Jul 19
2012
Who is stiffing Housing Court?
Investigative Post identifies the biggest scofflaws who have failed to pay fines and why the court came down so heavy in the first place. Featured Thursday on WGRZ.
Posted 12 years ago
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 19
2012
Investigative Post identifies the biggest scofflaws who have failed to pay fines and why the court came down so heavy in the first place. Featured Thursday on WGRZ.
Jul 18
2012
You can’t get away without paying your property taxes or garbage fee or even a parking ticket without City Hall coming after you. Letting your property go to seed is another matter. Judges in City Housing Court have imposed more than $22 million in fines since 2006 against some 1,470 property owners who ignored orders to repair building and health code violations. A vast majority have ignored the fines and gotten away with it, an Investigative Post inquiry has found. Less than $800,000 in fines have been paid during that period – less than a nickel on the dollar. It’s[...]
Jul 18
2012
That’s how much in fine money City Hall has passed on trying to collect from delinquent property owners. An iPost report co-produced with WGRZ 2 On Your Side.
Jul 16
2012
Executive director of Coalition for Economic Justice talks about low-wage jobs, wasteful subsidies and a lack of progressive sensibilities among most local and state politicians.
Jul 16
2012
Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed Allison Duwe, Executive Director of the Coalition for Economic Justice, on the plight of the 99%, corporate subsidies, and the aversion of local politicians to progressive policies. Duwe, in the interview that aired on WGRZ’s Sunday Daybreak, said: Western New York’s economic problems stem in part to too many residents working low-wage jobs and a concentration of the poor in the City of Buffalo. Adults, rather than teenagers, hold five of six minimum wage jobs. Economic subsidies across the state total about $3 billion a year and produce meager results. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $1 billion initiative[...]
Jul 8
2012
Niagara Falls mayor discusses Wallenda Walk, municipal corruption, green economic development and the region’s improving leadership. For those who do not know much abut Dyster, the interview is a good introduction to one of the region’s brightest elected officials.
Jul 8
2012
Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster on the impact of the Wallenda Walk, the numerous challenges faced by Niagara Falls, and how the standoff between state and Seneca Nation officials is costing the city money that would otherwise be helping to promote economic development. Dyster, in the interview that aired on WGRZ’s Daybreak Sunday, said: The city is studying statistics on television and web viewership of the Wallenda walk to determine where to focus marketing efforts to attract tourists and investors to Niagara Falls. Significant headway has been made to clean up corruption that has[...]
Jul 4
2012
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, weary of longtime mismanagement of aid, get tough in face of ineptitude.