III, leading Washington to its fifth straight win. Cousins connected with Leonard Hankerson for both TDs in his first career start.

Why the Redskins won: After trailing at halftime, they scored touchdowns on four of their first five possessions in the second half.



Broncos 34, Ravens 17

The scoop: Chris Harris returned an interception 98 yards for a momentum-turning touchdown, and Denver won its ninth straight. Down by 10-0 late in the first half, the Ravens had a first-and-goal at the Denver 4 when Harris spicked off a pass by Joe Flacco took off on the longest regular-season interception return in Broncos history.

Why the Broncos won: They limited the Ravens to 12 first downs and 1 for 12 on third-down conversions.Saints 41, Buccaneers 0

The scoop: Drew Brees passed for 307 yards and four touchdowns, and New Orleans posted its first shutout since 1995. Josh Freeman of Tampa Bay threw four interceptions and lost a fumble.

Why the Saints won: They won the turnover battle, 5-0. Ex-Bill Jabari Greer had two of the Saints’ four interceptions.



Vikings 36, Rams 22

The scoop: Adrian Peterson ran for a season-best 212 yards, including an 82-yard touchdown. Peterson has 1,812 yards rushing, leaving him 293 shy of the NFL’s single-season record of 2,105 by Eric Dickerson of the Los Angeles Rams in 1984.

Why the Vikings won: They scored on five of six first-half possessions.



Dolphins 24, Jaguars 3

The scoop: Miami kept former teammate Chad Henne out of the end zone, made three fourth-down stops deep in its own territory and benefited from an illegal substitution penalty that wiped out a Jacksonville touchdown.

Why the Dolphins won: Ryan Tannehill went 22 for 28 for 220 yards and two scores with no interceptions for Miami.



Cardinals 38, Lions 10

The scoop: Greg Toler brought back an interception 102 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown, the longest return in franchise history, to end Arizona’s nine-game losing streak. It was Detroit’s sixth loss in a row. Calvin Johnson of the Lions became the first player in NFL history with consecutive 1,600-yard receiving seasons and tied an NFL record with his seventh straight 100-yard receiving game.

Why the Cardinals won: They had only 195 yards total offense, but they needed to travel only 5, 3 and 29 yards for touchdowns by Beanie Wells in addition to two return scores.



Panthers 31, Chargers 7

The scoop: San Diego’s playoff hopes were finally extinguished with a loss at the hands of Mike Tolbert, Cam Newton and Carolina. Tolbert scored twice against his former team and DeAngelo Williams turned a tipped pass from Newton into a 45-yard touchdown reception.

Why the Panthers won: They outgained San Diego, 372 yards to 164, and had 37:32 of possession time.

Raiders 15, Chiefs 0

The scoop: Sebastian Janikowski kicked five field goals, Darren McFadden rushed for 110 yards and the Raiders shut out Kansas City for the second time ever. The Raiders snapped a six-game losing streak.

Why the Raiders won: They scored no touchdowns but had 40 minutes, 6 seconds of possession time.



News wire services contributed to this report.

First quarter: Running start

Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson does not have the speed of Washington rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III. But Wilson’s 4.55 time in the 40-yard dash is elite for a quarterback and was second only to Griffin’s 4.41 time among this year’s QB crop.

Wilson showed his running ability on Seattle’s first two drives. He capped the first with a 14-yard run for a touchdown. He capped the second with a 25-yard TD run.

Seattle was ahead, 14-0, just 9:21 into the game. Wilson entered the game as Seattle’s second-leading rusher, with 310 yards. That ranked fourth most among NFL quarterbacks. Wilson was a pass-first QB in college, playing in a West Coast attack. But he did have a nose for the end zone. He scored 23 rushing TDs in his college career.

Key plays: C.J. Spiller scored on a 14-yard run with 34 seconds left to pull the Bills within 14-7. A 17-yard pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Stevie Johnson preceded the score.

Fast starts: The Seahawks entered the game outscoring foes, 70-44, in the first quarter, the fourth “fastest starting” team in the league, in terms of points differential.

Second quarter: The Beast goes on

Marshawn Lynch showed his old team what it has been missing the past two-plus seasons with a rumbling performance in the second quarter.

Lynch gained 79 yards on five carries and set up Seattle’s third touchdown with a 54-yard run up the middle of the field to the Buffalo 4. Lynch finished the first half with 100 yards.

Acquired from the Bills early in the 2010 season, Lynch has been on a tear for Seattle since late in the 2011 season. He entered the game with 2,207 yards and 18 rushing touchdowns in his last 22 games, a 100-yards-per-game average. That’s the best in the NFL over that span. Lynch is in position to become just the third Seattle back to top 1,500 yards in a season, joining Shaun Alexander and Chris Warren.

Key plays: The Bills marched 82 yards in nine plays and 4:24 to get a touchdown. It came on a 20-yard pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Stevie Johnson, who ran a flag route to the left side of the end zone and beat cornerback Richard Sherman.

Rolling up the yards: Seattle outgained the Bills, 329-197, in the first half.

Third quarter: Sack master

Seattle hit a home run with a 2010 trade for defensive end Chris Clemons that did not make big headlines.

Clemons had managed three sacks in 2009 and four in 2008 for the Philadelphia Eagles. They sent him to Seattle for a fourth-round draft pick and journeyman Darryl Tapp. Clemons had shown a glimmer of pass-rush talent in 2007 when he had eight sacks for Oakland.

He has recaptured that form and then some for Seattle. Clemons had 11 sacks in both 2010 and 2011, and he reached 11 sacks this season with two in the third quarter.

Clemons’ second sack came around left tackle Cordy Glenn, and Clemons stripped the ball out of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s hands. Seattle’s Bruce Irvin scooped it up and returned it 35 yards to the Buffalo 10. It led to a 33-yard field goal by Steven Hauschka that gave Seattle a 40-17 lead.

Key plays: Seattle scored on a 58-yard interception return by Earl Thomas to go up, 47-17. The Seahawks also got a 13-yard touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch. Seattle almost had an 83-yard punt return TD, but it was called back due to an illegal-block penalty.

