The Buffalo Chronicle
kathy hochul
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Workforce Pell can pay for fast job training. New York should start certifying programs Buffalo can use
A Heritage Foundation commentary calls Workforce Pell Grants, created by the law President Trump signed in July 2025, one of the best new ways to get workers job credentials fast. New York…
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Erie County’s 2026 count isn’t finished. The 143rd Assembly race shows what is still left to tally
Five days after Election Day, Democrat Ryan Taughrin leads Assemblyman Patrick Chludzinski by 561 votes with about 800 absentees outstanding. Here is the Erie County Board of Elections’ canvass calendar, the recount…
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Election Day in Western New York: polls open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. after nearly 100,000 early votes in Erie County
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Here is where to vote, what is on the ballot, and what record early voting does and does not tell us.
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Trump’s $15 billion in farm promises lands days before the midterms, and New York growers want Albany to add diesel relief
The Trump administration has pledged more than $15 billion to farmers hit by record diesel prices in the final weeks before Election Day. Farm groups welcome the help, critics call it a…
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Seneca voters pick a new president Tuesday, and with it the next negotiator on an unsigned casino compact
Councilor Tina Abrams, the Seneca Party nominee, would be the Nation’s first woman president. She would inherit a compact standoff in which Gov. Hochul says there is no agreement and the outgoing…
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Niagara Falls sewage plant fix now costs $338 million, and the water board’s engineers call it unaffordable
A state order forces Niagara Falls to convert its sewage plant to biological treatment. The estimate has climbed to $338.2 million, and the board’s engineers say ratepayers can’t carry it without more…
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Albany’s $9 billion surplus cuts next year’s budget gap to $2.9 billion, two days before voters pick who spends it
The state’s Mid-Year Update raises tax revenue by $8.1 billion and cuts next year’s gap from $6.4 billion to $2.9 billion. What it means for the governor’s race, the watchdogs’ warnings, and…
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Albany should send Hochul the Richardson campus land bill, and she should sign it
A small bill to give the Richardson Olmsted Campus clear title to its own land passed both houses in June and still hasn’t reached the governor’s desk. The Senate should deliver it,…
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Western New York has one in nine of the state’s cannabis shops but gets about one in 15 dollars of the local pot tax
As New York’s legal cannabis market passes $4.1 billion in sales, Comptroller data show WNY’s 78 dispensaries brought local governments $2.23 million in the first half of 2026, about $28,600 a store…
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New laws make hotels post trafficking help or face fines, and warn abuse survivors before their voter privacy lapses
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed three bills that add civil penalties for hotels that skip required human trafficking notices, expand address confidentiality to victims of image-based abuse, and require advance notice before survivors’…
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USDA proposes chip cards for every SNAP account, but states would cover the switch
A proposed USDA rule would require chip-and-tap EBT cards in every state to stop skimming thieves, without new federal money as states absorb SNAP administrative cuts. New York is already ahead.
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White House touts refinery funding and diesel relief, says New York hasn’t adopted fuel waivers
The White House says gas and diesel prices will soon drop, pointing to Defense Production Act refinery money and diesel tax deferrals. It singled out New York for not adopting federal fuel…
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Albany should not hand Erie County the bill for SNAP’s error-rate penalty
Washington is shifting SNAP costs to the states, and New York passes its share to counties. Albany should commit now to absorbing any SNAP benefit penalty and renew Erie County’s sales tax…
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A state broadband grant for Buffalo’s affordable housing has grown 67% while its promised reach shrank by a third
Empire State Development wants to raise a ConnectALL grant for low-cost fiber in Greater Buffalo affordable housing to $4.75 million, even as the number of homes it would reach has fallen from…
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Hochul sends $5.8 million to Amherst and Williamsville for the Peanut Line Trail and Island Park
The state is putting $3.8 million into Amherst’s 4.9-mile Peanut Line Trail and $2 million into removing the old dam at Williamsville’s Island Park, with the money flowing through the Dormitory Authority.
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New York’s quantum study ranks the state second nationally, but finds Western New York’s footprint thin
A new state-commissioned study ranks New York second in the nation for quantum technology, but its regional map shows only a small cluster of activity in Western New York as the state…
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Western New York won a third of MOVE-IN NY’s starter-home money. Here is where its 96 homes stand
Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Lackawanna and the Town of Tonawanda won about $29 million to place 96 factory-built starter homes. Records show lots identified and approvals under way in some communities, and few…
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New York’s $225 million water-for-housing fund is open only to Pro-Housing towns. Many WNY suburbs aren’t certified yet
The state’s new Clean Water for Housing grants pay up to 75% of water and sewer work tied to new homes, first come, first served. HCR’s dashboard lists 12 certified municipalities in…
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Treasury proposes rules for the new federal limit on big investors buying single-family homes
Treasury’s proposed rule spells out how large institutional investors can still build, renovate and sell houses under the ROAD to Housing Act’s ban, and what they would pay for violations. New York…
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A Buffalo judge strikes down the body armor ban Albany passed after Tops, on the day Hochul signs new gun bills
Judge John Sinatra Jr. ruled that body armor is protected by the Second Amendment and paused his order for 14 days, leaving the state until just after Election Day to win a…
