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Scorecard: The Week's Winners & Losers

The Week's Winners & Losers

The Quintana Quintessence

As Niagara District councilman, Robert Quintana was hounded by former AV columnist Dick Kern for hiring friends and family members. On May 9, the Buffalo police officer was arraigned in federal court for abusing sick leave. In the 1990s, Quintana was considered a potential candidate for mayor.

I Believe I Can Fly

In an effort to help publicize the danger of hit-and-run incidents—and generate a bazillion YouTube hits—Buffalo Police on May 7 released graphic street surveillance footage of an absurd, WTF-inducing accident that propelled the victim R. Kelly-style through the air. Thankfully the victim survived.

Pay the Man

Running back and local banking/vexology aficionado Fred Jackson was rewarded on May 7 with a two-year, $8.7 million extension with the Buffalo Bills, assuring the feel-good-story and fan favorite will stay in town until at least 2014. Raise the green flag, Fred-ex, your deposits just got a bit heavier.

Blight Be Gone

The developer charged with restoring the decrepit Donovan State Office Building released an impressive set of proposed sketches on May 8. If completed as imagined, the One Canalside project might rank among the most dramatic and welcome turnarounds of a vacant structure in recent history.

Regional Distinctions

Following his tour of an Albany nanotechnology center on May 9, President Obama praised the Upstate economy as a model for modern manufacturing. A nice hat tip, Mr. President, but only those who don’t live here lump the Capital Region—and its challenges and successes­—with the rest of “Upstate.”





By the numbers...

112

High end valuation in millions of dollars of investments assets held by former Erie County Executive Chris Collins. On May 7, Collins released a financial disclosure form to comply with Federal Elections Commission requirements for candidates for federal office. Collins reported that he will earn in the range of $345,000 and $3.15 million (using the FEC’s broad standards) this year and that his assets range from $25 and $112 million.

53.6

Percentage of college graduates under the age of 25 that were unemployed or underemployed during 2011, according to analysis of 2011 Current Population Survey data by Northeastern University labor researchers. This was the highest percentage in 11 years and represents roughly 1.5 million recent college grads. Both the University at Buffalo and Buffalo State are set to hold commencement ceremonies the weekend of Saturday, May 12.

812

The number of projects the Western New York’s industrial development agencies, or IDAs, subsidized in 2010, according to report by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. That’s more than any other region in the state, and the tax exemption to those projects totaled $38.6 million.


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