Fourth quarter: Pointed

There are mercy rules sometimes in little league, but not in the NFL. So it was when Seattle ran a fake punt for a 29-yard gain up the middle of the field on a fourth-and-2 play from the Buffalo 43. The Seahawks were up, 47-17, at the time. They turned the play into a field goal. Seattle was accused of running up the score last week when it was throwing the ball late in its 58-0 rout of the Arizona Cardinals.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said it was an “automatic” call on the field and said he regretted the play.

“You guys can draw your own opinions from that,” quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. “I don’t know that that’s really my style.”

Key play: The Seahawks got a 33-yard field goal from Steven Hauschka to go ahead, 50-17.

Atmosphere: Fans were chanting, “Let’s go Blue Jays” in the final seven minutes. A tall, shirtless male fan ran onto the field and ripped off his trousers. He made it 70 yards before being hauled down by security personnel. He spared himself some indignity. He was wearing underpants.

GRADING THE BILLS

Running game: A-

C.J. Spiller had another strong game — as we’ve come to expect. He didn’t have the workhorse performance people wanted to see in Fred Jackson’s absence because the game got away from the Bills so fast. But Spiller ran 17 times for 103 yards and a touchdown. He hit the 1,000-yard plateau in the fewest carries since Beattie Feathers for the 1934 Chicago Bears.

Passing game: D

An ordinary game would’ve been an improvement for Ryan Fitzpatrick. He completed 21 of his 38 attempts for 217 yards and a TD, but he threw two interceptions and got stripped for another turnover. The Seahawks mauled the Bills’ offensive line, sacking Fitzpatrick three times. Stevie Johnson had a strong game with 115 yards and a score. T.J. Graham had at least four drops.

Run defense: F

The Bills’ streak of not allowing opponents to rush for 90 yards ended at four games. Emphatically. Defensive tackle Kyle Williams said all week the Bills practiced to stop the Seahawks’ zone-option attack yet still looked clueless. Rookie quarterback Russell Wilson rolled up 92 yards and three touchdowns. Marshawn Lynch ran 10 times for 113 yards and a touchdown.

Pass defense: D+

The Bills started off with a bang, when linebacker Kelvin Sheppard sacked Wilson on the first play. But the Bills hit Wilson just four times more the rest of the game. Wilson routinely found targets wide open and finished with a 104.4 passer rating. He completed 61 percent of his throws and averaged 7.8 yards per attempt. The Bills recorded just one pass breakup.

Special teams: D+

Marcell Dareus blocked an extra point. That was the highlight. The Bills were embarrassed late in the game when, down by 30 points, the Seahawks ran 29 yards up the middle on a fake punt. Some might consider Pete Carroll’s decision unsportsmanlike, but the Bills were more aggravated they failed to stop it. Top return man Leodis McKelvin didn’t play because of a groin injury.

Coaching: F

Buffalo was overmatched and outsmarted from the jump. Buffalo was pathetic on both sides of the ball. The Bills let a rookie quarterback play like Fran Tarkenton. With 6:40 left in the first half, five Seahawks already had gains of 20-plus yards. The second half didn’t get any smoother for the Bills. The Seahawks continued to push them around. The Bills just took it.

GRADING THE SEAHAWKS

Running game: A

Seattle did whatever it wanted on the ground. Wilson became the first quarterback in NFL history to rush for three touchdowns and throw for one in a half. Wilson and Lynch each averaged more than 10 yards a carry. Seattle ran for 270 yards as a team. Even if you take out the fake punt, Seattle averaged the same distance per rush as it did per pass attempt (7.8 yards).

Passing game: B+

Seattle’s line and Wilson’s quicksilver feet kept him upright all afternoon. The Bills sacked him twice and hit him three times. Pass distribution was terrific, with Wilson targeting 10 teammates, none more than five times. Sidney Rice and Golden Tate combined for seven catches and 140 yards. Tight end Zach Miller got wide open in the end zone for Seattle’s only passing TD.

Run defense: C

The NFL’s 10th-rated run defense had its problems containing Spiller, but few teams have been able to manage that feat. Spiller was the lone threat, accounting for all but 15 of the Bills’ rushing yards. The game quickly became a pass-first attack for the Bills, rendering much of their ground game immaterial to the outcome. Only seven of the Bills’ 21 first downs were on the ground.

Pass defense: A

The Seahawks were dominant despite being without right cornerback Brandon Browner (suspension) and top backups Marcus Trufant (hamstring) and Walter Thurmond (hamstring). Fitzpatrick often was swarmed by pressure. The Seahawks registered six pass breakups in addition to their two interceptions and forced fumble. They also dropped Spiller for a 9-yard loss on a screen.

Special teams: C

Prudence probably should’ve kept Seattle from faking that punt, but it worked. That cancels out the missed extra point for grading purposes. The Seahawks were otherwise vanilla on special teams. They punted only twice. Leon Washington was so-so on his returns. Steven Hauschka made all three of his field-goal attempts, from 19, 33 and 23 yards.

Coaching: A

The Seahawks became the first team since the 1950 New York Giants to score 50 points in back-to-back games. The game was a statement for Seattle, which has struggled to win on the road but now has posted consecutive victories away from CenturyLink Field. With a rookie quarterback and players missing in the secondary, Carroll has his team at 9-5 with two home games left.

TORONTO – Marshawn Lynch stayed true to form, both during and after the game Sunday.

The Seattle Seahawks’ star running back rushed for another 113 yards on just 10 carries in a 50-17 demolition of the Buffalo Bills in the Rogers Centre.

As easily as he brushed off tacklers, he gave reporters looking to speak with him after the game the slip, just as he has all week. Dressed in a black hoodie with a pair of Beats headphones over his ears, Lynch offered a simple “no, I’m good” when asked to talk about running wild all over his former team.

No problem. His teammates were happy to do it for him.

“Marshawn runs so hard,” Seahawks center Max Unger said. “He’s got to be one of the hardest-working guys in the NFL when he has the ball in his hands. He makes us want to do our jobs that much more.

“Extra incentive for him, obviously, coming against the team he was drafted up here by. He wanted it. We all knew where we were going and what the deal is. It’s special for any guy who gets to play the team that he previously played for. It meant a lot.”

