Jim Heaney

Jim Heaney is editor and executive director of Investigative Post. He was an investigative reporter with The Buffalo News from 1986 to 2011 and a reporter and editor with The Orlando Sentinel from 1980-86. His coverage over the years has focused on economic development, local and state government, politics, education, housing and transportation, and he was an early practitioner of computer-assisted reporting. Heaney has won more than 20 journalism awards and was a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

Jul 25

2023

Cashing in on the post-pandemic learning crisis

This story is republished from ProPublica, a nonprofit, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Investigative Post republishes its work from time to time. For the nation’s schoolchildren, the data on pandemic learning loss is relentlessly bleak, with education researchers and economists warning that, unless dramatic action is taken, students will suffer a lifelong drop in income as a result of lagging achievement. “This cohort of students is going to be punished throughout their lifetime,” noted Eric Hanushek, the Stanford economist who did the income study, in ProPublica’s recent examination of the struggle to make up for what students missed out on during[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 23

2023

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe to WeeklyPost and you’ll receive the complete newsletter in you inbox Sunday mornings. In 2017, Charlotte Keith and I reported that New York state and local economic development agencies were doling out $8.6 billion a year in subsidies under then Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Nevertheless, upstate was saddled with one of the worst economies in the nation. If it were a stand-alone state, it would rank fourth from the bottom. Even worse than Mississippi. A new study is out, issued by Citizens Budget Commission, that reports subsidies in New York have grown to nearly $11 billion and headed higher. The report read in part:[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 20

2023

GOP lawmakers to sue over OTB reforms

Dennis Vacco, the state’s former attorney general, has been hired by Niagara County and other Republican-led counties in Western New York to challenge reform measures enacted by the state Legislature in May that affect the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. The changes removed OTB’s existing board and reconstituted its voting powers to shift control from rural to urban counties. Proponents said the changes were necessary to address corruption and cronyism; opponents characterized it as a power play by Democrats at the expense of Republicans. Kevin Schuler, Niagara County’s public information officer, confirmed this week that the county and “several other[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 19

2023

Officials rebuke OTB over 11th hour contract extensions

Editor’s note: This story is a continuation of Investigative Post’s content sharing arrangement with the Niagara Gazette. Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick used one word to describe the contract extensions recently granted to 18 executives at the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation: “obscene.” State Assembly Member Monica Wallace, who sponsored OTB reform legislation, termed the contract extensions “highly suspect.” The objections were triggered by an April 27 vote by the OTB board to give multi-year contract extensions to CEO and President Henry Wojtaszek and 17 members of his management team. The board acted just days before the state Legislature added[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 18

2023

Therapy gives family a second chance

This story is being co-published with The Imprint, a national nonprofit news outlet covering child welfare and youth justice. On a Tuesday evening in February, the parents of three children are seated with a therapist at their kitchen table in Cheektowaga. They’re sorting out ways to help their oldest, a 15-year-old girl. She loves TikTok and weightlifting and wants to be a counselor for young children when she grows up. But for years, the teen has exhibited harmful behaviors. She has attempted suicide, cut herself, lashed out violently and shrieked at members of her family when they tried to help. [...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 16

2023

Monday Morning Read

WeeklyPost, emailed to subscribers every Sunday morning, includes Jim Heaney’s recommended reading, which we republish the following day in Monday Morning Read. You can subscribe here. The decision by The New York Times to do away with its sports staff was a big deal in journalism circles last week. Many were aghast. As a sports fan, and loyal Times reader, I can see their point. Then again, it’s kind of refreshing to see a newspaper opt to focus on real news. Compare that with The Buffalo News, or shall I say, The Buffalo Sporting News. You don’t learn nearly enough about what’s going on[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 10

2023

Contract extensions for 18 OTB executives

Days before state lawmakers stripped them of their duties amid concerns about corruption within the organization, the board of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. signed off on multi-year contract extensions for 18 top executives. Among them was CEO and President Henry Wojtaszek, who received a three-and-half year extension that pays him more than the governor of New York. OTB officials refused to voluntarily provide details of the contract extensions, and instead required the Niagara Gazette to file a request for the documents under the state Freedom of Information Law. Those documents, obtained by the Gazette late Friday, show Wojtaszek[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 9

2023

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe to WeeklyPost and you’ll get Jim Heaney’s recommended reading – and a summary of Investigative Post’s reporting from the previous week – in your inbox Sunday mornings. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————- Chris Collins – remember him, the convicted felon who relocated to Florida and was later pardoned by Donald Trump? – is making noise about running for Congress in the Sunshine State. Or perhaps he’s simply making noise. Collins recently went on an anti-gay rant in which he lectured about ethics and morality. This, from a disgraced, and disgraceful, felon. Terry Pegula is looking for more ways to get even richer. (And that’s not counting his[...]

Posted 2 years ago