Categories for Outrages & Insights

Jan 30

2020

Buffalo News: Is Darth Vader lurking?

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An investment firm with a reputation of buying and gutting newspapers has just bought a stake in Lee Enterprises, which is purchasing The Buffalo News in a deal scheduled to close in March. What’s more, the firm, MNG Enterprises, is reportedly trying to engineer discussions about a mega-merger of newspaper chains, including Lee, Tribune Publishing, and possibly the McClatchy Co. In my column Wednesday, I said Lee’s purchase of The News was bad news that could have been worse. If MNG Enterprises, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, gets its hands on The News through Lee, well,[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Jan 29

2020

My take on the Buffalo News sale

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It’s rarely, if ever, a good thing when a chain buys a newspaper. And so it is with the surprise announcement today that The Buffalo News is being sold to Lee Enterprises, one of the larger newspaper chains in the country. We can expect cuts to an already depleted newsroom if Lee’s track record at its other newspapers holds true in Buffalo. But things could be worse. Lee Enterprises is regarded as a more responsible chain than most of the others that have taken over the newspaper industry, and certainly better than the cutthroat hedge funds that have bought and[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Jan 10

2020

Our local politicians are getting worse

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The November local elections are behind us and the national chaos of 2020 is right around the corner. (Like winter, it can’t end soon enough.) This seems like a good time to take stock of our elected officials in Western New York. But first, allow me to hold my nose. I’ve been reporting in this town for more than 30 years, and the quality of our elected officials has never been worse. I’m not talking politicians at the town and village level, as I don’t travel much in those circles. However, it’s safe to say that with sixty-two towns and[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Mar 6

2019

OTB protecting its perks

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The regional Off Track Betting Corporation has a story – two stories, actually – and they’re sticking to them. Officials there continue to insist that the OTB is authorized to provide health, dental and vision insurance free of charge to its board of directors. Gold-plated insurance, described to me by one health insurance expert as “literally the richest plan available.” I reported in December that the state Attorney General issued an opinion in 2008 that appears to conclude that OTBs are not permitted to provide health insurance coverage to board members. President Henry Wojtaszek responded by pledging to ask the[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Dec 11

2018

Buffalo Billion criminals get off easy

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Hold up a gas station and you’re looking at a minimum of five years in prison. Get napped with an ounce of crack and the mandatory minimum is five to ten years. Engage in bid rigging, and in the process violate the public’s trust and cost taxpayers potentially million of dollars? If you’re Louis Ciminelli, the sentence is 2 years and 4 months. For Alain Kaloyeros, 3½ years. Minus time off for good behavior, of course. And don’t worry about starting your sentence anytime soon. You’re a free man until you and your high-priced lawyers have exhausted the appeals process.[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Aug 22

2018

Buffalo’s roadblock to reform

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A lot of issues scream for reform in Albany: ethics, campaign finance, cash bail. But nothing rivals state contracting practices, not in the wake of the corruption convictions of Alain Kaloyeros and three developers who contributed heavily to Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign, including Lou Ciminelli of Buffalo. Yet here we are, 21 months after the indictments, two months after the convictions, with no reform. Yes, Cuomo has proposed a handful of changes, but they satisfy practically no one. Meanwhile, a trio of bills sit stalled in the Assembly, a victim of Speaker Carl Heastie’s willingness to appease the governor by[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jul 12

2018

Buffalo Billion verdicts warrant further action

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Alain Kaloyeros has been known as many things during his career. Dr. K. Near genius. Nanotech guru. And as of Thursday, convicted criminal. Ditto for Lou Ciminelli. Civic leader. Power broker. Philanthropist. And yes, convicted felon. Down the list of defendants we go. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. And, at the risk of repeating myself, guilty. It was a good day for clean contracting, for good government. But the job is far from done. Testimony during the trial established that the governor’s office installed Todd Howe, a longtime Cuomo associate, as the administration’s “eyes and ears” inside the operation that Kaloyeros headed[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jun 28

2018

Cuomo flunkies cross the line

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A former Cuomo flak testified the other day that another of the governor’s minions attempted several years ago to dissuade donors from continuing their support of Investigative Post in retaliation for its reporting on corruption in the Buffalo Billion program. “There was an effort made by people that Todd [Howe] knew that had donated to Investigative Post in the past, there was an effort to get them to stop doing that,” said David Doyle, a former spokesman for Alain Kaloyeros, the disgraced nanotech guru on trial along with three developers who just so happened to be major contributors to Cuomo’s[...]

Posted 6 years ago
Investigative Post

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