General Motors has completed its trip through bankruptcy far faster than experts expected. Did its bankruptcy status deter you from buying a GM vehicle? What do you think its prospects are now as a new company with fewer brands?
-- Matt Glynn
The Seneca Nation of Indians has come a long way in generating revenue since it began operating a campground and bowling alley in the 1970's. Today it operates three casinos in Western New York.
Now, the nation is planning to invest $28 million over the next five years in a holding company that will invest in and buy other companies. The goal is to diversify the nation's revenue sources and potentially bring jobs to reservation lands.
The nation is modeling its investment firm after the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska which in 1995 founded Ho-Chunk, Inc. In the last 14 years, Ho-Chunk has grown to own 18 businesses, and expanded its workforce from one to 500 employees.
It's another source of revenue for the Senecas, who face ongoing pressure from the state to impose a sales tax. The nation's most lucrative operation, Seneca Gaming Corp., saw profits fall by 16 percent in its second quarter, to $17.6 million.
What do you think of the Senecas' plans? Should the Senecas launch another business venture with the state sales tax controversy unresolved, and with a steel skeleton off of Michigan Avenue as a reminder of the ongoing Seneca Buffalo Creek casino dispute?
- Brian Hayden/ News Business Reporter
When the $61 million engineering building is completed on the University at Buffalo's north campus in 2011, it will include a white, reflective roof, rain garden and even bathroom appliances that use less water than normal. Robert Shibley, senior adviser to UB President John Simpson for campus planning and design, said the School of Engineering (http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/newbuilding/) is one of several green buildings in the university currently under construction or renovation.
Which makes us wonder: What other green buildings should we know about in the area? Why isn't there more green development in Wetsern New York? Do the benefits of going green outweigh any additional costs? What do you think of UB's efforts?
-Brian Hayden/News Business Reporter
In a story like Sunday's feature on the past, present and future of the St. Lawrence
Seaway in Buffalo, it is difficult to pinpoint the Seaway's exact role in shaping the last
50 years of the city's history. How big of a role do you think it played? What would the city
look like if it was still a transshipment port? Does shipping have potential in Buffalo, or is
tourism and development the only future for Buffalo's once industry-laden waterfront?
In addition, here are some items that didn't make it into the print version.
- Bob Grande, the veteran grain scooper in the story, said he and his colleagues used
to "choke the dust" after work, in order to rid themselves of the grain dust that entered
their eyes, nose and mouth while scooping. To "choke the dust," he said, meant to head to
the Old First Ward pubs and have a couple of beers, and by a couple, he meant "more than
a couple."
- The Port of Buffalo was not always in its present location. Most of the "outer harbor,"
including the former grounds of the Pier Restaurant, constituted the old Port of Buffalo
until 1983, when it was bought by Buffalo Crushed Stone, and moved down the lakeshore,
close to the old Bethlehem Steel grounds.
- The environmental impact the Seaway has had on the Great Lakes has been studied.
Jennifer Nalbone, the campaign director of navigation and invasive species for the Great
Lakes United coalition, passed along these links describing those effects.
http://www.glu.org/en/campaigns/invasives/50years/stories
http://www.glu.org/sites/default/files/lodge_factsheet.pdf
Here is a press release from the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation
on the significance of the last 50 years.
http://www.greatlakes-seaway.com/en/news/press-releases/pr20090331.html
The Buffalo Industrial Heritage Committee, and the Lower Lakes Marine Historical
Society, provide a wealth of knowledge on the topic.
http://industrialheritage-buffalo.com/
-Brian Hayden
Time magazine has an interesting package about what it expects to be a better-than-expected situation for teens seeking summer jobs.
- Stimulus Sparks a Summer Jobs' Comeback
For many low-income teens in the U.S., ... jobs have been in scarce supply since the Federal Government gutted its summer-jobs program about a decade ago. But the Obama Administration is changing all that, having directed $1.2 billion to pay for summer jobs for youths.
Time also offers a list of 10 good careers to follow, during the current recession, and after.
- Finding a New Boom Amid the Bust:
- Accountant
- Entrepreneur
- Police officer
- Network and Computer Systems
- Nurse
- Nutritionist
- Physical Therapist
- Teacher
- Mathematician
- Government Management
-- George Pyle
It must be nice to hear that your job is more important than ever. Even if the reason your job matters more is that so many other people are losing theirs.
The Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers, meeting this week in Amherst, brought in big-time economist Paul Harrington for an update on the economy or, as his talk was officially titled, "The Labor Market in a Deflationary Economic Context." That's important to a group that brings college career counselors together with corporate recruiters.
