Month: November 2020

Sources close to Mayor Byron Brown tell The Chronicle that he is working to relocate the Greyhound Bus Station on North Division Street and to co-locate it at the City’s new Amtrak Station, which opened earlier this month on Exchange Street.  The

State Senator Andrew Lanza is expected to introduce a bill early in the next legislative session to formally sever Staten Island’s ties to New York City — on everything from municipal services, schools, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA),

BY IAN KINGSBURY Much of New York’s highest-in-the-nation education spending is driven by a single category: special education. Of the $66.2 billion spent on K-12 education in New York in 2017-18, $15.8 billion went to special education instructional services. No other state

The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC), a subsidiary of Empire State Development, has managed an excruciatingly slow 15-year process to develop the City’s Inner Harbor — all the while developers have been chomping at the bit to invest. Now,

Good government activist Matthew Ricchiazzi is calling on Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz to sell the county’s dated convention center to Douglas Development — the owner of the adjacent Statler Hotel and Hyatt Regency properties — for the nominal price

Ohio Representative Marcia Fudge, of Cleveland, has been asked to lead the United States Department of Agriculture late this evening in a telephone conversation with President-elect Joe Biden. The nomination is widely seen as a demonstration of the vast influence

Attorney General William Barr is launching a crackdown on the Philadelphia Mafia — and some expect that the City’s most senior mobsters are getting ready to flip on former Boss ‘Skinny Joey’ Merlino, who is widely suspected of rigging the

Sources close to Niagara Falls Mayor Bob Restaino tell The Chronicle that his administration ‘generally supports’ a casino compact with the Tuscarora Nation after the Seneca Nation‘s exclusivity agreement with New York State is scheduled to end in 2023. Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul

Rumor has it that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is considering a $50 million, 10% stake in The Buffalo Chronicle Media Group‘s American-based subsidiary.  The financing arrangement is expected to aggressively expand this publication’s coverage of Canadian society, government,

Sources inside the White House tell The Chronicle that President Donald J. Trump‘s youngest daughter, Tiffany Trump, plans to launch a yet-to-be-established foundation intended to fundraise more than $1 billion to construct and manage The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library.  Ms.

Tribal governments from across North America — including the largest, the Navajo Nation — are pleading with President-elect Joe Biden to nominate an indigenous person to serve as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in his

Congresswoman Sharice Davids, a Democrat of Roeland Park, Kansas, is being vetted for the position of Secretary of Agriculture in the administration of President-elect Joe Biden.  She would be the first openly gay person to serve in the cabinet on a

WASHINGTON, DC — Judicial Watch announced that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI),

BY IAN KINGSBURY Back in August, leaders of unions representing teachers and principals warned that the plan to allow parents to select between blended or virtual learning would produce “staffing shortages” in many schools. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

Public officials are negotiating with unions in secret and ratifying far-reaching contracts without adequate public input, The Empire Center today warned in a new report, Dealing In The Dark: NY’s Secretive Government Labor Negotiations. “Union contracts control almost every government

BY BILL HAMMOND The ongoing surge in New York’s coronavirus pandemic raises doubts about the effectiveness of Governor Cuomo’s “micro-cluster” strategy. Beginning Oct. 6, the governor has imposed tightened restrictions on limited areas, or clusters, identified as having particularly severe outbreaks –

BY E.J. McMAHON After rising sharply once the economy began to reopen, New York’s jobs recovery ominously appeared to run out of steam in October, according to the state’s monthly jobs report. The statewide private employment total for the month

BY SHANE TEWS For the past decade, “net neutrality” has been the catchphrase for internet freedom. “Protect your right to access what you want and how you want it on the Internet,” declared the ACLU. Public Knowledge defined net neutrality as “the principle