Articles for Investigative Post staff

Jun 14

2024

Buffalo getting safer — but keep an eye on your car

Despite a spike in homicides during the Covid pandemic, violent crime in Buffalo has been trending down. That's also true for a post-pandemic spike in car thefts. But even with those numbers dropping in recent months, there's still plenty of vehicles being stolen. For those who haven't been following the social-media-inspired crime surge, car theft began spiking nationally after videos posted on TikTok a few years ago showed how a design flaw made it relatively easy to steal Kias and Hyundais. Thus was born the "Kia challenge," encouraging young people to joy-ride in a stolen car. Buffalo experienced the full[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jun 7

2024

Buffalo-areas schools spending about $28,000 per student

Thirty-nine school budgets totaling $4 billion were recently approved in Erie and Niagara counties for the upcoming school year. The money will educate some 138,000 public school students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The individual budgets range from a low of $17.7 million in North Collins, the smallest school district, with just 564 students, to a high of almost $1 billion in the largest district, Buffalo public schools, with some 30,000 students. (Charter schools in the Buffalo area, with some 12,000 students, are not included in this analysis.) We looked at per pupil spending - total budget divided by enrollment.[...]

Posted 1 year ago

May 31

2024

Buff State has rock bottom graduation rates

We pulled graduation rates for SUNY's 20 universities and four-year comprehensive colleges with campuses, using full-time students who entered as freshmen in 2013. (We wanted to avoid the pandemic years.) The average four-year graduation rate was 55 percent. By six years, the average graduation rate was 68 percent. Buffalo State had the lowest four-year graduation rate, 28 percent. It also had the lowest five-year and six-year rates. UB 's four-year graduation rate was in the mid-range, and a few points higher in the five and six-year categories. Geneseo had one of the highest graduation rates among the 20 SUNY schools.[...]

Posted 1 year ago

May 29

2024

NYC migrants may be exiting Buffalo area hotels

State Sen. Sean Ryan. Photo provided. New York City is developing  a new program to help migrants it is housing in Buffalo-area hotels move into apartments, reports the Gothamist. The news organization said New York City hopes to work with Jewish Family Services of Western New York to assist over 500 migrants find more permanent — and less expensive — housing. The nonprofit agency would also help the migrants find jobs and to seek asylum, Gothamist reports. The arrangement is similar to one previously suggested by state Sen. Sean Ryan of Buffalo, who has been involved in talks leading to[...]

Posted 1 year ago

May 24

2024

Buffalo back on top in race with Amherst

Back in 2000, the value of taxable property in Amherst eclipsed that of Buffalo. It was believed to be the first time that had happened and raised questions about the city’s fiscal health. By 2015, Amherst growth was slowing as Buffalo’s picked up. In 2021, fueled in part by rising housing prices, as well as downtown and waterfront investment, Buffalo’s tax base edged ahead. The most recent figures peg the 2023 value of Buffalo’s taxable property at $15.3 billion, compared to Amherst’s $14.5 billion. We should note, however, that Amherst inches closer each year.

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 2

2024

Major changes are afoot at Investigative Post

Susan Schulman has been appointed associate editor of Investigative Post and will manage the newsroom on a day-to-day basis. Her appointment enables Jim Heaney, editor and executive director, to focus on plotting our continued growth and raising the funds necessary to make it happen. Schulman joined Investigative Post in June as a part-time editor and assumed full-time duties this week. She worked as an editor and reporter at The Buffalo News for 34 years before retiring in 2020. She headed the paper’s investigative reporting team from 2003 to 2012. “Sue is an editor par excellence and we’re very fortunate to[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 2

2024

Readers select iPost’s top story of 2023

Geoff Kelly’s story on the Buffalo fire department clerk paid nearly $600,000 over seven years while on suspension was the runaway winner of Investigative Post’s best story of 2023. Kelly’s investigation garnered nearly 40 percent of the votes cast by readers, the widest margin since we instituted our story of the year balloting in 2013. The story was also the most-read story on our website for 2023. Kelly documented how Jill Repman, known as Jill Parisi at the time of her suspension in 2016, kept collecting her city paycheck while working another job in the private sector.  Between 2016 and[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 8

2023

Vote for iPost’s top story of 2023

What’s your favorite story published this year by Investigative Post? Editor Jim Heaney has selected a baker’s dozen stories for your consideration. We’re asking readers to vote for their top story in an online poll. Investigative Post has produced 201 pieces of news content for the calendar year through Dec. 8. Broadcast versions were produced for more than 50 of them and aired on WGRZ TV News, our longtime partner. Some stories were deep-dive investigations, others follow-up to those reports, still others analyses, spot news stories and podcasts. All five of our reporters produced stories that made our list. Story[...]

Posted 2 years ago
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