Jim Heaney

Jim Heaney is editor and executive director of Investigative Post. He was an investigative reporter with The Buffalo News from 1986 to 2011 and a reporter and editor with The Orlando Sentinel from 1980-86. His coverage over the years has focused on economic development, local and state government, politics, education, housing and transportation, and he was an early practitioner of computer-assisted reporting. Heaney has won more than 20 journalism awards and was a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

Feb 26

2024

WBEN is no longer Buffalo’s powerhouse radio station

You could have read this yesterday in our WeeklyPost newsletter. Subscribe here. George Soros, the left-leaning billionaire and favorite bogeyman of the radical right, has bought a big chunk of debt of the bankrupt Audacy radio chain, whose local holdings include WBEN, 930 AM, and WGR, 550 AM. That positions his management fund to be Audacy’s largest shareholder when the chain emerges from bankruptcy and presumably gives him a voice in the content of its 220 stations. That prompted Alan Pergament of The Buffalo News to speculate what it portends for WBEN and its lineup of right-of-center talk show hosts.[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Feb 19

2024

MMR: It pays to be a suburban cop

We’ve reported on the outrageous salaries being paid to the likes of Henry Wojtaszek of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. and Steven Hyde of Genesee County Economic Development Center. They make about as much or more than the governor. (What is it about highly paid bureaucrats in Genesee County, population 57,853?) Well, it turns out Wojtaszek and Hyde have plenty of company across the state. The Empire Center for Public Policy reported last week that 1,187 employees of local governments in New York were paid more than Gov. Kathy Hochul’s salary of $250,000 in 2022-23. More than 200 took home[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Feb 12

2024

Monday Morning Read

Imagine what it’s like to be imprisoned for years on end. Or, read this compelling essay written by an inmate and published by The Marshall Project. The inmate in question, Jy’aire Smith-Pennick, is serving a 27-year sentence for murder in Pennsylvania. The biggest challenge, he writes, is boredom. In an attempt to disrupt the monotony of prison, we try to create our own personal routines filled with exercise, enrichment programs and constant work. Some of us play cards, watch sports or participate in hobbies such as sewing. But sooner or later, these routines also become monotonous. This is the part[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Feb 5

2024

Monday Morning Read

If you’re as old as me, you may remember Al Bemiller, a center and guard on the Bills offensive line during the 1964-65 championship years. He played nine seasons for the Bills and was selected to its Silver Anniversary Team in 1984. Bemiller was featured prominently last week in a Washington Post investigation about the NFL’s failure to compensate many retired players suffering from dementia resulting from concussions and other injuries they suffered while playing. When Al Bemiller filed his settlement claim in 2019, his children hoped for a quick approval and money to help with his care. He had[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Jan 29

2024

Monday Morning Read

The bad news keeps coming for legacy media. A growing number of newspapers are shuttering their Washington bureaus. (Jerry Zremsky of The Buffalo News is only part-time.) Industry layoffs have reached “bloodbath” levels. And disgruntled newsroom staffs are staging walkouts left and right. Things aren’t so hot at Lee Enterprises either. You know, the chain overseeing the dismantling of The Buffalo News. The latest exhibit came in Sunday’s paper. The Gusto section included 13 stories and other blocks of content. The only one dealing with Buffalo was a TV column by Alan Pergament. The rest was all canned wire copy,[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Jan 22

2024

Monday Morning Read

Nikki Haley, who a couple of weeks ago, failed to mention slavery as a cause of the Civil War, put her foot in her mouth again last week, declaring “America has never been a racist country.” I guess forcing four million people live in slavery doesn’t constitute as racist. The Washington Post tore her argument to shreds by citing public opinion polls from the 1940s and 1960s. A majority of whites said they should get preference for jobs over Blacks and should have a right to keep them from living in their neighborhoods. A Black man dating their daughter? No way. Some[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Jan 15

2024

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe to our email newsletters, WeeklyPost, delivered on Sundays, and PoliticalPost, sent on Wednesdays. You’d think with climate change wreaking havoc on the planet our state lawmakers would be doing their bit to help. Yes and no. The New York State League of Conservation Voters has released its annual environmental scorecard and the results are mixed concerning members of the Western New York delegation. Some scored well, starting with Senators Tim Kennedy and Sean Ryan and Assembly Members Pat Burke and Monica Wallace. At the other extreme were Assembly Members David DiPietro and Michael Norris, who voted in favor of[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Jan 12

2024

What’s included, and missing, in Hochul agenda

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here. IT WAS THE FIRST in a series of big days in Albany. At 1 pm Tuesday, Governor Kathy Hochul gave her 2024 State of the State address, outlining the past year’s achievements and the coming year’s priorities. The speech kicked off what’s sure to be a tense legislative session, as November’s elections loom and the governor and legislature work through their frosty relationship. We looked out for the year’s big political fights. New York Focus had five[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Jim Heaney

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