421 Search Results for buffalo billion

Feb 10

2021

Samsung to WNY? Unlikely.

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Samsung has economic development officials — and Sen. Chuck Schumer — dreaming big. The semiconductor giant has plans to build a $17 billion plant that would employ 1,800 and says it is considering five locations in the United States, including an undeveloped industrial park in Genesee County. Schumer has spoken directly with Samsung officials and offered federal assistance to entice Samsung to Western New York. Economic officials in Buffalo and Rochester stand ready to make their case, if they haven’t already. It seems unlikely that Samsung is coming, however.  In addition to Western New York, Samsung is weighing two sites[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 17

2021

Niagara County keeps hiring disgraced GOPers

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For the fourth time in 14 months, Niagara County has hired a politically connected Republican who had previously been accused of misconduct. The latest GOP loyalist to be added to the payroll is Robert W. Welch, who resigned last summer as director of constituent relations for Republican state Sen. Rob Ortt after he was accused of using a racial slur during an encounter with a group of teenagers near his home.  Welch, a North Tonawanda resident, has been hired as a contract administrator at an annual salary of $62,991. The job has been vacant for three years and was not[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Dec 17

2020

Firms left behind in quest for pandemic aid

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Nearly 19,000 businesses in Western New York received a federal loan to help them through the pandemic. Laythanette Shine’s firm wasn’t one of them. Shine’s business, USA Occupational Services on Jefferson Avenue, provides drug and DNA testing services and background checks for employers. There’s a memorial in the front window to the man who helped her set up the office, one the earliest victims of COVID-19 in Buffalo.  Shine couldn’t access the Paycheck Protection Program because her business is a sole proprietorship with insufficient profitability. Those factors are common for new small businesses, but disqualified her from getting aid. She[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Dec 16

2020

Popular nonprofits obtained pandemic aid

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Some 1,100 local nonprofits received federal aid to soften the pandemic’s economic blow, and the list of recipients reads like a who’s who of prominent cultural, medical, religious and educational institutions.  The Chautauqua Institution and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Mercy Flight and the Erie County Medical Center. The Diocese of Buffalo and The Chapel at Crosspoint. Nichols School and Nardin Academy. Even a sovereign state, the Seneca Nation of Indians, received a $1.5 million loan under the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Nonprofits with religious affiliations received the most number of loans, 406. That’s more than one-third of the 1,080 loans extended[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Dec 15

2020

Sliver of companies got half of pandemic aid

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A lot of businesses received forgivable loans from the federal government to help them through the pandemic. To be exact, 18,768 in the eight counties of Western New York. The loans were worth $2.2 billion, altogether. But a fraction of the companies — some 5 percent — received about half that sum.  Two businesses got the maximum $10 million loan allowed under the Paycheck Protection Program: Ferguson Electric and the Buffalo Medical Group. New Era Cap, widely criticized by public officials earlier this year for taking PPP money then laying off 117 employees, received the third-largest loan, $8.4 million. Other[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jul 5

2020

News outlets struggling to varying degrees

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The state of local news media in Western New York was in a precarious position before anyone heard of COVID-19. Now that the virus has wreaked its havoc on both public health and the economy, the situation is that much more concerning. The problems of The Buffalo News have been well documented previously in this column: smaller staff, less news coverage, shrinking circulation, much thinner profit margins, now in the hands of a chain carrying more than a half-billion-dollars of debt. Yet, The News continues to make money – or was, prior to the pandemic – and puts out a[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Jun 18

2020

COVID-19: Senecas face economic uncertainty

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As reopenings across the country begin, the impacts of COVID-19 continue to threaten the economies of Native American governments, including the Seneca Nation here in Western New York. Many tribes rely on casinos and other Native-owned businesses to fund services and capital improvements, but how soon those enterprises bounce back is uncertain. Of particular concern are casinos and their related bars, restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues, as those industries across the county are expected to recover slowly from the impacts of COVID-19. That imperils the economic pillars of the Seneca Nation of Indians, three casinos run by the Seneca Nation[...]

Posted 4 years ago

May 21

2020

COVID-19 cited in spike of opioid overdoses

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Update: 3:15 p.m. There’s yet another consequence to the COVID-19 pandemic: More opioid users are dying of overdoses. Health authorities report that opioid use has not increased locally, but because of social isolation, more people are using alone, making it less likely someone is around to help them in the event they overdose.  Eighty-five people died in Erie County from presumed overdoses through the first four months of the year. That’s up from 48 during the same period last year and 64 in 2018. “They’re alone and we’re finding people too late,” said Cheryll Moore, director of the Erie County[...]

Posted 4 years ago