Categories for Analysis

Sep 19

2024

Developer Doug Jemal, back in the news

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An advertisement featuring Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen hangs on the side of the Statler Hotel. Photo by Garrett Looker. Developer Doug Jemal is in the news this week over his company’s installation of a huge ad posted on the side of the Statler Hotel in the heart of downtown Buffalo. Jemal’s company didn’t obtain the necessary permit for the 11-story ad, featuring the likeness of Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Jemal is unapologetic, telling The Buffalo News that installing the ad was the “right thing to do.” Jemal, known for sometimes playing by his own rules, was the subject of[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Sep 17

2024

New York’s toothless FOI Law

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Criminal justice reporter Bruce Rushton. Photo by Garrett Looker. I’ve been a reporter for a half dozen daily and alternative news organizations, including Investigative Post, in five states since 1987. New York has been the worst one I’ve worked in when it comes to public records. In Illinois, government turns over documents because the law matters. That’s why Rahm Emanuel is ambassador to Japan instead of mayor of Chicago, where autopsy reports, unlike here, are public records. While mainstream media slept, an independent journalist 10 years ago exposed a Windy City murder by requesting the autopsy report on Laquan McDonald,[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Sep 5

2024

Byron Brown is leaving City Hall. What happens now?

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Mayor in waiting: Common Council President Chris Scanlon. Photo by Garrett Looker. Byron Brown soon will step down as mayor of Buffalo after 18 years and eight months in the office.  The five-term mayor has been offered the job as president and CEO of Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp., a possibility Investigative Post first reported in February. He is expected to accept the position, pending completion of negotiations for an employment contract and obtaining a license from the state Gaming Commission. The precise date of his exit from City Hall is uncertain; later this month or October is most[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Aug 13

2024

Summer fun drops student reading scores

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Students board a school bus outside of Buffalo’s Waterfront Elementary. Photo by Garrett Looker. Educators call it the “summer slide.” In the spring of 2023, almost 41 percent of Buffalo students in kindergarten through third grade were reading at — or above — grade level. But when those students returned to school in the fall — as first through fourth graders — some of their reading skills had fallen: 34.5 percent reached their benchmark. The 6-point drop is the summer slide, a few points steeper than the typical loss in recent years. And, an Investigative Post analysis found, it primarily[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Jul 23

2024

STAMP struggling to fill rural industrial park

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Two companies are backing away from plans to move into the sprawling Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park in Genesee County, Investigative Post has learned. Scannell Properties, a multinational builder, will no longer construct three large warehouse-like buildings at the industrial park, according to a June email from the Genesee County Economic Development Center, the industrial development agency building STAMP. In addition, an unnamed company — whose proposed development was called “Project Emporium” — will no longer construct a campus of buildings, including large data centers and office buildings. Scannell Properties had signed a “right of first refusal” contract for[...]

Posted 10 months ago

Jun 19

2024

Smart law enforcement or Big Brother?

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The Erie County sheriff’s office wants to buy x-ray equipment for scanning vehicles that’s typically used for military purposes and has raised privacy concerns in the civilian world.  The requested “whole vehicle scanning system” would be used to “enhance the agency’s details at all mass gatherings and critical infrastructure,” according to the department’s grant application filed with the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. It’s a groundbreaking ask. “We’re not aware of any other agencies applying for x-ray systems capable of scanning entire vehicles,” said Kirstan Conley, spokeswoman for the Division of Criminal Justice Services, which administers requests from police[...]

Posted 11 months ago

Jun 12

2024

A mixed bag on IDA reform in Albany

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New York State Sen. Sean Ryan.  The push to reform New York’s industrial development agencies gained significant momentum this year, but not enough to net a serious win for the coalition of labor unions, teachers and good government groups backing the effort. Smaller measures, however, did make it over the finish line, including one expanding representation on IDA boards and another increasing transparency over agency projects. “The momentum is building and we’re going to continue to build that momentum,” said state Sen. Sean Ryan of Buffalo. “But the community itself is building it.” IDAs, of which there are 107 across[...]

Posted 11 months ago

Jun 11

2024

Buffalo lawmakers’ side gigs

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Buffalo Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope, President Pro Tempore Bryan Bollman, and University District Council Member Rasheed Wyatt. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Buffalo Common Council’s majority leader, Leah Halton-Pope, was sworn into office — and onto the city’s payroll — on Jan. 1. But she was collecting more than a city paycheck during her first four months in office. Halton-Pope continued to work as a part-time policy consultant for Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes — the woman she has called her “forever boss” — until the end of April, making about $3,000 a month. And she continues to[...]

Posted 11 months ago
Investigative Post