Economy

The wet weather we've had so far this month is causing headaches for some farmers and other growers.  That according to Bob King, who heads up the Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute at MCC.

He says the saturated soil could cause problems for people who grow early varieties of strawberries.

King does note that there is still a lot of growing weather to come, so things could  improve  as the summer progresses. On Thursday, more than an inch of rain fell in many parts of the Rochester area with some flooding reported around the region.

Officials from the Urban League of Rochester Economic Development Association, and the city of Rochester were on hand at a soggy construction site in Corn Hill Thursday to introduce Greig Square.

It's eight new town homes for first-time homebuyers.

The Association is offering up to 35-thousand dollars in grants for qualified buyers, while the city is helping with up to 6-thousand dollars in assistance for down payments/closing costs.

Atlas Builders, LLC is building the town homes on Santiago Street in Cornhill, the city's oldest residential neighborhood.

We are learning more about some of the upcoming layoffs at Kodak.  They are related to another change involving film manufacturing.

The company recently filed a notice with the state saying that the employees would be laid off by the end of August.

A Kodak spokesman tells WXXI News that most of those layoffs are related to the company's decision to stop the manufacturing of the acetate base that is used in film.

Two area federal representatives are proposing legislation designed to modernize the current Great Lakes Navigation System.

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, and Congressman Brian Higgins, both Democrats,  say their bill would establish a single, comprehensive Great Lakes Navigation System for budgeting purposes.

The representatives say that it would take all the individually authorized commercial and recreational navigation projects in the Great Lakes and recognize them as a unified entity to ensure adequate funding.

Constellation Brands is now officially into the Mexican beer business in a big way.

The Victor based company says it has completed its acquisition of the U.S. beer business that had been part of Grupo Modelo, a Mexican beer company. The purchase price was $4.75 billion.

The deal gives Constellation ownership of Crown Imports, which includes popular Mexican beers like Corona Extra and Corona Light, as well as Tsingtao from China.