Today in your Trail Mix:
New York's jobs picture is looking up, once again.
A wind development deal for the Great Lakes.
Plus, Cornell goes "BOOM."
Job numbers
New York added more than 20,000 jobs in February, and nearly 140,000 in the past year, which puts it on track to meet pre-recession employment levels (Traci DeLore, Central New York Business Journal).
Rochester picked up 9,000 jobs from February 2011 to February 2012 (Tom Tobin, Democrat and Chronicle).
Albany nabbed 5,500 (Eric Anderson, The Buzz).
Buffalo had a "nice run" according to a labor economist, but isn't keeping pace with job growth in the rest of the country (David Robinson, Buffalo News).
Meanwhile, Marketplace's David Brancaccio has been traveling the country to find the robots that eat jobs.
Energy
Federal officials are expected to announce a deal to help fast track wind farms in the Great Lakes today (AP).
A compressor exploded at a fracking site in Pennsylvania. State Impact PA is keeping track of developments.
The drilling company Anschutz has decided to appeal a ruling in favor of the Town of Dryden over its ban on fracking (Rachel Stern, Gannett).
Preservationists are entering the fracking fray, to protect historic landmarks from being near drilling sites (Mireya Navarro, New York Times Green).
Government
The state power authority is swapping low-cost power for 115 jobs at three firms in western New York (Matt Glynn, Buffalo News).
The legislature is giving budget bills time to actually be read before they're being passed - which though a low bar for Democracy (yeah, I said it), is actually an improvement (Tom Precious, Buffalo News).
Higher ed
Cornell is hosting BOOM next week - a showcase of work by its computing students (Rachel Stern, Gannett).
The University of Rochester Medical Center has released plans for a new children's hospital (Carlet Cleare, WXXI).
Ciao
This is my last roundup for the Innovation Trail. Next week the team of reporters will start rotating through, bringing you a wider range of perspectives on the news from New York's innovation economy. It's in preparation for my departure from the Innovation Trail. I'll miss you guys! Here's a little pre-parting gift:
http://youtu.be/XtE-xnPKj28
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