HTN: Admitted Cross-Burner Gets Harsh Sentence

A Buffalo man will spend three-and-a-half to seven years behind bars after admitting to burning a cross at a racially mixed couple's home. Prosecutors say 41-year-old Donald Napierala crafted a four-foot high wooden cross and lit it on fire on his neighbor's South Park Avenue front lawn last July. Lawyers for Napierala say the neighbor hit Napierela with a metal pipe on July fourth, which led him to seek revenge. Napierala's mother says her son just wanted to scare the neighbor to get him to leave them alone. He pleaded guilty to a felony hate crime of reckless endangerment and aggravated harrasment.

HTN: Guilty Plea in Hate Crime

A Buffalo man has pleaded guilty to a hate crime for burning a cross on the front lawn of an inter-racial couple. Prosecutors say 41-year-old Donald Napierala admitted to two charges. Police say Napierala burned the four foot high cross in the early morning hours of July 7th at the victim's South Park Avenue home. He faces three-and-a-half to seven years behind bars when sentenced in April.

HTN: Anniversary of First Ward Flood

50 years ago today, freighters broke loose from their moorings on the Buffalo River and crashed into the Michigan Avenue Bridge, causing a major flood in the Old First Ward. The anniversary will be observed at 1 p.m. this Sunday at the Waterfront Memories & More Museum on 208 Elk at Smith Street.

South Buffalo Homes Removed from Flood Plain

Nearly 25-hundred homes in South Buffalo were taken off the 100-year Flood Plain last month, meaning that homeowners don't have to carry expensive flood insurance any longer. The updated map was approved by Common Council September 2nd, and approved by the federal government on the 26th. The Buffalo Common Council has been mailing out letters to homeowners, stressing the importance of discontinuing flood insurance immediately. You can call your local Council member's office for more details.

Rape Reported in South Buffalo

Detectives are investigating an attack on a teenage girl in South Buffalo. The girl's mother said her daughter was with a friend on South Park Avenue when a pair of teenage boys led them to a vacant apartment. One girl was in a room with the two boys who apparently prevented her from leaving, then one boy allegedly raped her.

Fugitive Rapist Caught

A man suspected of raping a four-year-old girl last week in Pennsylvania was finally caught over the weekend. Last week we reported that 43-year-old Sherman Graham had been spotted outside the home of his ex-girlfriend in South Buffalo. The following day he was seen in Ohio and now has been arrested after a traffic stop in Kansas. He's awaiting return to Pennsylvania.