City & Region

Incoming Governor Kathy Hochul plans to invest heavily in the Metropolitan Transit Authority, including billions to modernize aging track and signal systems, to purchase new trains, to construct new subway and elevated rail lines, and to rebuild the system’s busiest

By Mark Jamison The White House has announced what it calls a historic bipartisan infrastructure deal that would cost about $1.2 trillion. About 27 percent of the money goes to what is generally thought of as infrastructure: roads, bridges, railroads, the electric grid,

By Jim Harper “CONGRESS IS SO BROKEN,” shouted Caitlin Long, founder and CEO at the Avanti Financial Group. Having spent two decades on Wall Street in stints at Solomon Brothers, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley, she now inhabits the world of cryptocurrency. She

In recognition of the importance of government transparency, the Empire Center has been selected as a finalist for the 2021 Bob Williams Award for Most Influential Research for its role in exposing the coverup of thousands of COVID-related deaths among New York’s

Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Jeremy Zellner is said to have shifted his focus beyond local races — just weeks after his endorsed candidates for Erie County Sheriff and Mayor of Buffalo were both soundly rejected at the primary ballot

Superintendent Kriner Cash may use the surplus $75 million in state education funding this year to expand Erie Community College’s downtown campus — which would enhance the Buffalo Public School system’s ability to “seamlessly collaborate” with the college on regional

Today, Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn voiced his concerns about proposed criminal justice reform legislation that would drastically change parole requirements and allow eligible incarcerated individuals to be released early from prisons in New York State. District Attorney

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 61-year-old Willie Henley of Buffalo was virtually arraigned this morning before State Supreme Court Justice Christopher J. Burns on an indictment charging him with one count of Assault in the Second

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 31-year-old Angel DeJesus of Buffalo was virtually arraigned yesterday before Erie County Court Judge Sheila A. DiTullio on an indictment charging him with the following offenses: Two counts of Predatory Sexual

BY ANGELA RACHIDI The disappointing April jobs report raised new questions about how government policies, such as enhanced unemployment insurance, have slowed the economic recovery by discouraging people from returning to work. Some have suggested that closed childcare facilities and schools, not employment disincentives, are

BY BILL HAMMOND New York’s hospitals remained near the bottom of two quality report cards issued last week. In an update to Hospital Compare, a consumer guide from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the state’s hospitals received an

BY E.J. McMAHON Today was the (rescheduled) deadline for filing 2020 federal income tax returns, which makes this New York’s third annual SALT-Free Income Tax Day. By midnight tonight, most Empire State residents will have been reminded once again that—despite

BY E.J. McMAHON New York’s spending on public elementary and secondary education reached $25,139 per pupil during the 2018-19 school year, once again surpassing all states in the latest U.S. Census annual data. The Empire State’s public schools spent 91 percent more than

BY PETER WARREN School budget votes proposing an average increase in per pupil spending of 4.2 percent were overwhelmingly approved in state-wide voting held yesterday, with all but five of 685 individual budget votes succeeding. New York’s tax cap law did flex

BY E.J. McMAHON Private-sector employment in New York increased faster than the nationwide recovery rate in the month of April, according to the state’s latest monthly jobs report. The April count of private-sector employment was estimated at 7.4 million jobs, up

BY E.J. McMAHON Barely a year after Governor Cuomo declared the state was “broke” due to the pandemic, New York’s budget is bursting with cash—fueling enormous spending hikes, as shown in the financial plan update released today by Governor Cuomo’s Division

BY E.J. McMAHON Since the late 1960s, New York’s primary export to the rest of the nation has been people, as reflected in federal data tracking population flows within and between states. The Empire State has lost a net 1,585,770 residents to

BY BILL HAMMOND In spite of an ongoing pandemic and spiraling Medicaid costs, New York’s health-care system received surprisingly little attention in the new state budget. On issue after issue, lawmakers chose to preserve the status quo without addressing the