Lynch’s big gain came on a 54-yard run in the second quarter, when a Grand Canyon-sized crevice opened in the middle of the Bills’ defense. Lynch took the ball down to the Buffalo 4-yard line, and on the next play rookie quarterback Russell Wilson threw a touchdown pass to tight end Zach Miller, giving the Seahawks a 24-7 lead and officially signaling the rout as being on.

Led by Lynch and the read option offense run by Wilson, the Seahawks rushed for 270 yards.

“We knew we had our work cut out for us,” said Bills safety George Wilson. “We had a productive week of practice, but it all comes down to execution on game day. They executed better than we did.”

Wilson is one of just three defensive starters for the Bills to have played with Lynch, who spent the first three full seasons of his NFL career with the team that drafted him 12th overall in 2007. Lynch, 26, has thrived since heading west four games into the 2010 season, rushing for 1,204 yards last year. He’s got 1,379 through 14 games this year, trailing only Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson in the race to be the NFL’s leading rusher.

Lynch added a 13-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, the 28th of his Seahawks career.

The Bills as a team have rushed for 27 since Lynch was traded. He was expendable in Buffalo in part because of the presence of C.J. Spiller, whom the team drafted in the first round in 2010. Spiller finished with 103 yards on 17 carries. The two met on the Seattle sideline in the fourth quarter after a Spiller run.

“He just bumped into me, we didn’t exchange no words. That’s just Marshawn being Marshawn,” Spiller said. “I thanked him [after the game] for everything that he taught me in the time he was here. I told him he’s a great player. Everybody knows that.”

Lynch’s average per rush of 11.3 yards narrowly missed the career high he set last week, when he gained 11.6 yards per carry. That came in a 58-0 rout of Arizona in which Lynch rushed just 11 times for 128 yards and two touchdowns. That makes for a two-game total of 241 yards and four touchdowns on just 21 carries. He’s topped 100 yards eight times this season.

Lynch came into the game probable because of back and foot injuries, so the Seahawks were more than happy to limit his carries.

“He was just rock solid. I didn’t have to say anything to him,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “I asked him if he was OK going back, and he said he was fine. He played great.”



email: jskurski@buffnews.com

TORONTO – Lost in the carnage that was a 50-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the Rogers Centre was a milestone day for Buffalo Bills running back C.J. Spiller.

A 17-carry, 103-yard day pushed Spiller over 1,000 rushing yards in a season for the first time in his three-year career. Spiller surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in just 154 carries, the second-fewest number needed to reach the milestone in NFL history, trailing only the 119 Chicago Bears running back Beattie Feathers needed to become the NFL’s first 1,000-yard rusher in 1934.

Spiller, though, didn’t find much satisfaction in the number.

“You get beat like that, there’s nothing you can take away from this game that you can walk away and say you’re proud of,” he said. “Yeah, it’s good to rush for a thousand, but when you get your brains beat in like that, there’s nothing to be happy about.”

Spiller caught three passes, but they went for a total of minus-2 yards.

“We couldn’t get him any screen passes. We couldn’t get him the ball in the open field like we wanted to,” Bills coach Chan Gailey said. “He made some things happen. Then we got so far behind, we just couldn’t stick with the running game the way we wanted to.”

Spiller’s 14-yard touchdown run in the first quarter was his seventh overall touchdown of the season, setting a single-season personal best. Spiller, who now has 1,047 rushing yards, actually saw his rushing average of 6.6 yards per carry go down slightly, to 6.5.

Still, no player in NFL history has ever finished a season with 160 or more carries (Spiller now has 161) with a rushing average of 6.5 or better.

“I tip my hat to the offensive line and the guys that have been doing the downfield blocking,” Spiller said. “I wish it would’ve come in a better form, in a win. That would’ve made this ride a whole lot better. It didn’t. It’s just one of those milestones I can just cross off now.”

Seattle’s defense devoted its attention to Spiller.

“It was our main focus, stopping him,” said Seahawks defensive end Chris Clemons.

...

The Bills dropped to 1-4 in their five regular-season games played in the Rogers Centre. Buffalo has been outscored in those contests, 107-85.

“It’s tough. You can’t come up and criticize these fans for cheering the way that they do or how they view the game,” Bills safety George Wilson said. “You got to give these people something to be excited about and most of those plays came from Seattle.”

Even a halftime performance by PSY, the South Korean rapper whose “Gangnam Style” video is the most viewed in YouTube history, wasn’t enough to fill the stands. The paid attendance was 40,770.

“I don’t think where we played [Sunday] had anything to do with it,” Gailey said. “You play good or you play bad whether it’s home, road or anywhere. The bottom line is you have to play well,” Gailey said.

“I don’t care where you are. If you’re a good football team, you play well. If you’re not a good football team, you don’t play well. ... You would obviously like to play at home, but I said the other day you like to play 16 of them at home, but you can’t. That’s the way it is. You can’t worry about that. That’s not [what] affected us.”

“We looked at it [as] kind of a bowl game situation,” said Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. “We’re in kind of a semi-neutral site for us, and the stadium is a gorgeous place – the town is a great town. We tried to have some fun with it. It was cool to hear the [Canadian] anthem. We tried to make the most of it and enjoy the heck out of it. And fortunately, we had a real cool win, too.”

An agreement between the Bills and Rogers Communications to extend the series has already been approved by the NFL, but details have yet to be announced.

...

Center Eric Wood missed his second straight game for the Bills with a knee injury. Cornerback Leodis McKelvin sat out for the first time this season because of a groin injury, while receiver Donald Jones missed his second game in the past three weeks because of a calf injury.

Quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, cornerback T.J. Heath, defensive tackle Jay Ross and offensive tackle Chris Scott were healthy inactives for the Bills.

Linebacker Arthur Moats (ankle) and receiver Marcus Easley (hamstring) left the game because of injuries Sunday. They did not return to the lineup.

Gailey will provide an update on the injured players today at One Bills Drive.

The Seahawks were without starting cornerback Walter Thurmond because of a hamstring injury.



email: jskurski@buffnews.com

One of the region’s largest school districts keeps getting smaller.

