Categories for Co-produced with WGRZ

Feb 17

2016

Cuomo: State can help on lead problem

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While noting the problem of lead poisoning is primarily a local responsibility, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told Investigative Post on Wednesday that the state is prepared to act “right away” to help deal with the problem. “Well, if there are children who are in homes with lead paint and the lead is friable or lead is peeling, then that should be remediated, and if it’s not being enforced by the local government then the state should, and if you tell me where they are we will have the state on it right away,” Cuomo said during a visit to Buffalo. The[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Feb 13

2016

Brown’s failure of leadership on lead

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Erie County Health Commissioner Gale Burstein said the other day that lead poisoning is the biggest health risk facing young children in the city. She’s been saying for some time that her department could use help in dealing with the problem, which data suggests might be getting worse in Buffalo’s inner-city. Mayor Byron Brown responded last week by saying she should not count on City Hall for any additional help. He effectively said “it’s not our job.” Yeah, I know, pretty tone deaf, especially in light of what’s going on in Flint, and the national awakening it has prompted when[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Feb 10

2016

Another Mayday! for SolarCity

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I wrote a post back in October about SolarCity’s mounting losses and falling stock price that carried the headline “SolarCity: Mayday! Mayday!” My post was prompted by a record loss in the third quarter that sent the company’s stock price down to $38 a share. SolarCity yesterday reported another huge loss for the fourth quarter that resulted in a year-end loss totaling $710 million. As in almost three-quarters of a billion dollars. The stock market responded by dumping SolarCity shares, dropping the price to $26.35 at the close of trading Tuesday. Things went from bad to worse overnight Tuesday and[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Feb 10

2016

Landfill with Love Canal legacy still poses danger

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Varsha Kraus and her family fled their neighborhood in Love Canal in 1981 only to learn two years ago that its toxic waste had been dug up and buried in a landfill behind their subdivision in North Tonawanda. After insisting for 25 years that the closed landfill posed no significant health threat, state officials changed their minds in December and declared it a Superfund site. But warning signs were evident all along: rusted chemical drums, battery casings stacked waist high and children getting burns from splashes of orange pond water. The Love Canal waste – enough to fill 80 dump[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Feb 9

2016

Unlike mayor, Council poised to act on lead

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Three Buffalo Common Council members, responding to an Investigative Post story that aired Monday on WGRZ, said Tuesday they are willing to collaborate with Erie County health officials to address the city’s serious lead problem. Council President Darius Pridgen is among those who vowed action. Passing legislation and certifying city inspectors to detect hazards inside homes were mentioned as possible steps. The response of Council members contrasts with Mayor Mayor Brown, who said Monday he was satisfied with leaving the task of lead detection to the county. Although the mayor expressed a willingness last summer to discuss how the city[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Feb 8

2016

Mayor backtracks on lead pledge

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You don’t have to go as far as Flint, Michigan, to find a serious lead poisoning problem. There’s one right here in Buffalo, one that City Hall continues to downplay. New data obtained by Investigative Post shows there’s an increase, for the first time in four years, in the number of children in Erie County who tested positive for lead in their blood. In 2015, Erie County reported 295 children who tested positive for lead in their blood. That’s a 14 percent increase from the prior year. The real problem is in Buffalo, however, where 273 children – 93 percent[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Feb 8

2016

WNY job growth continues to lag

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The Buffalo and Western New York economy is humming, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a bevy of local and state politicians. But the numbers tell a different story. Job growth in the Buffalo market grew by an annual average of 0.8 percent between 2010 and last year, half the national average of 1.6 percent. Local job growth last year of 1.1 percent was significantly less than the national average of 1.9 percent of the statewide average of 1.7 percent. Steve Brown and I discuss on this week’s edition of Outrages & Insights.

Posted 8 years ago

Jan 31

2016

Latest Urban League developments

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The transgressions of the Buffalo Urban League – submitting inflated bills to Erie County, failing to train employees, retaliating against whistleblowers – is an issue that Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and fellow Democrats on the County Legislature are wishing would go away. But it’s not. A critical audit issued in December by County Comptroller Stefan Mychajli was the topic of a hearing Thursday in which Republicans and Democrats clashed. Later in the day, Investigative Post reported the Acting District Attorney Michael Flaherty is reviewing the audit to determine if there are grounds to launch a criminal investigation. Jim Heaney[...]

Posted 8 years ago
Investigative Post

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