Categories for News

Jan 30

2026

Genesee IDA has ‘conflict of interest’ in data center

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A rendering of the proposed data center. Image via GCEDC. The Genesee County industrial development agency will once again lead the environmental review of a controversial data center proposal despite state officials, local lawmakers and Tonawanda Seneca Nation leaders raising concerns about the agency’s potential conflict of interest. They and other critics argue the IDA, which is building the 1,250-acre STAMP industrial park in rural Genesee County, stands to benefit financially from the data center project. Should the agency’s board of directors approve the project, including issuing an environmental clearance, the IDA could earn between $76 million and $126 million[...]

Posted 3 days ago

Jan 29

2026

ICE now targeting Afghans, rule followers

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250 Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo has become a site of ICE arrests. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. In recent months, two new patterns have emerged involving ICE arrests across Western New York. First, federal immigration agents are apprehending asylum seekers at their mandated check-in appointments. Second, they’ve ramped up their targeting of Afghan nationals. A half-dozen federal lawsuits filed over the past month illustrate the first: Agents order an asylum seeker with a pending court hearing to show up at an ICE office to “check-in.” The person does so and is immediately detained, despite being in the country legally[...]

Posted 4 days ago

Jan 27

2026

Ciminelli plea concludes Buffalo Billion case

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Tesla plant while under construction, managed by LP Ciminelli. The long-running saga involving allegations of bid-rigging in the construction of the Tesla plant in South Buffalo has finally run its course. In the past month, Louis Ciminelli and Alain Kaloyeros have entered guilty pleas and agreed to pay fines to settle the government’s cases against them. They avoid any additional jail time. Their previous convictions had been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Their prosecutions followed reporting by Investigative Post more than a decade ago, which prompted Preet Bharara, then the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York,[...]

Posted 6 days ago

Jan 26

2026

Ryan bars city cooperation with federal immigration

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Ryan signs the order flanked by deputy mayors, advocates and NY Assembly members Jon Rivera, left, and Pat Burke, right. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker City of Buffalo police officers and other employees are barred from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, according to an executive order Mayor Sean Ryan signed Monday morning. That means city employees cannot: Inquire about a person’s immigration status while administering a city service. Provide access to databases or other records to civil immigration authorities that are not already public. Make facilities available to immigration authorities that aren’t otherwise already public spaces. Participate in the enforcement[...]

Posted 7 days ago

Jan 22

2026

Misconduct allegations could endanger drug convictions

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In a lawsuit, two former employees of the Niagara County Forensics Lab have accused a former director of mismanagement and misconduct that legal experts say could compromise criminal convictions that relied on the lab’s analysis. The plaintiffs, a father and daughter, claim Kori Ortt-Gawrys — the sister of state Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt —  harassed and defamed them over a two-year period, compelling one to quit and the other to retire early. The father, Thomas DiFonzo, claims Ortt-Gawrys turned on him after she pushed him to certify a lab chemist to do forensic drug analysis for criminal cases. DiFonzo[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Jan 20

2026

Niagara County Sheriff pulling back on ICE partnership

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Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti, in a policy change, has “reevaluated” his partnership with ICE and has agreed to detain fewer migrants at the Lockport jail. The sheriff, a Republican law enforcement official in a county President Donald Trump won three times, is not cancelling the agreement he signed in May with the federal immigration enforcement agency. But, he and others said, his deputies will only arrest and detain migrants charged with crimes or whose arrest has been approved by a judge. Previously, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office was holding lawful asylum seekers and other civil detainees, primarily women. Among[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Jan 16

2026

Buffalo mayor to ban city cooperation with ICE, others

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Mayor Sean Ryan addresses community groups Friday. Photo via PPG. Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan announced Friday that his administration is drafting an executive order that will prohibit the Buffalo police and other city departments from working with federal immigration agencies. The order, he said, would ensure “no apparatus of city government interacts in any way with federal immigration.” “And that’s going to be from building inspectors, to garbage collectors to police officers,” he said. “What we don’t want is any chilling effect,” Ryan told civic and advocacy groups assembled at the Buffalo State University Alumni Visitor Center. “We don’t want[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Jan 15

2026

Anger over ICE detention of UB researcher

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Outrage over the ICE detention of a University at Buffalo medical researcher — Shovgi Huseynov — is reverberating around Western New York, with one lawmaker calling for the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “This incident is part of a disturbing pattern of lawless and unconstitutional conduct at the Department of Homeland Security, under the leadership of Secretary Noem, and it underscores why she must resign or be impeached immediately,” Rep. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo, said in a statement. Huseynov on January 7 made a wrong turn onto the Peace Bridge and crossed into Canada. He was arrested[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago
Investigative Post