Engineers hired to demolish building

The building that has been keeping Interstate 81 closed for the past six days will finally be demolished.  The City of Syracuse and New York State say they have hired engineers to begin tearing down the crumbling building.  A building beyond repair next to the highway forced the road to close affecting 50,000 drivers so far.

 Owner of the building Anthony Tartaro wants to salvage at least part of the building.  He says the building being completely demolished would be a waste, but that the state can tear it down as long as he can keep the land.  According to city officials that is unlikely to happen.

According to Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner Tartaro let the building fall into disrepair and now wants the state of New York to pick up the cost. 

The state and the owner of the building have been negotiating demolition, but due to the high cost the question remains who will pay for the building. Tartaro says the state estimated a cost between $1 million and $2 million, but he believes the building can be torn down for just under $500,000. 

 On Thursday afternoon Tartaro was waiting to hear from the demolition company he wants to hire himself.  City officials are also waiting to hear from the state Department of Transportation to decide when and how the building will be taken down. 

Congress takes steps to initiate job creation

Congress is taking steps to stimulate more job creation in the United States.  The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday approving $15 billion to be used for businesses to hire new workers.

The money will grant payroll tax breaks to businesses.  Democratic backers hope to get the bill signed before Friday, but Representative Republican Steven C. LaTourette of Ohio feels differently.  LaTourette says the bill will not create any new jobs.

The bill will also give $10 billion to road and bridge construction.  Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expect that unemployment rates will be reported as having gone up slightly in February to 9.8 percent.

Syracuse's Greg Paulus takes on the NFL

With a college sports career like that of Syracuse’s Greg Paulus, there’s not much left to tackle – except the NFL. 

Paulus, 23, started off playing point guard at Duke before he moved to the position of  SU quarterback.  Paulus was only with the Orange for one year, but had two school records including most completions and highest completion rate. 

At Thursday’s NFL pro day held at Syracuse University, Paulus took the opportunity of showing 12 to 15 NFL teams just what he can do.

Orange strength and conditioning coach Will Hicks said that all the teams expected want to take a look at Paulus.