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 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 10 months 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 10 months 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 10 months 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 11 months ago

Jul 5

2023

Federal oversight ends of county jails

Editor’s note: This is the first story reported by Bruce Rushton for Investigative Post. Bruce joined the staff last week; he covers criminal justice. He can be reached at brushton@investigativepost.com. A federal judge has approved termination of a consent decree designed to improve health care and reduce suicide risk in Erie County jail facilities. At the request of county lawyers and the U.S. Department of Justice, which sued the county in 2009, U.S. District Court Judge William M. Skretny on June 13 approved dismissal of the decree created more than a decade ago to provide oversight of the Erie County[...]

Posted 11 months ago

Jul 3

2023

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe for free to WeeklyPost and you’ll receive our weekly newsletter in your in-box first thing Sunday. It includes Jim Heaney’s recommended reading, below. Jim Shultz, writing for the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, rips into Republicans who control the Niagara County Legislature for taking steps to legally challenge reforms at the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. intended to address what state Sen. Tim Kennedy has called a “culture of corruption.” Western Region OTB has been turned into a political fortress manned by one of the region’s most powerful party bosses, its CEO, Henry Wojtaszek. Wojtaszek, who is also the husband[...]

Posted 11 months ago

Jun 30

2023

Phil Rumore: An appreciation (of sorts)

Phil Rumore is considered Public Enemy No. 1 by a fair number of people in this town. His term as president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation ends today, and a lot of folks are happy to see him go. I get it. He can be obstinate. The Buffalo teachers he represents enjoy generous health insurance benefits through to retirement. Nary a teacher gets fired for incompetence. Settling grievances, of which there were many, could be overly difficult. But you know what? All these years, 42 of them, he was doing his job. He didn’t represent taxpayers or students or their[...]

Posted 11 months ago

Jun 25

2023

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe to WeeklyPost and you’ll receive our newsletter in your inbox first-thing Sunday. Jordan Poyer just doesn’t get it. The Bills safety called off his charity golf tournament scheduled for next month at a Trump course in Florida because a number of participants balked at patronizing a business owned by the former president. In doing so, he threw shade at people for having political beliefs they act on. He equates it to ego. Poyer wants to put money in Donal Trump’s bank account and wonders what the fuss is about. Read all about it in the New York Post and[...]

Posted 11 months ago

Jim Heaney

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