May 5
2017
Dan Telvock of Investigative Post discusses his reporting on the toxic landfill on the Wheatfield/North Tonawanda border with Jay Moran on WBFO‘s Press Pass. The landfill is owned by the Town of Wheatfield and once contained Love Canal waste.
Apr 28
2017
It’s not the view from Virginia Golden’s front porch of the former General Motors plant that bothers her. It’s the toxic gunk – up to 110,000 gallons of it – that’s underneath the plant. Neighborhood residents have been waiting – and worrying – for a decade since state environmental regulators declared several acres of the plant on East Delavan Avenue a significant threat to public health. The contaminant of concern are PCBs – so toxic that the federal government banned the manufacturing of them in 1979. The residents want the property cleaned up, but have instead endured inaction from state[...]
Mar 30
2017
Jay Moran, host of WBFO’s morning edition, interviewed Jim Heaney on the subsidy series published this week by Investigative Post in partnership with ProPublica and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Posted below is the unabridged version of the interview. An edited version aired on WBFO.
Mar 29
2017
This is the final part of a series that began Sunday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » State and local economic development agencies in New York give away billions of dollars in subsidies to businesses every year but do little to assess what taxpayers are getting for their money. “What politician doesn’t want to stand there with a shovel in their hand and a hard hat on their head to announce new jobs coming to their district?” said Ron Deutsch, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a labor-backed think tank. “The[...]
Mar 29
2017
This is the third part of a series that began Sunday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » Craig Bernier had only been bagging grain at Harbor Point Minerals in Utica for a few months when the company started sending him inside its silos to “walk down” the grain to help it flow to the bottom. Bernier, 24, was claustrophobic and hated being in the dark, closed structure, but Harbor Point told him he would have to go back in, his father said. “He told his mother, ‘I don’t want to go to[...]
Mar 27
2017
This is the second part of a series that runs through Thursday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » Rita McCarthy could finally relax. After months of speculation and negotiation, strategy sessions and late night phone calls, Corning Inc. announced in the spring of 2013 that it would expand its factory in Erwin, New York, where McCarthy serves as town supervisor. Corning is the largest employer in Steuben County, within the economically struggling region of western New York that stretches along the Pennsylvania border, known as the Southern Tier. Assuaging McCarthy’s fears that it would[...]
Mar 27
2017
Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney, in an interview with New York City’s NPR station, discusses the key findings of the first installment of “State of Subsidies,” a series produced in collaboration with ProPublica and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The complete lineup of stories and interviews can be found here.
Mar 26
2017
This is the first part of a series that runs through Thursday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » Gov. Andrew Cuomo has sunk a lot of taxpayer money – $25 billion by his estimate – into recharging upstate’s moribund economy. The governor has increased spending on subsidy programs to record levels, launched bold policy initiatives and crisscrossed upstate to announced projects he has frequently described as “game-changers.” “Economic success is shared all across the state. It’s not just New York City that’s doing well, it’s the entire state,” the governor declared in his[...]