Enrollment projections to be used in determining staffing levels for next year in the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School District and given to a consulting firm developing a plan for Ken-Ton’s future show a continued decline.

The total enrollment in October was 7,370 students, which means Ken-Ton’s enrollment has dropped by 171 students from the year before.

At Kenmore East High School, where graduating classes once surpassed 1,000 students, the overall enrollment dropped to 981 this year. The latest projections have it down to 659 by 2017-18.

Districtwide enrollment has dropped by 9.5 percent between 2008-09 and the current school year. And each of three methods used to calculate projections through 2017-18 show further decreases ranging from 4.4 percent to 6.2 percent.

The 4.4 percent figure is considered the most accurate, according to Robin B. Zymroz, director of student services.

Five-year projections, which were presented to the School Board last week, were based on enrollment counts done in each of the district’s 13 buildings in early October.

“We take that information, and we use that information to project into the future,” Zymroz said.

Those projections also have been given to SES Study Team of Canastota, the consulting firm hired by the School Board in August to explore the possibility of a districtwide consolidation.

Falling enrollment, stagnant state aid and increasing costs already have resulted in a decision to close Jefferson Elementary School next year. But the move by Jefferson students, current and future, into four other schools will result in only a temporary spike in their enrollments, according to Zymroz.

Meanwhile, the formal plan for Jefferson’s closing is a work in progress, said School Superintendent Mark P. Mondanaro.

“There’s a lot of human capital involved,” he said, citing students, staff and technology.

Closing Jefferson is expected to save the district approximately $2.5 million. Even so, early work on the district’s 2013-14 budget indicates a $2 million deficit because of various factors, including the depletion of reserve funds.

Programs, class sizes and staffing all took a hit in the current budget, in which the district had to dig itself out of a $12.5 million hole.

“I still don’t want to see additional cuts in programs. I think that’s important,” said School Board President Bob Dana. “We’ll fight with the tough decisions.”

Other board members agreed. With all of the cuts made in recent years, member Jim Simmons said, they’re already at the “bare bones” level.

Money-saving recommendations that may arise out of the consolidation study won’t be a factor in the 2013-14 budget, the superintendent noted.

email: jhabuda@buffnews.com

Erie County sheriff’s deputies apprehended a robbery suspect accused of striking a cashier and taking money out of a cash register at the Aldi’s store on Transit Road on Sunday afternoon.

Deputy Scott Kuhlmey responded to the 911 call at about 5:15 p.m. and caught Harry E. Sanderson, 53, who was fleeing from the store, sheriff’s officials said.

The cashier was not injured, and the money was recovered.

Sanderson was charged with third-degree robbery, grand larceny and harassment and sent to the Erie County Holding Center on $50,000 bail.

Town of Tonawanda police Monday identified the woman stabbed to death over the weekend as 34-year-old Jennifer Sacaridis, who was assaulted in her Blackmore Street apartment early Sunday morning.

Police have charged Edmund M. Serwinowski, 22, with second-degree murder in her death.

Top police officials Monday said that the couple had been dating for about a month.

“A dispute between the two of them erupted during the night, and he reacted by stabbing her,” Town of Tonawanda Police Lt. Nicholas A. Bado said.

Police were called to the scene at about 4:55 a.m. Sunday. Sacaridis was pronounced dead in Kenmore Mercy Hospital at about 5:25 a.m., police said.

NIAGARA FALLS – City and state police responded to a call of a home invasion in the 700 block of Division Avenue just before 10 p.m. Sunday and discovered blood splatters on the carpet in the living room and on the floors near the bedroom and in the bathroom.

The 27-year-old victim was not home, but was located by police in the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center emergency room where he was being treated for a cut over his left eye.

The victim told police that three males knocked on the door and then pushed their way in when he opened it. He said the three unknown men, who were wearing bandannas over their faces, ordered him to sit on the couch. He said one of the men hit him in the face with a pistol and ordered him to lie down on the floor.

He said he handed over $200, his earrings and a cell phone. He said the men also took an Xbox game system and caused a chair to be broken when he was thrown to the ground.

He said the men were in the house for about five minutes and he went to the hospital after they left.

Total loss and damage was estimated at $800.



email: nfischer@buffnews.com

A local Realtor is teaming up with Erie County Clerk Chris Jacobs on an initiative to encourage military veterans to become licensed real estate agents.

Under the new program, Metro Roberts Realty will pay 100 percent of the start-up expenses for a veteran to get licensed to sell real estate, including the costs of all required licensing classes, Multiple Listing Services dues and any other expenses. In all, such costs can exceed $3,000.

“Veterans are hard-working, highly disciplined and accustomed to overcoming obstacles,” said Metro Roberts Realty President Jim Roberts. “We believe a career in real estate will be a great fit and simply it’s the right thing to do for those who have given so much to our country.”

The effort, dubbed the “Metro Roberts Realty Veterans to Realtors Program” is designed to help veterans re-enter the workforce after returning from combat zones. It’s the newest partnership as part of Jacbos’ “Thank-A-Vet” discount program, which now has more than 400 participating merchants offering discounts for veterans.

Besides the agent training program, Metro Roberts will also offer a 12 percent discount on any commissions when the client is a veteran. “This is a very significant benefit to a veteran who buys or sells a home with Metro Roberts Realty,” Jacobs said.

email: jepstein@buffnews.com

When neighbors took it upon themselves to clean Suzanne Taylor’s cluttered patio in Buffalo’s exclusive Waterfront Village, she accused them of trespassing and discrimination, and eventually sued them in federal court.

After a three-year legal battle, a federal appeals court found Taylor’s suit to be “groundless and frivolous” and ordered a lower-court judge to award attorney fees to the homeowners organization she sued.

Senior U.S. District Judge John T. Curtin, who had previously denied attorney fees to the defendants, did exactly that last week to the tune of $107,322.

“It’s not enough to prevail. Our clients had to prove her suit was frivolous,” said Minryu Kim, a lawyer for the Harbour Pointe Homeowners Association. “It’s very, very rare that courts award attorney fees to prevailing defendants.”

