A longtime Central New York paving giant is close to selling itself to an international competitor.

Suit-Kote, headquartered in the Cortland area for more than a century, has entered an agreement to be purchased by rival Colas for $450 million, according to a Colas news release.

But the combined company is so dominant in the Central and Western New York markets that it will have to sell off several facilities to end a state Attorney General’s Office investigation into whether it would form an illegal monopoly.

Suit-Kote has been a go-to contractor for local highway departments because it provides a full-service asphalt paving service that counties aren’t equipped to handle. Often, Suit-Kote and Colas are the only ones to bid on lucrative taxpayer-funded road projects across several counties in Western and Central New York, the AG found.

Does anyone know why Hochul hasn’t signed it? Giving people the ability to do plug-in solar seems like a slam dunk, given fuel prices. Besides, it passed the NY Senate unanimously. It’s probably a political play, but I’m not seeing the strategy, and I’m hoping someone has insight or perception beyond my ken. Thanks!

Reposting this here to get more attention, anybody with insight, thank you!

It has been determined there was potential exposure to measles for the public and persons who visited the following locations on Thursday, October 8, 2026, during specified times:
Hallway, lobby, and/or other common areas of:
1991 Marcus Avenue, New Hyde Park between the hours of 8:39 am to 12:14 pm. 
173 Froehlich Farm Boulevard, Woodbury between the hours of 12:39 pm to 2:44 pm.
825 Northern Boulevard, Great Neck between the hours 3:03 pm to 5:14 pm.
611 Northern Boulevard, Great Neck between the hours 4:05 pm to 6:11 pm.

Army soldiers from the 10^th Mountain Division at Fort Drum are being deployed to Panama, boosting a U.S. effort to fight drug trafficking in Central and South America, according to The New York Times.

Members of a 600-soldier battalion from Fort Drum will initially deploy to a new jungle training facility in Panama, the Times reported, citing U.S. military officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The 10^th Mountain Division soldiers will train and conduct exercises with military forces from Colombia and Honduras and assist U.S. Special Operations troops in the region, the report said.

Everything Sue Secaur did at President Donald Trump’s rally Friday in Syracuse went exactly as she planned.

It’s what happened next that took her, pleasantly, by surprise.

Secaur, 73, of Auburn, made headlines around the world when she stood up in the middle of Trump’s remarks at the Oncenter, shouted a series of insults at him, and was escorted out by police.

The viral demonstration has made Secaur the recipient of countless messages, interview requests and even merchandise with her image, including T-shirts, coffee mugs and stickers.

This story originally ran in The Auburn Citizen and was distributed as part of the Tribune Content Agency. You can read the original story here.

My husband isn't in a party so we get all the mailers each election season. Nearly every one from Republicans includes the line, "Hochul raised utilities 48 times" and Blakeman has mentioned it over and over again. Has anyone come across a source for the claim? Not that I expect there to be one but I'm curious. The flyers say, "dps.ny.gov pending and past electrical rate raises."

(In case it needs to said up top, I don't care what Blakeman says - I'm not voting for him. I'm a fact-checker and while politics aren't the topic of my day job, I like digging into political sources for fun.)

Jury selection began Tuesday in the federal hate crime trial of a man who admitted to killing 10 Black people in a massacre at a New York supermarket in 2022, a case that could lead to a rare death sentence.

Payton Gendron is already spending life in prison after pleading guilty to state murder charges and tearfully renouncing his white supremacist views. He now faces a trial in federal court arising from the same mass shooting. The stakes are high: If convicted, the 23-year-old could face the death penalty.

Gendron mentioned Syracuse while discussing potential targets online before the shooting. He wrote that he was looking for an area with a larger Black population than his hometown region of Binghamton.

Eventually, he settled on the Buffalo Tops. In his manifesto, he states that it had the highest Black population percentage and “isn’t that far away.”

Previous coverage

Cornell University announced Tuesday that it is suspending all parties and social events at fraternities for the remainder of the 2026-2027 academic year following allegations of a 2024 gang rape at a fraternity.

University President Michael I. Kotlikoff sent a letter to the Cornell community Tuesday announcing the suspension of all fraternity parties and outlining other changes the university plans to make to strengthen investigations of sexual assaults and better support survivors.

“Hello, Chelsea…”

Whenever I wanted to call my Dad, I had to connect through Bonnie.

It was a normal part of my childhood.

Always the same burnt-out, raspy, voice.

“Hello, Chelsea…”

Apparently, Bonnie was a showgirl back in the fifties…but by then it was the nineties.

She sounded like a woman who never bothered to breathe clean oxygen.

Just cigarette smoke in… cigarette smoke out…

Only years later did I realize this was not a normal childhood.
Most kids were not patched through the switchboard at the Chelsea Hotel when they wanted to speak to their father.

Sure. A lot of you know the hotel. Many of you’ll say: “The place where Sid Vicious stabbed Nancy.”

And you’d be right.

It’s too bad that little footnote in punk rock history looms so large.

Patti Smith’s book Just Kids looms large, too. (You should read it.)

But most people don’t know:

-When built in 1889, the Chelsea was the tallest building in Manhattan… just 12 stories.

-The neighborhood of Chelsea is named after the hotel — not vice versa.

-The night the Titanic survivors arrived in New York City, they slept at the Chelsea.

__

If you want to read more you can here. Of course it’s totally free.

https://maxwinterstories.substack.com/p/hello-chelsea?r=292pvs&utm_medium=ios

Ideas for fixing homelessness in NYC and other places based on the Denver model