Categories for Broadcast on Channel 7

Apr 3

2025

Lawmakers demand answers on border detentions

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Federal, state and local lawmakers across Western New York are denouncing a Trump administration practice of detaining individuals and families in cells at the U.S.-Canada border for as long as two weeks. The region’s federal lawmakers are demanding answers on the new practice. “Our office is looking into these disturbing allegations,” a spokesperson for Sen. Chuck Schumer said in a statement to Investigative Post, noting his office is also seeking answers on ICE’s recent arrest of a mother and children in Sackets Harbor. “There is no excuse for the cruel or inhumane treatment of children & families. [U.S. Customs and[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Mar 25

2025

Wage theft widespread in Western New York

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The theft of employee wages is widespread across Western New York, data from state and federal labor departments show. State and federal labor investigators found some 1,900 regional employers withheld $17.1 million in pay and benefits from 23,613 workers over the past decade.  That’s an average of $3,066 per affected worker, according to data collected by Documented and analyzed by Investigative Post. Some employers were found to owe a handful of employees large amounts — more than $40,000 in some cases — while others were found to owe many workers small amounts. The median worker was returned $500 due to[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Mar 19

2025

More subsidies for restaurateur accused of wage theft

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A Niagara Falls restaurateur under investigation for allegations of wage theft received a third round of tax breaks Wednesday. With little discussion, the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency unanimously approved $51,000 in sales tax breaks for Muhammad Shoaib to open a Church’s Chicken, Jamba Juice and Carvel Ice Cream in downtown Niagara Falls. Meanwhile, five former employees, three of them managers, have come forward with new allegations that Shoaib and his wife, Hina Qureshi, failed to pay overtime and withheld tips from their workers. They told Investigative Post the couple altered payroll entries and told employees to destroy records and[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Mar 11

2025

Coverup of hit-and-run by county’s narcotics chief?

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Last April, the Erie County Sheriff’s chief of narcotics, while driving a county-owned vehicle late at night, struck at least seven parked cars on Buffalo’s West Side, several of them as he drove the wrong way down a one-way street.  Chief Daniel J. Granville — who goes by DJ — was driving “in an impaired condition,” according to one of a half-dozen claims that so far have cost county taxpayers $60,000 to settle.  But the accident report generated by the Buffalo cops who responded to the incident gives no indication Granville, 47, was tested for alcohol, drugs or other impairments[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Mar 6

2025

Mega-subsidy deal for data center

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With subsidies totaling $3.9 million per job, the Genesee County Economic Development Center gave the green light Thursday to a massive data center project to locate at its STAMP industrial park. The industrial development agency’s board of directors unanimously approved a proposal by STREAM U.S. Data Centers to construct a 900,000 square foot data center at the rural business park north of Batavia. The firm will purchase nearly 60 acres of STAMP’s more than 1,200 acre footprint and build a server farm the size of 16 football fields. The subsidy package totals $472 million, primarily sales tax exemptions on computer[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Mar 4

2025

An unusual housing discrimination case

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For only the third time in the past decade the City of Buffalo is using its fair housing law to sue a landlord and his property manager. The city usually prosecutes negligent property owners in City Housing Court, but for reasons officials refuse to discuss, the landlord was never taken to Housing Court despite a history of repeated code violations. The case involves a property at 323 Dewey Ave. in northeast Buffalo. The lawsuit contends mold inside the house caused health problems for tenant Zakkiyya Carter and her underaged son. The city is suing Kapil Verma, his company Vaastu Energy[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Feb 27

2025

ICE’s extensive use of solitary confinement in Batavia

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Lansine Sidibe serves a coconut to a child in Sao Paulo, Brazil, prior to his emigration to the United States. Photo via Kathleen Maynard. Like many migrants, Lansine Sidibe came to the United States in 2022 seeking asylum, first fleeing war in his home country Mali and later threats of violence in Brazil. But instead of finding a new home, Sidibe spent every single day of the last 32 months in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, much of that time at the agency’s Batavia facility. For 10 of those months, Sidibe was held in solitary confinement.  Such treatment[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Feb 20

2025

ICE abuse of detainees in Batavia facility

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Recent federal audits of the ICE detention facility in Batavia have documented instances of inhumane treatment of detainees by guards. The audits, conducted in 2023 and last year, found instances of excessive use of force, the shackling of detainees held in solitary confinement for the little time they were allowed out of their cells, and the use of physician assistants to perform dental work on detainees. Former detainees and their representatives paint an even darker picture of conditions inside the facility. Guards beating up detainees is not uncommon, they said. Solitary confinement is a frequent punishment, sometimes in lengthy durations[...]

Posted 8 months ago
Investigative Post