In discrimination cases, courts have a long history of not awarding attorney fees to defendants because of the “chilling effect” that might have on future discrimination cases.

Taylor had claimed disability discrimination – she said she suffers from depression – and Curtin found that her case was not “entirely unreasonable or without foundation.”

Now Taylor feels that the decision to award attorney fees will have other ramifications.

“I really think there’s going to be a chilling effect,” Taylor said of the courts’ ultimate ruling. “I really think lawyers are going to be afraid to take these cases.”

The case of Taylor v. Harbour Pointe began more than four years ago, when neighbors, who had complained that Taylor’s patio was a “pigsty,” cleaned it up and moved several items to the inside of her garage.

When Taylor, who was out of town at a college reunion, returned home and found that her patio had been cleaned, she called police and filed a report accusing her neighbors of trespassing and burglary.

She eventually took her case, which became a housing discrimination complaint, to the state Division of Human Rights and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“I wanted someone to tell them that what they did was wrong,” Taylor said. “We’re not supposed to let the bullies win.”

Both agencies, however, ruled against her, and the state found that “there was no probable cause to support [her] housing discrimination claim and that there was no evidence to support a finding that [she] is disabled.”

Five months later, Taylor took her case to federal court and, in a nine-page complaint, accused Harbour Pointe of exacerbating her depression and failing to make accommodations for her disability. She also alleged that the head of the homeowners association was aware of her depression as early as 2005.

“She was asserting a self-diagnosed depression,” said Alan K. Bozer, a lawyer for the homeowners. “The homeowners association was never asked for an accommodation. Nor was it ever advised of the existence of a disability.”

Bozer said Taylor pursued her disability discrimination claim while promoting in public her 2009 book, “AUDieu: Buffalo Says Goodbye to The Aud,” a history of Buffalo’s Memorial Auditorium.

“From what we can tell, her depression didn’t slow her down,” he said.

Unlike Curtin, who found some credibility in Taylor’s disability claims, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Division of Human Rights and HUD, and cited those two agencies in deciding that her claim was frivolous.

The court also ordered Curtin to revisit the issue of attorney fees, which led the judge to award Harbour Pointe $107,322. The figure reflects the 558 hours that the group’s lawyers – three partners and six associates at Phillips Lytle – spent on the case.

Taylor’s lawyer says that the court ruling is a “miscarriage of justice” and suggested that it was the defendants, not her client, who purposely drove up the cost of the case.

Even more disturbing, she said, was the appeals court’s skepticism about the genuineness of Taylor’s depression.

“That really bothers me,” said Lindy Korn, who has handled the case since it was first filed in 2009. “To doubt that, to attack that, to minimize that is part of the whole problem and why this case is so important.”

Like her client, Korn is concerned about the chilling effect of the court’s decision and acknowledged that, because of that, her client is eager to take her case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

She sees the lawsuit as a legal test of two important issues: Her client’s disability and her right to the protection of her own home.

“I believe this case is a very important case,” Korn said.

“I was doing what I thought was right,” Taylor said of the suit against her neighbors. “I just want them to understand that you can’t be treated differently; you can’t be that rigid.”

Kim suggested that Harbor Pointe’s actions were always well-intended. “This was really neighbors acting in a neighborly way,” she said.

Kim said the two sides are currently in settlement negotiations over the issue that spawned the three-year legal dispute – Harbour Pointe’s demand that Taylor clean her patio.



email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com

A 19-year-old Corfu woman was killed Sunday night in a complicated three-vehicle accident after the car she was riding in was involved in two collisions that apparently occurred just seconds apart, according to the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department.

Kelsey N. Milks was flown by Mercy Flight to Erie County Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m. The driver of that car, Dana R. Cipra, 20, of Batavia, was listed in fair condition in ECMC.

The accident occurred shortly before 7 p.m. on Route 63 in the Town of Shelby, between Oak Orchard Ridge Road and the Orleans-Genesee county line.

The first collision was a head-on crash between a northbound Dodge Caravan and a southbound Chevrolet Cavalier, the car carrying Milks. Upon impact, the van ran off the east side of the road, down an embankment and into a ditch. The Cavalier came to rest in the center of the road.

That vehicle then was struck by a Chevrolet Cobalt.

The driver of the Caravan, Walter C. Hawkins, 73, of Medina, was treated and released from Medina Memorial Hospital. The two occupants of the Cobalt were not injured.

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A grief-stricken Newtown began laying to rest the littlest victims of the school massacre, starting with two 6-year-old boys — one of them a big football fan, the other described as a whip-smart youngster whose twin sister survived the rampage.

Family, friends and townspeople streamed to two funeral homes to say goodbye to Jack Pinto, who loved the New York Giants and idolized their star wide receiver, and Noah Pozner, who liked to figure out how things worked mechanically.

In front of the funeral home where relatives mourned Noah, well-wishers placed two teddy bears, a bouquet of white flowers and a single red rose at the base of an old maple tree.

“He was just a really lively, smart kid,” said Noah’s uncle Alexis Haller, of Woodinville, Wash. “He would have become a great man, I think. He would have grown up to be a great dad.”

Noah’s twin sister, Arielle, who was assigned to a different classroom, survived the killing frenzy by 20-year-old Adam Lanza that left 20 children and six adults dead last week at Sandy Hook Elementary in an attack so horrifying that authorities could not say whether the school would ever reopen.

At Jack’s service, hymns rang out from inside the funeral home. A mourner, Gwendolyn Glover, said that Jack was in an open casket and that the service was a message of comfort and protection, particularly for other children.

“The message was: You’re secure now. The worst is over,” she said.

The funeral program bore a quote from the Book of Revelation: “God shall wipe away all tears. There shall be no more death. Neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.”

At both funeral homes, people wrestled with the same questions as the rest of the country — what steps could and should be taken to prevent anything like the massacre from happening again.

“If people want to go hunting, a single-shot rifle does the job, and that does the job to protect your home, too. If you need more than that, I don’t know what to say,” Ray DiStephan said outside Noah’s funeral.

He added: “I don’t want to see my kids go to schools that become maximum-security fortresses. That’s not the world I want to live in, and that’s not the world I want to raise them in.”

