Today in your Trail Mix:
Albany has big news! IBM and Intel are set to grow upstate.
A Tonawanda company is trying to green electric cars.
Flooded businesses in the Southern Tier can get 0% loans.
Albany, Albany, Albany
Later today, Governor Cuomo will preside over a big announcement for the Capital Region: IBM and Intel have decided to set up shop at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. $400 million in state support will support the $4 billion investment (Jimmy Vielkind, Times-Union).
It's all the rage upstate to be like the Capital Region these days - that's because it's looking a little more like Silicon Valley. And who doesn't want that region's economy? The Innovation Trail's Marie Cusick is hosting a television special about the so-called "Tech Valley."
The program airs Thursday night in Albany on WMHT. Video will also be posted on our website - so check back later.
Bill Clinton is also in Albany to talk to the economic councils about how to make regional plans for their economies (Jimmy Vielkind, Times-Union).
Andrew Cuomo says a program he headed for the Clinton Administration was the model for New York's regional councils. But as we reported last week, New York has a long history of regional planning (Innovation Trail).
Azi Paybarah asks an important question in advance of a panel today in New York City on the Governor and the press: Is Andrew Cuomo really transparent? (Azi Paybarah, Capital Blog).
Energy
The DEC, which had taken the heaviest cuts of any state agency, will need to hire hundreds of employees to supervise gas drilling. The agency will be spending $1 million for additional office space in the Marcellus Shale region (Jon Campbell, Gannett).
Debate grows over gas storage in Seneca Lake salt caves (Matt Richmond, Innovation Trail).
It's a heartwarming green story: a Tonawanda company took over an industrial dump site and built a LEED-certified facility to build charging stations for electric cars that are powered by on-site wind and solar generators. And they're exporting half of their product to Asia (Matt Glynn, Buffalo News).
Development
Robert Congel, developer of the controversy-wracked Destiny USA mall development in Syracuse, has ticked off the neighbors again by draining a pond (Tim Knauss, Post-Standard).
Businesses in Tioga County flooded by Tropical Storm Lee will be able to apply to the county's Industrial Development Agency for loans with 0 percent interest (Press & Sun Bulletin).
A closed bridge in Jefferson County could be the new normal for aging infrastructure upstate (Joanna Richards, NCPR).
Empire State Future thinks the regional councils should invest in the state's infrastructure (Peter Fleischer, Empire State Future).
Drugs and Money
Buffalo-based Cleveland Biolabs, in partnering with a Russian investment fund to the tune of $9 million to make drugs that will treat cancer (David Robinson, Buffalo News).
