City

Ricchiazzi wants Poloncarz to sell Erie County’s convention center

Good government activist Matt Ricchiazzi is calling on Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz to issue a Request for Proposals for the adaptive reuse of Erie County’s dated Buffalo Niagara Convention Center.   Poloncarz has proposed massive County borrowing of more than

Opinion

The tradeoff between civil liberties and public health

BY SITA NATARAJ SLAVOV In April of this year, polls indicated widespread support for lockdowns to stop the spread of COVID-19. Stories emerged of people shaming and reporting their neighbors for even minor social distancing violations. Formal enforcement of the

Opinion

Congress still needs to respond further to the COVID recession

BY STAN VEUGER AND JEFFREY CLEMENS Friday’s data on the October employment situation provides a sobering reminder of the ongoing need for sound economic policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Labor market indicators remain depressed. Notably, employment by state

Opinion

Do Democrats have an s-word problem?

BY JAMES PETHOKOUKIS If President Trump wanted the Cuban community in Florida to worry that the Biden Democrats were soft on socialism, it seems to have worked. Cuban-Americans helped the president defy the polls and win the state. And Team

State Budget

DiNapoli predicts $3.8 billion more in State tax receipts

BY E.J. McMAHON New York State’s tax receipts in the current fiscal year will exceed Governor Cuomo’s latest projections by $3.8 billion—still down from last year, but a big improvement over the governor’s worst-case scenario—according to updated estimates from state

Commerce

Bloomberg, Warren jockey to be named Treasury Secretary

The presumptive President-elect Joe Biden has already fielded phone calls from both former Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Senator Elizabeth Warren. Each politician made themselves available to serve as Treasury Secretary in the administration, though Warren is seen as the more

Commerce

Unemployment rate keeps falling faster than projected

BY MATT WEIDINGER According to today’s jobs report from the US Department of Labor, the US unemployment rate in October fell to 6.9 percent, down from 7.9 percent in September. As the chart below shows, that progress continues to be