With more funerals planned this week, the road ahead for Newtown, which had already started purging itself of Christmas decorations in a joyful season turned mournful, was clouded.

“I feel like we have to get back to normal, but I don’t know if there is normal anymore,” said Kim Camputo, mother of two children, 5 and 10, who attend a different school. “I’ll definitely be dropping them off and picking them up myself for a while.”

With Sandy Creek Elementary still designated a crime scene, State police Lt. Paul Vance said that it could be months before police turn the school back over to the district. The people of Newtown, consumed by loss, were not ready to address its future.

“We’re just now getting ready to talk to our son about who was killed,” said Robert Licata, the father of a student who escaped harm during the shooting. “He’s not even there yet.”

Classes were canceled Monday, and Newtown’s other schools were to reopen Tuesday. The district made plans to send surviving Sandy Hook students to a former middle school in the neighboring town of Monroe.

Sandy Hook desks are being taken to the Chalk Hill school in Monroe, empty since town schools consolidated last year, and tradesmen are donating their services to get the school ready within a matter of days.

“These are innocent children that need to be put on the right path again,” Monroe police Lt. Brian McCauley said.

On Sunday, President Barack Obama pledged to seek change in memory of the 20 children and six adults slain Friday by a gunman packing a high-powered rifle. The president slowly recited the first names of the children.

“What choice do we have?” he said. “Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?”

Authorities said Sunday that Lanza was carrying an arsenal of hundreds of rounds of especially deadly ammunition, enough to kill just about every student in the school if given enough time. Lanza decided to kill himself when he heard police closing in about 10 minutes into the attack, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Sunday on ABC.

Across the country Monday morning, vigilance was high. In an effort to ensure student safety and calm parents’ nerves, school systems asked police departments to increase patrols and sent messages to parents outlining safety plans they said are regularly reviewed and rehearsed.

Teachers girded themselves to be strong for their students and for questions and fears they would face in the classroom.

“It’s going to be a tough day,” said Richard Cantlupe, an American history teacher at Westglades Middle School in Parkland, Fla. “This was like our 9/11 for schoolteachers.”

Communities were on edge. In nearby Ridgefield, Conn., schools were locked down after a suspicious person was seen near a train station.

Authorities say the gunman shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their home and then took her car and several of her guns to the school, where he broke in and shot his victims to death, then himself. A Connecticut official said the mother — a gun enthusiast who practiced at shooting ranges — was found dead in her pajamas in bed, shot four times in the head with a .22-caliber rifle.

Lanza was wearing all black, with an olive utility vest, during the attack.

Investigators have offered no motive, and police have found no letters or diaries that could shed light on it. A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators were reviewing the contents of Lanza’s computer, as well as phone and credit card records. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the case.

Divorce paperwork released Monday showed that Nancy Lanza had the authority to make all decisions regarding Adam’s upbringing. The divorce was finalized in September 2009, when Adam Lanza was 17.

Federal agents have concluded that Lanza visited an area shooting range, but they do not know whether he practiced shooting there.

Lanza took classes at Western Connecticut State University when he was 16, and earned a B average, said Paul Steinmetz, spokesman for the school in Danbury. He said Monday that Lanza took his last class in the summer of 2009.

Lanza is believed to have used a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle in the school attack, a civilian version of the military’s M-16 and a model commonly seen at marksmanship competitions. It’s similar to the weapon used in a recent shopping mall shooting in Oregon.

Versions of the AR-15 were outlawed in the U.S. under the 1994 assault weapons ban. That law expired in 2004, and Congress, in a nod to the political clout of the gun-rights lobby, did not renew it.

In some of the first regulatory proposals to rise out of the Newtown shooting, Democratic lawmakers and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday that military-style assault weapons should be banned and that a national commission should be established to examine mass shootings.

“Assault weapons were developed for the U.S. military, not commercial gun manufacturers,” said Lieberman, of Connecticut, who is retiring next month. “This is a moment to start a very serious national conversation about violence in our society, particularly about these acts of mass violence.”

Gun rights activists remained largely quiet, all but one declining to appear on the Sunday talk shows. In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, defended the sale of assault weapons and said that the principal at Sandy Hook, who authorities say died trying to overpower the shooter, should herself have been armed.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers John Christoffersen, Ben Feller, Adam Geller, Jim Kuhnhenn and Michael Melia in Newtown; David Collins in Hartford, Conn.; Brian Skoloff in Phoenix; and Anne Flaherty in Washington.

ALBANY – A planned 45 percent Thruway toll hike on large trucks and certain other vehicles with three or more axles is being scrubbed, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced today.

Administration officials this morning confirmed the Thruway Authority and the governor’s office have devised a new proposal that calls for no increase in tolls. Precisely what the plan involves will be revealed later this morning by Cuomo at a Capitol press conference.

The toll increase, proposed by the Thruway leadership Cuomo put in place at the agency, was to have gone into place earlier this fall as a way of raising $90 million a year in additional annual revenues for the state authority that controls the 500-mile highway system as well as the state’s canal waterways.

State officials, including Cuomo, had defended the increase as unfortunate but necessary in order to protect the agency’s Wall Street bond ratings, which determine interest rates on borrowings by the Thruway; the agency is expected to be borrowing potentially billions of dollars to finance a new bridge project across the Hudson River.

Cuomo recently began to push back against the sizable 45 percent increase, saying it needed to be done only as a “last resort’’ and only if all other alternatives were first explored by Thruway officials.

The governor told reporters this afternoon that the Thruway agency now envisions no toll hike on the highway for at least the next three years. But he stopped short of guaranteeing no tolls would rise during that time, citing unknown financial or other circumstances that might arise.

“My position was that the toll increase would be a last resort. I thought it would be counterproductive,’’ Cuomo said.

“I understand the financial necessities, but I thought it would be counterproductive from an economic development point of view, especially in upstate New York,’’ he added.

Cuomo acknowledged the complaints of business groups. “We’ve worked very hard to say to business that it’s a new day in New York, and that we got it and we’re working on reducing costs and New York is not going to be the high-tax state, the high-cost state, the high-regulation state … I thought it would send the wrong signal, especially at this time when we’re working so hard to send a different signal,’’ the governor added.

