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.

Oct 24

2013

State pursuing major jobs initiative for Buffalo

The state has quietly launched a major initiative to develop a series of economic development hubs in Buffalo aimed at attracting medical, energy and technology companies that would generate thousands of good-paying jobs. The state recently issued a request for proposals seeking developers to construct two or three facilities in the city and partner with a handful of anchor tenants who would employ an estimated 1,500 to 2,000. Much like a shopping mall, these large tenants would attract small and mid-sized firms that would add to that employment base and build a critical mass in fields regarded as regional strengths. The[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Oct 21

2013

iPost featured Spree magazine

Editor Jim Heaney, along with Geoff Kelly of Artvoice and S.J. Velasquez of The Buffalo News were interviewed for their take on writing for digital media. Heaney discussed the possibilities and challenges of digital story telling and running an investigative reporting center. “What we need to be, above all, is independent, aggressive and accurate,” he told Buffalo Spree. “We can’t ignore, though, the need to present news in the format that younger people want. I think more journalists are seeing that locally. But digital story telling requires a lot of manpower and resources. It can’t just be cutting what’s in[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Oct 21

2013

Fund-raising expert joins iPost board

Catharine Miles-Kania, an experienced fund-raiser and executive with one of the region’s leading social service providers, has joined Investigative Post’s board of directors. “It’s a pleasure to welcome Catharine Miles-Kania to our board of directors,” said board President Lee Coppola. “An accomplished professional, she brings a world of fund-raising and non-profit experience to our board. I and my fellow board members are excited she’s joined us.” Miles-Kania is vice president of organizational development for Gateway-Longview, a child and family service organization serving the needs of disadvantaged children and families in Western New York. She advances the agency’s mission by raising funds[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Oct 16

2013

Cuomo muddies the waters on Gallagher Beach

A month-and-a-half ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared his intent to open Gallagher Beach near the South Buffalo – Lackawanna border for public swimming. Congressman Brian Higgins is pushing to open the beach as soon as next summer. Not so fast, concluded an analysis by Erie County’s former senior public health engineer. He concluded opening Gallagher Beach for swimming is “probably impractical” because of a raft of environmental concerns. The analysis, coupled with reporting by our environmental reporter Dan Telvock, painted a picture of a beach whose waters rest in a harbor basin contaminated with PCBs and whose neighbors include two Superfund sites that[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Oct 7

2013

Heaney talks elections, environment with WBFO

Editor Jim Heaney talks about two stories he and Dan Telvock have broken the past 10 days on Investigative Post. A conversation with WBFO’s Eileen Buckley on Press Pass.

Posted 11 years ago

Sep 29

2013

Buffalo’s disappearing Democrats

Four years ago, Mickey Kearns lost the Democratic primary for mayor in a landslide. He garnered 14,866 votes. Earlier this month, Byron Brown won the Democratic primary for mayor in a landslide. He received 14,433 votes. In other words, more people voted for Kearns four years ago than for Brown this year. That’s what happens when four out of five voters stay at home on primary day. This year’s turnout was a paltry 20 percent, well below any other mayoral primary in recent history, where up to 60 percent of registered Democrats cast ballots. Much has been made of the[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Sep 26

2013

City of Apathetic Voters

Voter turnout has dropped by two-thirds over the past nine Democratic primaries for Buffalo mayor. Turnout is also lower for Common Council and School Board races. Jim Heaney reports on how and why city voters have stopped showing up at the polls. An expanded version will be published in The Buffalo News on Sunday.

Posted 11 years ago

Sep 11

2013

A rich, but tolerable development subsidy deal

Anyone who has followed my work the past dozen years knows I am not a fan of economic development subsidies. And the deal announced Tuesday of a manufacturing plant involves a lot of public money – some $25.9 million over the next decade in grants, tax breaks and power discounts. That works out to nearly $151,000 per job, which ranks this as one of the region’s richest subsidy deals ever. It’s not the obscene $2.1 million per job subsidy awarded a few years back to Yahoo’s data center in Lockport. But it’s more than all but a handful of deals[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Jim Heaney

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