Today in your Trail Mix:
A museum in the Finger Lakes is closer to being a reality.
The state hands out a few million bucks in the hopes of creating jobs.
A Syracuse hospital goes digital with its patient data.
Tourism
A proposed Finger Lakes museum has knocked down its first fundraising goal - to bring in $1 million of the $40 million needed for the project (Leo Roth, Democrat and Chronicle).
Bids to operate boat tours below Niagara Falls are being opened to competition for the first time, putting Maid of the Mist's monopoly on ponchos at risk (Carolyn Thompson, AP).
Bikers and snowmobilers want old rail tracks in the Adirondacks to be converted to trails for their use - but the operators of the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society want to upgrade the tracks to offer year-round service to the park (Brian Nearing, Times Union)
WNED is doing a series of reports about western New York's role in the underground railroad.
Incentives
Empire State Development is sending $3 million in tax credits to a Syracuse-area IT firm to stay in the region (Ryan Delaney, WRVO).
The chairs of the Finger Lakes regional economic development council spoke bluntly last week about how the process for doling out state cash was more political than they'd been led to believe [VIDEO] (Julie Philipp,WXXI).
Xerox has won $4.3 million from New York State, to help it build a call center in a Rochester suburb (Zack Seward, WXXI/Innovation Trail).
The 99 percent
The number of people camping out with Buffalo's Occupy movement has waned, but protestors continue to stick with their solidarity message (Mark Sommer, Buffalo News).
Meanwhile, Rochester's Occupy movement marched last night in solidarity with the 400 Oakland occupiers who have been arrested (Jeffrey Blackwell, Democrat and Chronicle).
A bill that would boost New York's minimum wage to $8.50 from $7.25 is set to be introduced in the Assembly today (Cara Matthews, Vote Up!).
Politics
The President's endorsement of natural gas in the State of the Union may be a play for Pennsylvania voters in the 2012 general election (Erich Schwartzel, Pittsburg Post-Gazette).
A set of proposed legislative district maps for New York have been released, and Republicans are crying foul [VIDEO] (Matt Ryan, New York NOW).
Health
Patients will soon be able to access their medical records on their smartphones as Upstate University Hospital goes digital with its medical data (Ellen Abbot, WRVO).
A Buffalo firm has the potential to pick up $67 million from the Department of Health and Human Services, to develop remedies for biological weapons and other threats (Daniel Robison, WNED/Innovation Trail).
WCNY will be airing a documentary about the public health strategies that communities like Syracuse are employing to deal with issues like obesity, violence, and other social ills (James T. Mulder, Post-Standard).
All domestic partners at the University of Rochester will be eligible for benefits starting July 1 - including opposite sex couples that are unmarried (Patti Singer, Democrat and Chronicle).
Transportation and development
Philadelphia's Auto Show had a heaping helping of "green" cars on display (Susan Phillips, State Impact PA).
Binghamton is hoping to move away from a scattershot approach to downtown redevelopment, to a cohesive strategy (Matt Richmond, WSKG/Innovation Trail).
Democrat and Chronicle business editor Steve Sink writes that Rochester's ability to get back up after being knocked down is a miracle.
Want Trail Mix delivered fresh to your reader, every day? Subscribe to the feed.
