Tag: Investigative Post

Sep 29

2020

Merrill elected president of Investigative Post

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Dr. Michael Merrill has been elected president of the board of directors of Investigative Post. Merrill is medical director, clinical performance management, with Independent Health. Before attending medical school, he worked as a newspaper reporter for three years after graduating from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. “Investigative Post is the most important nonprofit in Buffalo because it puts everybody on notice that if they misbehave, there’s a risk of getting caught,” he said. Merrill succeeds Jody Kleinberg Biehl. Previous presidents include two veteran investigative reporters, David Cay Johnston and Lee Coppola. “Mike has been an enthusiastic board member[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Sep 4

2020

Heaney-Bellavia interview on WBEN

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Jim Heaney made his debut Thursday on David Bellavia’s talk show on NewsRadio 930WBEN. Heaney and Bellavia, in a 41 minute interview, discussed a range of topics, including the M.T. Pockets situation, Mayor Byron Brown, the city’s contract with its police union, and the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. The show broadcast in three segments, which are below. First segment, talking about Investigative Post, incident outside M.T. Pockets and problems with distance learning in Buffalo schools. Second segment, regarding Mayor Byron Brown, unions and police contract. Third segment, involving more on police contract and OTB.  

Posted 4 years ago

Aug 17

2020

Investigative Post teams with UB Law clinic

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Reporters face growing resistance from state and local government officials when they seek public records. The state Freedom of Information Law, intended to promote the public’s right to know, is often used by politicians and bureaucrats to delay the release of records. Investigative Post has found that many bureaucracies, including the City of Buffalo and its Board of Education, and especially the State of New York, routinely take much longer to fulfill FOI requests than what’s permitted under law. Other news organizations experience similar delays. In recent years, it’s become an epidemic. At times, there’s almost an unspoken challenge posed[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Jul 27

2020

Impact of Investigative Post reporting

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Lawmakers have responded to stories published last year by Investigative Post on the heavy-handed way the state and City of Buffalo enforced traffic laws and punished drivers who failed to pay fines. In February 2019, Marsha McLeod reported that the city, in an effort to generate revenue, was aggressively enforcing traffic laws and had imposed 13 new fees and fines that drove up the cost of paying off their tickets.  (Investigative Post readers subsequently selected the report as the best story of 2019.) In it, McLeod wrote: The city’s strategy is costing drivers a lot of money, and, in some[...]

Posted 4 years ago

May 28

2020

My report to readers

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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed life as we know it. That includes Investigative Post. Like most everyone, we began working remotely in the middle of March. It’s gone reasonably well. Suffice to say, I make a lot of phone calls to my reporters. A lot of phone calls, period. Our reporters have had to deal with sources and other news makers remotely, as well, which means lots of phone calls and emails and little to no personal interaction.  “My basement is my office now,” Geoff Kelly, my senior reporter, said. “I conduct interviews from there. I watch government meetings on[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Apr 1

2020

Listen to us on WBEN

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Investigative Post has added another news outlet to its distribution network. Starting Thursday, Editor Jim Heaney, and on occasion, his reporters, will appear several times a week on the morning news program on NewsRadio 930WBEN. The station will also post links to our stories on its website. Investigative Post and WBEN are developing a partnership on the fly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigative Post, the region’s nonprofit investigative reporting center, is producing stories daily on the pandemic’s impact on Western New York. WBEN’s morning news show, “A New Morning with Susan Rose and Brian Mazurowski,” is the[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Mar 31

2020

Buffalo News downsizing comes quick

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Well, that didn’t take long. Lee Enterprises took ownership of The Buffalo News just a couple of weeks ago and wham — the paper on Tuesday announced furloughs and layoffs. To be fair, the loss of advertising due to fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic was no doubt the driving force behind the decision, which I’m told was made at corporate headquarters in Davenport, Iowa, rather than here in Buffalo. But let’s face it, The News was going to have to act sooner rather than later due to the loss of advertising revenue, which is just one of many challenges the[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Mar 26

2020

Heaney discusses COVID-19 on WBFO

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Jim Heaney and Jay Moran, host of WBFO‘s Press Pass, talk about how Investigative Post is covering the COVID-19 pandemic. The nature of the crisis has prompted Investigative Post to switch from producing lengthy, time-consuming stories to short, but in-depth ones produced in a matter of days, sometimes hours, Heaney said.  

Posted 4 years ago
Investigative Post

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