Articles for Investigative Post staff

Feb 23

2022

Changes afoot at WGRZ

Big doings this week at WGRZ. Tuesday came the announcement that the station’s parent company, TEGNA, has been sold, pending approval by shareholders and the FCC. The buyer, Standard General, a hedge fund, presently owns just a handful of television stations; TEGNA consists of 64 stations, three of which will be sold as part of the transaction. TEGNA, NextStar and Sinclair, are considered the “Big Three” of television chains.  Standard General is presently TEGNA’s largest shareholder. Ownership of the stations will go private when the transaction is finalized, which is expected in the second half of this year. The Manhattan-based[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Feb 21

2022

Subscribe to our newsletter for free

Editor’s note: WeeklyPost is an email newsletter written by Jim Heaney and published Sunday mornings. It recaps our coverage of the previous week and highlights other local, state and national stories that Heaney finds of interest, along with a bit of commentary. If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so at this link. To give you a flavor, here’s a sampling of the “What I’m Reading” section of yesterday’s newsletter. The Buffalo News published some very good pieces last week. Matt Spina reported on how former Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard continues to sponge off taxpayers. Mark Sommer reported on the[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Feb 7

2022

DailyPost

Welcome to Daily Post, which we’ll produce Monday through Friday, featuring short enterprise pieces and summaries of full-length stories. Thursday, March 3, 2022 Cash calls it quits Kriner Cash has officially cashed out as Buffalo schools’ superintendent. He’s resigned after leading the district for five and a half years. The district’s Board of Education unanimously accepted his resignation at a special work session tonight. “Both the Board and the superintendent came to an agreement that we were going to part ways,” Board of Education President Louis Petrucci said. The full terms of the agreement aren’t clear — “You can FOIL[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 11

2022

Top iPost story of the year

Readers voted Phil Gambini’s report on high levels of E. coli bacteria in local waterways at our top story of 2021. Blame it on the discharge of untreated sewage which is spewed into waterways after heavy rains.. Gambini reported: There’s a particular problem with the Black Rock Canal, popular with fishermen, the occasional swimmer and, most notably, the West Side Rowing Club and high school and college crew teams. E. coli readings consistently exceed safe limits — by up to 14 times — established by the federal government. “There are people coming in contact with water with E. coli from[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 12

2021

Vote for your favorite iPost story

We’ve been busy muckrakers this year.  We added two reporters, started an education beat, reinstated our environmental beat, reinvigorated our economic development coverage and produced a lot of enterprise reporting on the mayor’s race. As we do every year, we’re asking our readers to vote for their favorite Investigative Post story of 2021. Twelve stories are up for consideration: Analysis of 911 calls finds requests for service in Buffalo have declined, save for a surge in traffic stops, primarily in minority neighborhoods. Link. Deal to bring the first tenant to a rural industrial park in Genesee County involves subsidies that[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Nov 2

2021

Voters speak out on Brown, Walton

This story was written by Jim Heaney based on interviews by Investigative Post reporters with 120 City of Buffalo voters. The interviews were conducted at 19 polling places, located in all nine Common Council districts. Three-quarters of the interviews took place on election day, the balance during early voting last week. Participating staff included Layne Dowdall, Mark Scheer, Phil Gambini, Geoff Kelly and Nancy Webb. The election for mayor of Buffalo was not a Tweedledum vs. Tweedledee affair. Byron Brown and India Walton expressed sharp differences of opinions on the issues and about each other. Their supporters did likewise in[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 2

2021

Campaign Notes

Welcome to Campaign Notes, an election blog we update daily with news and intelligence on upcoming elections, including the mayoral race. Geoff Kelly, our government and politics reporter, writes most of the entries, with contributions from other Investigative Post reporters. Email Geoff with tips. Thursday, Nov. 4, 11:50 a.m. Heaney assesses election with with Susan Arbetter How to explain Byron Brown’s landslide victory over India Walton? Susan Arbetter, host of Capital Tonight, put that question to Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney and here’s what he had to say: Investigative Post, in a previous story, identified four key strategies successful write-in candidates[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 3

2021

Bar Association honors Investigative Post

The Bar Association of Erie County has selected Investigative Post as the recipient of its Media Award. Buffalo’s nonprofit investigative reporting center was among those honored  last week with a Law Day Award, bestowed on individuals and organizations who “have done extraordinary work in the Western New York community.” Over the past several years, Investigative Post has done a number of in-depth reporting on Western New York’s criminal justice system. Coverage last year included stories on police misconduct leading to costly settlements, the mistreatment of immigrants held at the ICE detention center in Batavia, problematic provisions on Buffalo’s contract with[...]

Posted 3 years ago
Investigative Post

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