Categories for News

Mar 2

2023

No permits for work that might have sparked deadly fire

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The fire that killed a Buffalo firefighter Wednesday might have been sparked by crews working on the Main Street building without permits. A review of city records by Investigative Post found no active permits for work at 743 Main St., which was recently purchased by a company owned by former Congressman Chris Jacobs. Michael DeGeorge, spokesman for Mayor Byron Brown, confirmed that the city’s Department of Permits and Inspection Services had “no active or valid permits” on file. The most recent work permit the city issued for 743 Main Street was last April, for emergency repairs to the three-storey building’s[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 27

2023

Yet another Roswell lawsuit alleging bias

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A former Roswell Park physician claims she was fired by the cancer treatment center for calling attention to practices that “put numerous patients in serious danger,” according to a lawsuit filed in federal court. Dr. Anne Grand’Maison’s federal whistleblower lawsuit alleges her warnings were dismissed and her work at Roswell undermined due to “a work environment which was hostile to female physicians in innumerable ways.”  Hers is one of more than a dozen lawsuits filed in the last eight years by Roswell doctors and other employees alleging workplace discrimination based on gender, race or disability. Grand’Maison’s lawsuit alleges: Pathology reports[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 22

2023

Ryan wants Tesla firings investigated

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State Senator Sean Ryan has called on New York’s economic development agency to investigate Tesla’s firing of more than 40 employees last week in the wake of a union organizing drive at its South Buffalo plant. In a related development, attorneys for Tesla Workers United amended one of its  complaint against the company with the National Labor Relations Board. The union charges that at least 25 of those fired last week were in retaliation for the organizing effort. Ryan, in a letter to Empire State Development President and CEO Hope Knight and Fort Schuyler Management Corp. Vice Chair Kristin Pound,[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 17

2023

Workers dispute Tesla’s version of firings

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Tesla has denied it fired dozens of workers in retaliation for joining a union organizing effort at its plant in South Buffalo. Rather, the dismissals were based on poor job performance reviews, and the timing of the firings was coincidental, the company said in a statement Thursday. But several employees and a former manager challenged Tesla’s representation of the dismissals in interviews with Investigative Post. They noted that the number of employees fired for poor performance — more than 40 — is an unusually large number. They also noted that most of the firings were in Tesla’s Autopilot portion of[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 14

2023

IDA subsidizing more market-rate housing

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Under normal circumstances, market-rate housing is supposed to conform to the forces of the free market: A developer buys a piece of land, builds housing, and sells or rents it for a price that recoups their costs and turns a profit. But in Niagara County, the Industrial Development Agency is poised to subsidize two market-rate apartment complexes — a total of 90 units — to the tune of $3.9 million. In one project, the proposed IDA subsidy would cover 22 percent of the building costs. That project would create zero jobs. In the other, the subsidies would cover 44 percent[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 9

2023

Niagara IDA ups its subsidies for fast food eateries

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The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency on Wednesday doubled down on two projects its leaders claim will convince tourists to spend their vacation dollars in Niagara Falls rather than across the border. Those projects? Two fast food restaurants, a Moe’s Southwest Grill and an A&W. The IDA had previously signaled it would offer tax subsidies to those projects — a total of $172,000 in property and sales tax breaks — and made those offers official at its monthly meeting Wednesday morning. That alone drew the ire of local politicians, namely state Sen. Sean Ryan, who’s pledged to reform IDAs across[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 8

2023

Report: Tax breaks costing schools big money

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Public schools across the state are losing out on close to $2 billion a year — and probably a whole lot more — because of tax breaks given to corporations by economic development agencies. That’s among the conclusions of a study released today by Good Jobs First, a national research group that tracks economic development subsidies. The report said tax breaks affecting schools in New York far outpace those in other states. That lost revenue has prompted state lawmakers, including Sen. Sean Ryan, to propose legislation that would prohibit economic development agencies from abating property and sales taxes that are[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 2

2023

Lawsuit: Aggressive ticketing of Black drivers

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Between 2012 and 2020, one Buffalo police officer, Kelvin Sharpe, wrote nearly 12,000 traffic tickets.  More than two-thirds of those Sharpe ticketed were Black, according to data gathered from Erie County and the City of Buffalo and analyzed by attorneys for the plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit. Another Buffalo cop, 14-year veteran Michael Acquino, wrote nearly 2,500 tickets for tinted windows in that same time period, 2012-2020.  About 85 percent of the recipients were Black. A third officer, Richard Hy, issued, on average, at least one more ticket per stop to minority drivers compared to white drivers over[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post

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