Categories for Broadcast on WBFO

Feb 19

2020

Gambini talks OTB on WBFO

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Phil Gambini discusses his recent story on the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp.’s use of luxury suites it rents at KeyBank Center and New Era Field. On this installment of Press Pass, Gambini detailed how OTB tried to obstruct his reporting.  

Posted 4 years ago

Feb 19

2020

Lead poisoning plan missing key elements

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In January, the City of Buffalo launched its long-awaited pilot program to combat lead poisoning. The pilot program is small — much smaller than the problem in Buffalo, which has one of the highest rates of children afflicted with lead poisoning in the nation.  And, as it stands now, the program lacks funding mechanisms to make it bigger.  Furthermore, a key element is still missing: a new local law that will allow city inspectors access to the interiors of the city’s abundant rental singles and doubles in poor neighborhoods. Those dwellings comprise 80 percent of the city’s highest-risk properties. Still,[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Feb 7

2020

$40 for a six pack of beer? OTB parties on.

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 The Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. is spending more than $300,000 a year on suites to Sabres and Bills games and concerts and running up large tabs for food and drinks, including copious amounts of alcohol. Officials claim they’re rewarding high rollers at its casino, but records show they’re also helping themselves to the free tickets and concessions. OTB, along with other Sabres suite holders, chose from a menu last season that charged up to $130 for a bottle of liquor, $40 for a six-pack of beer and $53 for a pizza. OTB, spending public money, dropped $85,690[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Feb 5

2020

Child pornography prosecutions on the rise

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Prosecution of child pornography cases spiked last year in Western New York. Between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Erie County District Attorney, 80 cases were prosecuted last year. That’s almost double the number of cases prosecuted in 2017. “There are times where we’re finding child pornography involving children who are 10 or 12 months old. That’s very shocking, seeing those images and videos and trying to figure out why someone would have interest in that stuff,” said said Michael Hockwater, a detective on the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force. Cases the FBI task force handle range from a man who photographed[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Feb 4

2020

Police shooting costs Buffalo $4.5 million

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 On Tuesday, Buffalo’s Common Council authorized one of the largest lawsuit settlements in the city’s history: $4.5 million to Wilson Morales, who was shot by Buffalo police officers in the early morning of June 24, 2012, after a car chase on the city’s East Side. The bullet that struck Morales, then a 17-year-old student at WNY Maritime Charter School, instantly paralyzed him from the chest down. “It’s been hard,” Morales told Investigative Post in the offices of Dolce Panepinto, the law firm that handled the lawsuit, after the Council approved the settlement. “Mostly depression, loss of friends, and pain,”[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Feb 1

2020

Police brass overstate availability of patrol cars

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 Buffalo police officers have a lot fewer cars at their disposal to respond to 911 calls than their commissioner would have the public believe, union officials say. Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood told the Common Council’s Police Oversight Committee on Jan. 14 that the department’s dilapidated fleet had 134 working patrol cars available to answer calls. The actual number is less than 50, said Mark Goodspeed, vice president of the Police Benevolent Association. Goodspeed performs a regular survey of working patrol cars assigned to the city’s five police districts. On the evening of Jan. 14, the same day Lockwood[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Jan 15

2020

Geoff Kelly talks politics on ‘Press Pass

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Jay Moran interviewed Geoff Kelly, Investigative Post’s political reporter, on this week’s edition of Press Pass on WBFO. Kelly discussed two upcoming elections involving the state Senate seat being vacated by Chris Jacobs and the Congressional seat that opened up when Chris Collins resigned.  

Posted 4 years ago

Dec 7

2019

Spotlight reporter’s dismay over clerical abuse

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Matt Carroll has something to say about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. And he said it Wednesday here in Buffalo. He was a reporter on The Boston Globe Spotlight team that produced more than 600 stories on the topic in 2002-03. He and his colleagues won a Pulitzer Prize and were later the subject of the Academy Award winning film “Spotlight.” Carroll spoke to an audience of about 140 on Wednesday at an event at 166 Chandler sponsored by Investigative Post. Attendees included many people involved in the effort to reform the Buffalo diocese.  Carroll answered questions[...]

Posted 4 years ago
Investigative Post

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