Thruway Executive Director Thomas Madison said officials in recent months devised an alternative plan to reduce costs – through such things as staff cutbacks through attrition, sharing services with other state agencies, reducing new vehicle costs and refinancing debt – to help reduce the need for the $90 million toll hike.

Most of the savings will come from the Thruway ending its payments to the state police for its Troop T police coverage along the highway system; that $60 million a year will now be folded into the state’s general fund budget as an obligation.

“It’s a very special day for the Thruway Authority,’’ Madison said. Eliminating the the toll hike is expected to be formally approved by the board’s authority this afternoon when it votes on the agency’s 2013 budget.

Business groups – ranging from those representing trucking companies, farmers and department stores – had blasted the toll plan as a back door tax hike that would be passed onto consumers in the form of higher prices on any product shipped along the statewide highway.

The governor was set to make the Thruway announcement this morning at a Capitol news conference.

The Thruway Authority has a scheduled meeting later today, but sources say the toll increase matter was taken off the agenda. Instead, the board members will be considering the new design plans for Cuomo’s proposed Tappan Zee Bridge project over the Hudson between Westchester and Rockland counties.

Cuomo received enormous pressure against the proposal from a range of business groups – the same organizations that he has been wooing since he took office two years ago with a mantra that New York state is open for business and wants to be considered a friendly environment for attracting and retaining companies.

Some lawmakers have been pressing Cuomo to let the Thruway Authority get rid of a major cost item – maintaining the state’s canal system, including the Erie Canal. That money-losing operation was put onto the Thruway’s books in the early 1990s as a way for the state to save money in its main, general fund budget. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said months ago the agency needed to explore ways to bring its expenses down to better match revenues. Some lawmakers also were demanding a detailed audit of the agency before any toll plan could go forth.

“I’m shocked,’’ Kendra Hems, president of the New York State Motor Truck Association, said this morning when told of the toll increase coming off the table.

“We’re very pleased that the Thruway Authority has decided to stop pursuing a crippling 45 percent toll increase on commercial trucks using the highway. The hike would have devastated the entire state’s economy and nullified any attempts to make New York ‘open for business’. It is our sincere hope that any future proposal to close their budget shortfall is crafted with careful consideration to the impact it will have on the highway’s users, and the state as a whole,’’ Hems said.

“It’s a victory for Western New York and for New York state,’’ said State Sen. Tim Kennedy, a Buffalo Democrat, who noted the opposition heated up during a public hearing in Buffalo earlier this year.

“We say up in a unified voice starting in Western New York calling on the authority to change course and not increase tolls and at the end of the day, we were victorious because we stood up together and forced their hand,’’ Kennedy said.

The Thruway Authority’s toll hike plan has been on a classic Albany-style roller coaster ride since first being unveiled in May.

Initially, officials said the Thruway had been mismanaged for years and that the $90 million from the toll hike was needed to stop the bleeding. They said at the time the increase had nothing to do with a potential $5 billion plan by Cuomo and the authority to build a new downstate bridge over the Hudson River.

Next up came the acknowledgement that there was a connection: if the toll hike didn’t go through, it could lead to rating downgrades on agency borrowings – and that could raise the price of the bridge project.

In the early fall, the agency borrowed $1.1 billion on the bond market. It told investors – in a legal document – that it “has no reason to believe’’ that the toll hike plan as proposed would be scuttled. That document told investors the plan would go into effect in late September.

A series of delays, including two postponements of Thruway board meetings in one week, then hit the toll hike plan. That led Donna Luh, a representative from Western New York on the agency’s board who serves as vice chairwoman, to blast her own agency in an article in The Buffalo News. She said agency officials were keeping board members in the dark about the toll plan and that she no longer believed the increase was necessary.

At two recent events, Cuomo then began lashing out at the idea proposed by his own agency. At one event, he said such a toll hike could be “detrimental’’ to the state’s economy, followed by another event at which he told reporters the toll hike should only be considered as a “last resort” – a quote he repeated today with word of the Thruway’s retrenchment on the matter.

Some companies in recent months said the toll increase would hit them with higher expenses, totaling, in some cases, $20,0000 or more. Some smaller trucking companies said they would not be able to absorb the sudden 45 percent increase and farmers said it would raise the cost of everything from milk to eggs.

Dean Norton, president of the New York Farm Bureau, called the news “an early Christmas present.’’

Brian Sampson, executive director of UnShackle Upstate, a business coalition organization, said he was pleased by the withdrawal of the “ill-advised’’ toll hike. “Had it gone through, it would have done tremendous damage to the upstate economy,’’ he said.

The groups took credit for joining forces to pressure the Cuomo administration to back down; the Thruway’s Madison said officials also began to look at alternatives after the idea was met with strong resistance in public hearings earlier this year. Madison said officials have also presented a broad outline of the toll hike’s cancellation to Wall Street rating agencies, which earlier this fall were assured the toll revenues were needed and would be coming through the hike.



email: tprecious@buffnews.com

At this time of year, it’s easy to mistake Bob Zeagler for a walking, talking Christmas tree.

From the tips of his shiny boots – one bright green, the other crimson – to the top of his towering, ornamented hat, Zeagler, wearing an old-fashioned Santa suit decked with bells, balls, bows, garland and stuffed animals that move and sing, is a shiny, sparkling, jingling, melodic homage to Christmas.

The Christmas costume is just one of the over-the-top seasonal themes that the Batavia resident, known as “The Holiday Man,” uses to decorate himself and his shiny black Jeep SUV.

“I am active year-round with the Jeep and my costumes,” says the affable, bearded Zeagler, who is 66 but adds, “Mentally, I’m about 4.”

“I just really like to see people’s faces light up and make them feel good,” he says. “If they can forget about their problems just for a few minutes while they talk about my Jeep or my costume, it makes me feel like I’ve helped somebody.”

If you haven’t seen Zeagler himself in the full holiday regalia he wears while pumping gas, shopping for groceries or doing errands, you may have noticed his Jeep.

