LOCKPORT, N.Y. — First Niagara Financial Group, which is opening branches in Butler County, announces it will soon pay back the money borrowed from the U.S. Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

First Niagara will buy back the remaining 953,000 shares of common stock issued to Treasury on Nov. 21 for $2.7 million.

During its six-month investment in First Niagara, the government earned more than $7.4 million for an annualized return of nearly 8 percent.

First Niagara bought 57 National City Bank branches in Western Pennsylvania in April. Those branches were left over from PNC Bank's purchase in 2008 of the National City Bank chain.

CRANBERRY TWP — Gerard Macioce has been appointed chief information officer for the Westinghouse Electric Co.Macioce previously was the director of systems enterprise integration for nuclear power plants at Westinghouse.In his new role, Macioce will be responsible for the overall development and implementation of the IT plan to support Westinghouse's global operations.Macioce's career includes management experience in information systems, engineering and telecommunications with large organizations.Before joining Westinghouse, he held a leadership position at AT&T Government Solutions. He began his professional career at Booze Allen Hamilton, where he was a program director.Macioce has a bachelor's degree and a master's in business administration and a master's of science. He earned a doctorate in information systems and communications and is a certified project management professional and a member of Duquesne University's Information Management Systems Advisory Board.