Apple strike cost $19 million

The walkout began May 23, when the company made cuts to the pay and benefits of the hourly workers at Mott's. The action ended after 114 days when the plant's 300 striking hourly workers voted on Sept. 14 to approve a proposed contract and return to work. According to the SEC filing, the strike-related expenses were a big reason for a $37 million drop last year in operating profits for Dr Pepper Snapple's packaged beverages business line. Profits for its bottled beverage business also were hurt by higher transportation costs and the expenses associated with the startup of a manufacturing site in southern California, according to the company. The packaged beverages business unit listed segment operating profits of $536 million last year.

"If all the numbers come true and we're here," said Provini at the factory floor press conference, "then this is where [the jobs] will stay."

"We'd love to keep it here because it's easier for me to supervise," Chuck Provini, Natcore's president and chief executive officer, said. "But we haven't gotten a whole lot of traction here."

either pitting Wyoming against Western New York in a competition for a giant data center or getting its ducks in a row to build facilities both east and west of the Mississippi.

One government official here told The Buffalo News that Verizon executives in private have said they regard Wyoming as potential competition to the Niagara County site, but a company spokesman said Tuesday that it’s possible facilities could be built both places. Moreover, another government official in Wyoming said Verizon executives have told officials there that they are considering data centers in both the east and west as part of a consolidation effort. While plans in Laramie have not advanced as far as those in Niagara County, it appears that Western New York is offering Verizon a much richer subsidy package. Both New York and Wyoming — the latter thanks to legislation signed by the governor last week — would waive sales tax for utilities and computer and cooling equipment. Officials here also have offered Verizon a steep discount on property taxes and hydropower.

Schumer, D-N.Y., and former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton helped to insert a $2 billion green-bonds program into federal legislation passed in 2004. The program’s low-cost financing was intended to benefit Destiny and three developments in other states. The Post-Standard reported Sunday that Destiny lawyers will soon ask the IRS to let the project keep its green-bond tax exemption even though Destiny failed to complete much of what it promised in its 2005 application. Among other things, Destiny said it would install the country’s largest fuel-cell facility and enough solar panels to blanket six football fields. The IRS could take as much as a year to decide the matter.

The group is putting together “pretty much a full menu of business-to-business services” to meet their financial, accounting, legal, administrative, marketing, branding, public relations and other needs. That includes office space and even living space for the owners. “If you move your business to Buffalo from out of town, our goal is to set you up with everything for the first year, other than the cost of your core business,” said John W. Howell, nxtArrow’s president and CEO. “That’s your enticement to come here for the first year.” In exchange, the business owners commit to pay to use the providers of those free services for multiple years afterwards, ensuring a revenue stream for the providers who otherwise take a risk up front.