Law to cut use of plastic bags
More plastic recycling bins will be available at stores after Gov. David A. Paterson signed a law that requires plastic bag recycling programs at stores with 10,000 square feet or more of retail space and chains of five of more stores with greater than 5,000 square feet of retail space. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:27 PM )
As economy sours, interest in education grows
Higher education can become a popular safe haven for people who want to ride out a recession. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:27 PM )
Colleges ramp up recruiting outside WNY to keep attendance high
College freshmen classes have never been larger, thanks to the children of baby boomers. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:27 PM )
UB aims to become ‘climate neutral’
The University at Buffalo has long been a local leader when it comes to environmental issues. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:27 PM )
Health insurers pushing wellness programs
Western New York’s three big health insurers are offering more wellness and disease-management programs as a means to lower health care expenses and keep premiums under control. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:27 PM )
Major hospital construction projects set to begin
The hospital landscape in Buffalo is likely to change dramatically in 2009 as a handful of long-planned projects finally take shape. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:27 PM )
City steadily builds a future in biotechnology
As anyone in the bioinformatics field knows, innovation takes time. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:27 PM )
Improvements, renovations bolstering downtown Niagara Falls
An electric drill whined below Christopher J. Schoepflin’s seventh-floor corner office. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:27 PM )
Non-profits hunkering down for tough year
Staying fiscally sound this year could be an even greater challenge than usual for hard-pressed cultural organizations. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Recession stymies Seneca Gaming’s expansion plans
NIAGARA FALLS — Gamblers at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel are staying longer and spending more as the casino targets customers from farther away. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Audit is first step in energy efficiency
Mary Beth Blatner and her husband Richard have always been energy conscious. When they built their Lancaster home 23 years ago, they piled on extra insulation, keeping the cold Western New York winters in mind. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
At the Living Success Network, a goal-oriented path to life
Some people make lists of resolutions for the New Year: (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Survival of the fittest as stores try to survive
Retailers didn’t exactly start 2009 on a high note. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:17 PM )
Back to basics: happy staff = happy customers
When it comes to selling a product or service, it’s all about pleasing the customers and keeping them happy. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Grocery stores wrestle with cutting energy costs
Folks throughout Western New York, whether for financial or environmental reasons, are looking for ways to curb energy consumption. Supermarket owners, who count energy costs as their highest expenditure after labor, are no different. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
IDAs looking into ‘tiered incentives’ formula for tax breaks
The Buffalo Niagara region’s industrial development agencies are thinking about making significant changes in the way they dole out tax breaks. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Auto plants embracing cost-saving moves
Ford Motor Co.’s stamping plant in Hamburg has a huge system for saving energy on its exterior, but you might not even notice it. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Car dealers trying to get into gear
This year should be a true test of auto dealerships’ sales skills. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Add water and stir: green-friendly dry cleaning
It only takes a couple seconds to realize that Eco Friendly Custom Cleaners in Allentown isn’t your normal dry-cleaning operation. (Updated: 01/26/09 6:28 PM )
Expanded offerings, affordability may draw visitors despite recession
Tourism officials think the Buffalo Niagara region is poised to buck the national trend during the current economic slowdown. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Saving money by cutting waste
Manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to reduce expenses by eliminating waste and limiting energy consumption. As they push to become leaner and more cost-efficient, they are embracing some of the same goals as the environmental movement. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Cable hopes 24-hour local news will give it an edge
In the next few months, Time Warner Cable is expected to premiere a new 24-hour news channel in Western New York. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Nonprofits counting on donors’ consistency
The Felician sisters picked a tough time to request money for their newly renovated $15 million home — maybe the toughest since they first built a provincial house in Cheektowaga in 1929. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Attorneys change course as clients become proactive on environmental issues
Kevin M. Hogan has seen a real sea change in the kind of work he’s being asked to do. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Kitchens going green by recycling and staying local
Tina Ames had to swear that she would no longer use Styrofoam, and she had to prove that she recycled paper goods. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Stimulus plan is sure to boost ‘green-collar’ job creation
WASHINGTON — The nation’s capital is going green, and nothing shows the seriousness of the effort — and the stumbles that might come along the way — like Rep. Eric Massa’s first drive to D. C. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
For banks, more than money is green
Environmental scientists don’t usually find their niche working for a global bank. But don’t tell that to Sharon Walck. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:30 PM )
Kucharski sees bright spots in economy
As Thomas Kucharski listened to the governor’s sobering State of the State address earlier this month, amid the doom and gloom he heard two of his favorite words: “biosciences” and “renewables.” (Updated: 01/23/09 3:31 PM )
Uncertainty reigns in development efforts
ALBANY — Uncertainty is defining how economic development efforts will be treated by the state government this year, as Gov. David A. Paterson and lawmakers will be forced to walk a tightrope in balancing the budget without harming job-creation efforts at such a sensitive time in the state’s economy. (Updated: 01/23/09 3:31 PM )
Recession hits with a vengeance
How bad will it get? (Updated: 01/23/09 3:31 PM )