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.

Dec 6

2012

First $1B beneficiary awash in red ink

The biotech company the state plans to spend $50 million on to lure to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus has lost $112 million the past three years and hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2008. And that’s just the beginning of the financial difficulties confronting Albany Molecular Research, according to a probe by Investigative Post. The company has laid off at least 80 employees since 2010 and shuttered one of its foreign facilities, with plans to close a second operation near Seattle. The Albany-based company’s stock price, meanwhile, sunk from $61.66 in 2001 to $2.26 in December 2011, although the stock[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Dec 5

2012

Good plan off to bad start

There’s a lot to like about the blueprint for spending $1 billion in state aid to revitalize the Western New York economy that was released Tuesday. I’d feel better about the plan’s prospects, however, if Gov. Andrew Cuomo hadn’t used its release to announce a heavily subsidized deal to bring 250 jobs here that smacks of the business-as-usual, smokestack-chasing approach that has failed us in the past. Let me get my skepticism out of the way up front. The state has agreed to spend $50 million on a biomedical facility and equipment to accommodate an expansion of Albany Molecular Research to[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Dec 2

2012

Q&A: Matt Enstice of the downtown medical campus

Matt Enstice is chief operating officer of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. He’s been involved with the project since its inception 10 years ago and has used an unassuming, innovative management style to lead the effort to transform 120 acres on the northern edge of downtown into a world class medical campus. A native of Western New York, Enstice earned an undergraduate degree in English from Hobart College and a master of business administration from Canisius College. He left Buffalo after school to work in the entertainment industry and spent five years in the 1990s working at Saturday Night Live[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Nov 27

2012

Slow go on $1B to Buffalo

The WNY Regional Economic Development Council postponed a meeting set for Tuesday to consider a draft of the blueprint for spending $1 billion pledged by Gov. Cuomo to revitalize the local economy. Officials said Cuomo’s review has been sidetracked by Hurricane Sandy. A report by WGRZ.

Posted 13 years ago

Nov 25

2012

Q&A: Stephanie Simeon

Stephanie Simeon is executive director of Heart of the City Neighborhoods, a non-profit housing development corporation serving Buffalo’s Lower West Side. Simeon, 31, is a native of Brooklyn who moved to Buffalo to attend the University at Buffalo, where she earned an undergraduate degree in social science and master’s degree in urban planning. She serves on the board of the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women. Last year she was selected by Business First as one of the region’s top 40 young people under 40. Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed Simeon on Nov. 20. A 4 minute, 45[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Nov 15

2012

Lax enforcement at the Peace Bridge

Five months after being asked to crack down on idling trucks, state environmental officials have visited the plaza only twice and handed out only a handful of tickets. Story is part of a three-post package.

Posted 13 years ago

Nov 15

2012

Transparency is the best policy

Note: This post was written in November 2012 and has been amended to reflect a change in the presidency of Investigative Post. Dan Telvock, our environmental reporter, has a new report about the failure of the Department of Environmental Conservation to aggressively act on requests to enforce state law at the Peace Bridge that prohibits trucks from idling. It is the first in a series of stories that Dan intends to produce regarding the Peace Bridge. In many ways, covering the Peace Bridge makes perfect sense for Investigative Post, although it is not without complications, for reasons I’ll explain in[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Nov 11

2012

Q&A: Political reporter Bob McCarthy

Robert J. McCarthy is a 30-year veteran of The Buffalo News, the last 20 as political reporter. He’s covered a wide array of elections and candidates, including those for president, Congress, governor, the state legislature, mayor and county executive. In addition to his reporting, McCarthy writes a Sunday column and contributes to the Politics Now blog. He also covers the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed McCarthy on Nov. 7, the day after the election. A 3 minute, 54 second video clip including interview highlights is posted above. The full 15 minute, 29 second interview is[...]

Posted 13 years ago