Tag: Andrew Cuomo

Dec 6

2012

First $1B beneficiary awash in red ink

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The biotech company the state plans to spend $50 million on to lure to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus has lost $112 million the past three years and hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2008. And that’s just the beginning of the financial difficulties confronting Albany Molecular Research, according to a probe by Investigative Post. The company has laid off at least 80 employees since 2010 and shuttered one of its foreign facilities, with plans to close a second operation near Seattle. The Albany-based company’s stock price, meanwhile, sunk from  $61.66 in 2001 to $2.26 in December 2011, although the stock[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 5

2012

Good plan off to bad start

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There’s a lot to like about the blueprint for spending $1 billion in state aid to revitalize the Western New York economy that was released Tuesday. I’d feel better about the plan’s prospects, however, if Gov. Andrew Cuomo hadn’t used its release to announce a heavily subsidized deal to bring 250 jobs here that smacks of the business-as-usual, smokestack-chasing approach that has failed us in the past. Let me get my skepticism out of the way up front. The state has agreed to spend $50 million on a biomedical facility and equipment to accommodate an expansion of Albany Molecular Research to[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Oct 22

2012

Q&A: Larry Quinn

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Larry Quinn, once a boy wonder, turned 60 earlier this year. He’s a couple of years removed by his tenure as managing partner of the Buffalo Sabres and membership on the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. During his carrer, he served as development commissioner under Mayor Jimmy Griffin and later oversaw the construction of what is now First Niagara Center. His tenure with the Sabres won him both praise for helping to rescue the franchise out of bankruptcy and implementing a number of innovations, and criticism for the loss of popular stars including Pat Lafontaine and Chris Drury. He’s now[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Sep 16

2012

Interview: Watchdog researcher Kevin Connor

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Kevin Connor is a research provocateur and one of the leading intellects in Buffalo’s burgeoning activist community.  The Boston native and 2005 graduate of Harvard University moved to Buffalo five years ago. Since then, he has launched two watchdog research organizations, the Public Accountability Initiative and LittleSis. His work has garnered press attention, both locally and nationally, connecting dots among the powerful and authoring studies that have called out the false claims of developers and supposedly independent researchers. Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed Connor Sept. 12. A 4 minute 43 second feature with interview highlights appears above. The full 21-minute interview[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Sep 2

2012

Interview: Activist Aaron Bartley

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Aaron Bartley is arguably Buffalo’s leading community activist, someone who has worked in the trenches since his college days. Bartley is a Buffalo native and graduate of City Honors, Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School. While at Harvard co-founded the Harvard Living Wage Campaign in support of the university’s service workers. He then served as labor organizer in SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign in Boston. Eight years ago, Bartley co-founded People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo), which has focused on organizing residents of the city’s West Side to improve employment opportunities and housing and other neighborhood conditions. PUSH Buffalo[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Jul 1

2012

Interview: IDA chief Jim Allen

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Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed Jim Allen, Executive Director of the Amherst Industrial Development Agency, on the state of the regional economy and some of the controversial projects that have been subsidized of late by local IDA’s. Allen, in the interview that aired on WGRZ’s Daybreak Sunday, said: The state is much better off focusing $1 billion in aid pledged by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to promote entrepreneurship and nurture a creative class in Western New York than on trying to lure manufacturers and other large companies to the region. The regional economy is more diversified and otherwise in better[...]

Posted 12 years ago

May 2

2012

Notes on the news

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My take on recent developments: There’s a movement afoot to redevelop the outer harbor into a park. Doing so would give Western New Yorkers a grand 120 acre playground in the summer – and a 120 acre wasteland in the winter, and a good part of the spring and fall, too. Should a good chunk of the 120 acres provide the public access to its waterfront? Absolutely. Can that be done while still accommodating development that could not only attract visitors year-round but add to the city’s tax base? Absolutely. Are the two objectives mutually exclusive? Absolutely not. Nearly everyone[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Mar 22

2012

Same as the Old Boss

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Ossified. Webster defines it as “hardened or conventional and opposed to change.” As in government in New York State. A cursory reading of the headlines might lead one to believe that governance in New York is starting to move in the right direction since Andrew Cuomo took up residence in the governor’s mansion. The state budget got passed on time, the income tax code was revised, gay marriage was approved. Indeed, by one measure—passing major legislation and spending packages—there has been progress. Paralysis has been eased. But the manner in which many key measures have been passed underscores just how[...]

Posted 12 years ago
Investigative Post

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