City & Region

BY KEN GIRARDIN New York’s largest teachers union this summer threatened to go on strike rather than allow schools to reopen for in-person classes—despite months of preparation by officials and a state law that prohibits union work stoppages. Public employee

BY KEN GIRARDIN Months of bad decisions and inaction by New York state officials have put school districts in the awkward position of having to give pay raises to most teachers while laying off others. The districts could have avoided

BY IAN KINGSBURY Governor Andrew Cuomo is withholding 20 percent of state school aid allocations pending federal bailout negotiations. The decision has been met with alarm and objection from district leaders and New York teachers unions. Yet notably absent from pleas to maintain funding

There are four local public school districts that serve large populations of Native American students living on area Indian Reservations: Gowanda, Niagara-Wheatfield, Akron, and Salamanca. Students and parents in those districts — both indigenous and non-indigenous — have been demanding

BY KEVIN KOSAR Key Points The US Postal Service (USPS) will not run out of money in the foreseeable future. It has more than $13 billion in cash and a new $10 billion borrowing line with the US Treasury. The

The U.S. Justice Department’s newly announced inquiry into coronavirus in New York’s nursing homes comes with a crucial caveat: it will look only at government-operated facilities, which represent a small fraction of the state’s nursing-home industry. Given this puzzlingly narrow

BY E.J. McMAHON Federal income taxes paid by New Yorkers decreased by nearly $3.4 billion in 2018, the first year of the new federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), according to newly released Internal Revenue Service data. The drop in

The state Health Department is offering a new explanation for why it won’t provide the full death toll of coronavirus in nursing homes: it can’t find the records. Early last month, the Empire Center filed a Freedom of Information Law

Mayor Byron Brown is planning to list the City-owned Erie Basin Marina for sale with an asking price of $5 million or best offer, with all offers being due to the City by November 1st. The City is facing a

Sources tell The Chronicle that Mayor Byron Brown and Common Council President Darius Pridgen are considering a sweeping privatization of the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation (BUDC) and the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency (BURA) that could raise upwards of $100 million

The Town of Tonawanda’s Town Board voted unanimously to authorize Supervisor Joe Emminger to terminate Police Department dispatcher Brett Rider on sexual misconduct allegations that the Town is refusing to disclose to the public. Rider is declining to make public

Following tawdry rumors over a sexual misconduct allegation against a popular career police officer, Brett Rider, 46, several Town of Tonawanda residents are pushing the Town Board to change its policies to allow officers to receive ‘sexual gratuities’ while on

Mayor Byron W. Brown today announced the City of Buffalo’s scheduled 2020 updates at Sahlen Field have been completed. The nearly $759,000 improvements bring total investments in the City-owned ballpark to over $5 million in the past 15 years. This

The Empire Center for Public Policy today announced its lawsuit against the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) for refusing to disclose a study DOT claims justified forcing bidders to sign a deal with specific construction unions. DOT last

Payroll for Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) in calendar year 2019 increased by more than $150 million, according to data released today on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Payroll at Port Authority totaled more than $997

New York’s governor and state lawmakers dished out $152 million for local projects favored by state lawmakers through the state Dormitory Authority during the state’s 2020 fiscal year, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. The

BY SHANE TEWS China claims it is tired of western-centric internet governance, and now seeks to establish a less centralized global internet based on newer, native products that reflect China’s policy agenda. What would the success of China’s model mean

BY JAMES PETHOKOUKIS Nuclear war theorist Herman Kahn provided at least partial inspiration for film director Stanley Kubrick’s maniacal Dr. Strangelove. (The character’s accent, at least, was likely based on that of German emigres Henry Kissinger or Wehrner Von Braun.)