423 Search Results for buffalo billion

Jan 27

2013

Q&A: Jordan Levy

Published by

Jordan Levy is one of Western New York’s most successful entrepreneurs in recent times. He might be best known to local residents as the former chairman of the Erie Harbor Canal Development Corp., which is developing Canalside. He served in that capacity for four years before stepping down in 2011. During that time he first supported the controversial plan to construct a Bass Pro store in the inner-harbor then lead the EHCDC  in its embrace of a more popular approach dubbed “lighter, faster, cheaper.” Levy, 57, has enjoyed a long and successful career in the private sector. He is a general partner[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 27

2012

Ups and downs of Lisa Jackson’s tenure

Published by

Lisa Jackson’s announcement today that she is retiring as head of the Environmental Protection Agency guarantees she won’t be revisiting her plan to limit smog in 2013 after President Obama shoved it to the side more than a year ago. For Jackson, her tenure has had its ups and downs. Jackson was successful in creating the first national standards for mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants and increasing the fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. She told the New York Times that the most important decision in her four years is the endangerment finding that marked carbon[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 17

2012

The HSBC plea bargain

Published by

Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi, founder of the Buffalo Beast, talks about the federal government’s deal with the banking giant that allows executives to avoid prosecution for laundering billions for terrorists and drug cartels. A report from Democracy Now!

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 16

2012

Q&A: Howard Zemsky

Published by

Howard Zemsky is one of the most influential people in Western New York. And certainly one of its busiest. He’s perhaps best known for his revitalization of the Larkin Building and the surrounding area into one of the hottest – and coolest –  commercial, residential and retail districts in the region. It’s only one of several of his business ventures, including Taurus Capital Partners. Zemsky, 53, has emerged as a key community leader and political player in recent years. Most significantly, he is co-chairman of the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council, which is guiding Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s initiative to spend $1[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 10

2012

Antoine Thompson? Really?

Published by

Antoine Thompson couldn’t find a job when voters fired him from his state Senate job two years ago. So, of course, Mayor Byron Brown has now hired Thompson to help the county’s 37,900 unemployed find jobs. Yeah, right. This is about as blatant – and shameless – as patronage hiring gets. First consider that Thompson and Brown have been joined at the hip, politically speaking, for most of their careers, dating back to their days together in Grassroots, the political club that helped spawn both of their careers. Thompson worked as a legislative aide to Brown when he served on[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 7

2012

EPA moves to ban boat sewage in Lake Erie

Published by

Gross as it is, boaters have been able to pump out their sewage into Lake Erie, but this may soon come to an end. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a statement today “tentatively” determining that there are plenty of pump-out stations around Lake Erie that allow for boats to remove the sewage in a more environmentally friendly way.  The federal agency wants to ban boats from pumping out the sewage into the lake based on a proposal from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. “This proposal will help protect water quality and marine life in Lake Erie for years[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 6

2012

First $1B beneficiary awash in red ink

Published by

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

Published by

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