Dec 1
2025
There’s more to local media than what the chains offer
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Although local corporate media websites attract most of the traffic, there are a growing number of worthwhile websites and Substacks worth reading. Allow me to introduce, or remind you, of the best of them:
- Ken Kruly authors Politics and Other Stuff, which reports on, well, politics and other stuff. Ken has a particularly sharp eye when it comes to government and campaign finances. He also has a good feel for local and state politics.
- Charlie Specht writes Buffalo Muckraker on Substack, riffing largely off his work for Channel 2 and drawing from his knowledge gained through previous reporting gigs with The Buffalo News and Channel 7.
- Jerry Zremski, who recently retired from The News, has a Substack entitled This Hard Land. Jerry was one of the paper’s best reporters and he continues his work with his new venture.
- Margaret Sullivan writes both American Crisis on Substack and a column for The Guardian. She is a champion of democracy and a fearless critic of Donald Trump.
- The Buffalo Hive is the best source of listings, reviews and other information on the local entertainment scene.
- Seamus Gallivan publishes reConnector, a weekly email newsletter that covers the ground for both entertainment and activities with a social justice bent.
- Finally, there’s a subreddit focused on Buffalo.
Is there anything I’ve missed? Send me an email at jheaney@investigativepost.org. Nothing wacky, please.
Two years ago we questioned Erie County Sheriff John Garcia’s push for a new helicopter. County Executive Mark Poloncarz and the County Legislature gave Garcia what he wanted anyway. Maybe more than he initially asked for.
The sheriff’s office recently took possession of the first of two choppers on order. County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick wrote lawmakers that the purchases depend on $4.5 million in federal aid that has not landed.
Hardwick also said the county doesn’t have the money to equip the helicopters. He went on to essentially say Garcia pulled a fast one by ordering two helicopters rather than one. The second purchase, he said, “blindsided” his office.
Garcia disputed Hardwick’s conclusions.
In a separate report, the comptroller also found serious fault with the county’s management of its 1,200 vehicle fleet, according to The Buffalo News.
The latest audit of the fleet shows a glaring lack of accountability and oversight. That includes 365 county vehicles that were missing from the county’s centralized records, apparent abuse of the county’s gas fueling stations, gross non-compliance with vehicle use policies, and an overall failure to track vehicle assignments and ensure compliance with Internal Revenue Service requirements and legal driving status …
Benjamin Swanekamp, chief of staff to County Executive Mark Poloncarz, said that upon receiving a draft of the audit, he immediately ordered a series of changes to bring county departments into closer compliance with county policies …
The biting, 46-page audit also heavily criticized the Erie County Sheriff’s Office for repeated failure to share information related to its own take-home vehicles, resulting in audit delays and the inability to fully audit take-home vehicles in the sheriff’s fleet. All other elected county officials provided requested information.
There’s speculation that Hardwick could run to succeed Poloncarz when his current term expires in two years. He’s not discouraging such talk.
There’s also chatter that Garcia is interested in succeeding Poloncarz, although he’s damaged goods in light of his handling of the hit-and-run crashes of D.J. Granville, his narcotics chief.
An audit by the state comptroller found the City of Dunkirk’s books are a mess.
“The lack of complete, accurate and current accounting and financial records significantly limited this review and precluded auditors from determining the reasonableness of all of the city’s significant revenue and expenditure projections …
“The city’s accounting records are not reliable or up to date. These findings also acknowledge the rapid deterioration of the city’s finances and report that officials do not have the ability to effectively monitor the city’s cash position or results of operations, making financial planning and budgeting incredibly difficult …
“The city has limited options available to fund any increases in operating costs.”
In short, a local municipality in worse financial shape than Buffalo.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomGood news/bad news regarding the Sabres. (Isn’t it always that way?) Attendance so far this season is up almost 1,100 a game, the third-largest increase in the league. (Apparently, I’m not the only long-suffering fan who keeps showing up.)
The bad news: The team is playing to 85.9 percent capacity, the worst in the league.
More bad news. (Again, isn’t that always the way?) The team’s odds of ending its 14-year playoff drought are 7.5 to 33.4 percent, depending on who’s crunching the numbers. And those odds were before the Sabres dropped games Wednesday and Friday.
The stock market, aside from the tech sector, isn’t doing so hot and the economy could tank if the AI boom goes bust.
Reports The Washington Post:
A group of trillion-dollar brands known as the “Magnificent Seven” — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — has been at the forefront of those gains, thanks in large part to corporate spending and intense interest in artificial intelligence. But economists and investors are raising concerns about the companies that aren’t part of the AI investment boom — in other words, most businesses in the United States.
Adds The New York Times:
The U.S. economy in 2025 is split in two: Everything tied to artificial intelligence is booming. Just about everything else is not …
A bursting of the bubble — whenever it happens — could have real-world implications. Consumer spending in recent quarters has been increasingly driven by high-income households, who have continued to shop even as many lower-income families have pulled back. But if the stock market stumbles, wealthy households, too, might pare down their spending …
Lower-income households haven’t seen the benefit of the stock-market run-up. But they could still be hurt by its reversal. If wealthy Americans spend less on restaurant meals, vacations and luxury goods, that could lead to job losses in the service sector.
Back in the day, Western New York was a hotbed of radical political and spiritual activity. These days, we can’t seem to get excited about too much other than the Buffalo Bills.
