Strictly Business

From Business Today:

Lots of good stories over the weekend...

Restaurant owners are still complaining about heavy-handed auditors from the state Department of Taxation and Finance. They say the auditors are on a mission to increase tax revenues, and to do so they make outrageous claims when a business owner does not have antiquated paper receipts. Many businesses run up huge legal fees to fight the government. However, the tax department has a new ombudsman who says he is helping reign in rogue auditors and handle businesses complaints.

The Buffalo Portfolio, the collection of stocks of public companies in the region, did not fare well during the second quarter, dropping 2.3 percent. That's more than the major indices.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation says it will be watching the natural gas drillers like a hawk to safeguard the environment when horizontal drilling and 'fracking'  begins in New York.  Environmentalists are aghast that the state is allowing the controversial process to be used while questions about its impact remain.





Been to a Bills game in recent years and seen people in the parking lots throwing flying discs into what look like a garbage cans? It's a game called KanJam, and it was invented by some local guys. It is being manufactured and marketed nationwide from here in the Buffalo Niagara region. Who says Buffalo can't compete?






The fight to sell wine in grocery stores continues, like a drum beat in the distant jungle. The supermarket forces lobbying to get wine on their shelves in New York state are keeping up the campaign. The smaller mom-and-pop stores and small wineries are fighting back. To be continued next legislative session...








If you're going to launch a business, why not think big, like taking on the likes of Dell and Hewlett-Packard? That's what two brothers in Batavia are doing. Their firm, Savage I/O is manufacturing and selling a data storage device called a 'data brick.' As more data  is stored for retrieval on the 'computing cloud,' the brothers hope their device will gain more market share.

Recent local real estate transactions...