Good Morning and welcome to the post-Denver debate Innovation Trail Mix for Thursday.
Start your day with a smile and visit Mashable's lineup of responses to Romney's Big Bird comment last night.
The Denver Debate
We'll leave the political analysis to the specialists, but it was interesting to note the references to issues of concern to the Innovation Trail.
President Obama said he wanted to create 100,000 new math and science teachers and mentioned his plan to cut the effective tax rate for manufacturers to 25%. He also made general mention of investments in education and training.
Mitt Romney obviously thought he was onto good material by highlighting the $90 billion Obama administration spend on "green energy", (see Matt Richmond's recent report on one example of a related initiative in Central New York). He's talking about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and news of slow progress in this arena isn't new, (Reuters).
Innovation Trail has been reporting on the topic since 2010 and here's a link to some of our coverage.
Some other moments from our twitter commentary @innovationtrail:
- Wow. Anyone else notice a lot of American Natural Gas Alliance ads leading up to the debate?
- Romney: Energy independence in the US will create 4 million jobs.
- Obama: Shoutout for wind, solar and biofuels
- Romney: I like (clean) coal.
- Romney: I like green energy as well.
- Did a deckhand just drop a stage light out back?
- Obama: Community colleges and relationship with business.
- Romney: "I like green energy".
- Romney: Pledges 12 million new jobs with rising incomes.
Factcheck.org has prepared a rundown of some of what it calls the more dubious claims of the Denver candidate's debate.
Government
At the state level, Republican Senate candidate Wendy Long was in central New York yesterday and talked about a bunch of celebrities "...who have all these phony environmental concerns [about fracking] that they claim is about public health". Gannett has more from Long's presentation which also touched a lot on employment.
Karen DeWitt reports on Environmental Advocates of New York's report card on state lawmakers. They concluded it was “...one of the least productive legislative sessions generally, in history,” particularly in relation to the environment. (WXXI News)
Karen also did some crystal-ball gazing on the state budget.
The state's Transport Commissioner Joan McDonald has pitched in on the I-81 debate in Syracuse saying it would benefit the community of the much-maligned roadway was demolished. (The Post-Standard*)
Here's a link to our previous coverage of that issue by our own Ryan Delaney.
Business
First Niagara is downsizing its operations "to streamline its fast-growing operations" says The Buffalo News , which involves the loss of 30 jobs in western New York.
New York consumer confidence is at a 5-year high according to the latest Siena College poll. (Gannett)
Fracking
State Supreme Court Justice Ferris D. Lebous has ruled that Binghamton's local ban on fracking approved in late 2011 does not "meet the standards of a properly enacted moratorium". Reporting by CBS.
More on this story as it develops.
The Pavillion (sic.) Wyoming water monitoring studies by the EPA and U.S. Geological Survey are attracting a lot of industry attention reports businessinsider.com. (NB: There ARE two l's in this Pavillion).
* The Post-Standard announced Monday that 112 staff positions would go as part of its transition to the digital environment.