At this time of year, the Jeep’s roof is topped with a plywood board covered with plastic figures, including Santas, gingerbread men, nutcrackers, snowmen, candy canes and stacks of gifts. Some light up. Every door handle is decorated, and a Santa flanked by nutcrackers looks back at traffic from a small luggage carrier attached to the back bumper. Holiday figures line the dashboard, and carols play from speakers.

Zeagler has eight other decorated plywood panels for his Jeep and many other costumes and hats to wear for the holidays he observes year-round.

Soon after Jan. 1, he’ll switch to Valentine’s Day decor, featuring hearts, Cupids and roses. Then it’s on to St. Patrick’s Day, when he dresses like a leprechaun and dyes his beard green. For Easter, he wears a suit festooned with hundreds of plastic eggs and spring flowers; for Buffalo’s Dyngus Day parade, he wears the egg suit and dyes his beard half red and half white, the colors of the Polish flag. For the summer, he embodies a patriotic theme from Memorial Day through Independence Day and into Labor Day. He dresses as Uncle Sam and marches in several parades, while his wife, Bridget, drives the Jeep behind him.

Then he’s ready for Halloween, which is probably his favorite holiday. The speakers on his Jeep play spooky sounds and eerie music, while he dresses as a criminal clown – half prison stripes, half clown costume festooned with spiders, snakes and zombie babies – and tows a trailer with a sign reading “Haunted House, Do Not Enter.”

“I really go crazy for Halloween,” he says, making several appearances each year at the Great Pumpkin Farm in Clarence. After a turkey and Pilgrim-themed Thanksgiving interlude, it’s on to Christmas, and the cycle starts again.

Zeagler’s transformation into “The Holiday Man” started about 15 years ago on a trip to Cape Hatteras, N.C., around Halloween. He and Bridget stacked their luggage on the roof of their vehicle, and he added a plastic pumpkin. “All I heard on the whole trip was, ‘Hey, that’s great! Look at that pumpkin!’  ” he says. “I started by doing a Christmas theme, then next year got into Easter, then Fourth of July, then especially Halloween,” he says. “Then it just went cuckoo from there.”

Zeagler, who still has a slight drawl, was born in Oak Ridge, Tenn., grew up in Virginia Beach, then moved to Elba in 1966 to live with his aunt and uncle. There he met Bridget Jasinski; the two married in 1968.

Zeagler didn’t have any costumes when they married, says his wife, “but he was always a lot of fun. We have no children, so we kind of just do things however we feel.”

His costumes, all meticulously handmade by Zeagler, fill their home, she says. “He has at least six Christmas hats,” she says. “We have at least 30 hats in our house, on top of lampshades and everywhere there is space to put a hat. We had to build a shed because we’re getting up in years and it’s kind of hard to pull everything out of the cellar.”

His costumes “take hours and hours” to make, says Zeagler. “He’s constantly updating things,” says his wife. “He’s very particular about looking good. He adds things, he removes things that are broken, faded or stop working. He will replace things if he finds something better.”

While he could probably snap up post-holiday bargains to add to his trove, that’s not the way he works, says Bridget Zeagler. “He doesn’t wait for sales. If he sees something he wants, he gets it right then.” The couple estimates that through the years Zeagler has spent thousands of dollars.

“But, really, the pleasure I get from it is priceless,” says Zeagler. “The smiles I get from people are unbelievable. I’ve had several people come up to me in the last several years and say, ‘I was having the worst day of my life today until I met you. You have made my day.’ It makes me feel good that I can have that kind of an impact on somebody.”

In the summer, when he wears his patriotic garb and his Jeep is covered with American flags, Bridget Zeagler says, “Military people stop us all the time. Families that have soldiers serving overseas take pictures to send. I swear, there must be pictures of him in every country in the world.” The two recall a poignant moment in a Wegmans parking lot in Amherst, when an elderly World War II veteran thanked Zeagler for his display and Zeagler thanked the man for his service. Both men ended up wiping a tear away, Zeagler says.

Zeagler doesn’t wear costumes to work at Ken Barrett Chevrolet, where he works delivering parts. But other than that, when he is out, he is decked out.

On a morning visit last week to the Manor House senior residences in Batavia, the Zeaglers chatted with Zeagler’s mother, 90-year-old Mary Fillette, who can’t resist telling a few jokes herself. Dorothy Coughlin, who taught English at Elba Central School for 34 years and had Mrs. Zeagler in her classes, says, “He’s very original in his get-ups.” His costume, she points out as Zeagler presses a button to make a stuffed polar bear sing, “is both visual and auditory.”

In fact, almost every person – residents, visitors, staff and even delivery people – speaks to Zeagler about his sparkling, moving, jingling costume. All of them leave with a smile.

Zeagler says his biggest fans are children and the elderly, though plenty of teens and adults approach him, too. “If I was not dressed as I was, I would never meet these nice people,” he says. “They will either come up to me or when I walk by them, they say, ‘That’s really neat.’ I never would have met the thousands of people who are so kind and see how great humanity really is.”

Zeagler says people often ask him whether he has ever been ticketed by police for his Jeep’s decor. He tells them that a few years ago in Henrietta, a police officer followed him for several miles. “I thought, ‘Uh-oh,’ ” says Zeagler. “I was afraid he was going to pull me over and tell me to turn off the lights or the music.”

Finally, Zeagler pulled over, and the officer pulled up behind him. They both got out, and “I asked him if there was a problem, and he said, ‘Not on my part.’ He said, ‘Can I take some pictures of you?’ He took pictures of the front, the side, the top of the Jeep, probably 30 pictures. I said, ‘I was afraid you’d make me turn the lights off on the display.’ He said, ‘Don’t you dare!’ ”

Zeagler also says people often ask whether the decorations ever fly off the top of the Jeep. The answer is a definite no. “It’s all fixed to the plywood, which is wired to the roof rack I had installed on the Jeep,” he says. “I drive all the way to Cape Hatteras with all this stuff on. I don’t want to see it coming off in the rearview mirror.”

At this time of year, Bridget Zeagler has an advantage over all the people who lose track of their spouses in crowded stores. When they are out together, she says, “I listen for him jingling. That’s how I know where he is.”

email: aneville@buffnews.com