Archives

Mar 10

2016

Quick Hit: State’s questionable “fact sheet”

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Dan Telvock, writing in The Public, comments on the “fact sheet” issued by state environmental officials on a toxic landfill in Wheatfield. The fact sheet downplays the potential of harm for nearby residents, much like bureaucrats did decades ago regarding Love Canal.

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 2

2016

Quick Hit: Buffalo’s lead poisoning problem

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In the past two weeks, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and US Senator Charles Schumer have each sounded a call for action in Buffalo, where lead poisoning remains a significant problem. Whether the calls get answered on the local level is another story.

Posted 8 years ago

Feb 4

2016

Quick Hit: Heaney on Urban League scrum

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Jim Heaney, writing in The Public, sizes up the brouhaha in county government regarding the Buffalo urban League and concludes the agency’s defenders are ignoring a compelling case of wrongdoing. “We’re not talking honest mistakes involving $20,000 in excessive charges,” Heaney writes. “No, the bogus bills involved, among other transgressions, charging for work never performed. And former employees describe a culture where they were encouraged to “bill creatively”—by inflating the number of hours they worked and charging the county for time spent on things only tenuously related to social work.”

Posted 8 years ago

Feb 3

2016

Quick Hit: Urban League fights back

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After an audit by the Erie County Comptroller’s office bore out whistleblowers’ claims of inflated billing and inadequate training, Urban League President Brenda McDuffie and her supporters say it’s a political witch hunt. But there’s little evidence for that, says Jim Heaney in a Quick Hit in The Public.

Posted 8 years ago

Jan 31

2016

Heaney talks media with Capitol Pressroom

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Jim Heaney and Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom discuss the declining fortunes of legacy media, in particular newspapers, and the rise of nonprofit newsrooms. Heaney expressed solidarity with the style of adversarial journalism practiced by Glenn Greenwald and his colleagues at The Intercept and said the upstate press could and should have been more aggressive over the past several decades in reporting on New York’s troubled economy and corrupt state government. The interview runs from 21:39 to 36:02 at this link.

Posted 8 years ago

Jan 29

2016

Quick Hit: Diversity in construction

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A new report from the Partnership for the Public Good shows racial disparities in hiring are worse in Erie County than nationally. The state does make efforts to address these by including diversity goals on publicly funded construction projects — but these fall short for a number of reasons. Charlotte Keith explains more in The Public.

Posted 8 years ago

Jan 20

2016

Quick Hit: Greenleaf update

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Buffalo State’s college newspaper, The Record, provided the owner of Greenleaf and Co. a forum to criticize Dan Telvock’s investigation of his business operations. The newspaper also gave Buffalo State officials an opportunity to explain why they support Greenleaf’s off-campus student housing project. But not everything they said passed the fact checker. Read Telvock’s “Quick Hit” in the Public.

Posted 8 years ago

Jan 18

2016

Quick Hit: Urban League update

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Pressure is mounting on the Buffalo Urban League as Erie County legislators prepare to discuss an audit which bore out whistleblowers’ allegations of fraudulent billing. Read Charlotte Keith’s “Quick Hit” in The Public.

Posted 8 years ago
Investigative Post

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