- Career counseling now vital
Manufacturing firms that trained their own employees in specialized skills and provided lifetime livelihoods to industrious but minimally educated workers are gone for good, Harrington said. He said the manufacturing economy that must replace it — bioengineering, energy, information technology — will require both more formal education and more active contacts between colleges and universities on the one hand and employers on the other.
Meanwhile, unemployment stats are out, and Buffalo is doing better.
- Regional jobless rate improves slightly
The region’s unemployment rate improved to 8.3 percent in May, even though the pace of job losses here accelerated to its fastest rate since late 2001, the state Labor Department said today. [Chart. Details.]
Other takes on unemployment numbers from The Poughkeepsie Journal, The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, The Albany Times-Union, The Syracuse Post-Standard, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Portland Press-Herald, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Los Angeles Times, The Charlotte Observer, The Houston Chronicle and, where it's really depressing, The Detroit Free Press.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
[Photo of March New York City job fair by AP]
The "Cash for Clunkers" program, designed to get customers to trade in less fuel-efficient vehicles for more fuel-efficient ones, is working its way through Congress. The program would provide vouchers of up to $4,500 toward the purchase of new vehicles, as long as the deal meets eligibility requirements based on fuel economy standards and the price of the new vehicle.
It has generated considerable debate. Backers say it will help take gas guzzlers off the road for good, since they would be scrapped, and give the new-car business a much-needed boost. Critics say the program is a poor use of taxpayer dollars or doesn't go far enough in its requirements for fuel economy.
What are your thoughts on the program? Do you intend to take advantage of it if it goes into effect?
-- Matt Glynn
President Obama has formally proposed a new regulatory regime for the nation's financial institutions.
Unveiling his proposal before an East Room audience, Obama blamed the financial
crisis on "a culture of irresponsibility" and outdated financial rules that were created in the wake of the Great Depression of the 1930s but had been "overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy."
- The Associated Press has the story, the bullet points and the video.
- The White House press release/blog is here.
- The Treasury Department's full report is here.
- Reporting and analysis from The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Guardian and Aljezeera.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
A new report from the eggheads at the Brookings Institution gives Buffalo a gentleman's C for economic health. We stand near the top on stats such as homes retaining their value and staying out of foreclosure -- no small accomplishment these days. But Buffalo, along with the rest of Upstate New York, scrapes the bottom on metrics such as wage growth, employment and economic output.
As outlined in today's Buffalo News article, Going beneath the hood, the Brookings findings support the arguments being made by the leaders of the University at Buffalo that education and medical services -- Eds and Meds to folks in the biz -- are the future.
The Brookings summary is here.
The full MetroMonitor report is here.
And the video is here:
Remembering that all news is local, here are takes on the same info from The Express-News in top-ranked San Antonio and The Oklahoman in runner-up OKC. It was played up big in The Omaha World-Herald, which compared the Brookings picture of the American economy to a good baseball team - with strength up the middle.
The story was also picked up in The Virginian-Pilot, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Sacramento Bee, The Washington Post, The Seattle Times, The Houston Chronicle and The Columbus Dispatch, which works in a dig at income taxes but curiously fails to explain why the Ohio capital and home of Ohio State University does so well -- Eds, Meds and Government.
There were write-ups in The Miami Herald and in Jacksonville's Florida Times-Union, where many cities are near the bottom. But I found no mention of the report in either The Detroit Free Press or The Detroit News, which serve the city that came in last. Maybe that's more bad news than they can handle.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
Lots of property changing hands these days, locally:
- Area housing market shows signs of recovery
Home sales in the Buffalo Niagara region rose from a year ago for the first time in nearly a year in May, as signs of a recovery start to take hold.
Last month, 906 homes changed hands locally, up 3.3 percent from 877 a year ago, according to new statictics released Monday from the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors. That’s the highest total since last October and the first time since last June that there’s been a year-over-year increase in closed sales.
- Managers buy Town Ballroom
The managers of the Town Ballroom in downtown Buffalo have purchased their building and property on Main Street [right] and paid off a city loan, with the help of an independent concert promoter from Nantucket Island acting as an angel investor.
Shadigee Properties LLC, an entity registered to music promoter John Peters of Nantucket, off Cape Cod, Mass., paid $622,000 to purchase the property at 681 Main St. from MJG of Buffalo, according to Erie County Clerk records.
And elsewhere:
- New owner planning to strengthen Maine newspapers
- Boston newspaper for sale -- but at what price?
- GM to sell Swedish unit Saab to Koenigsegg
- Merck, Schering-Plough set meetings on merger
- Irish company buys Ill. wind farms
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
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