Categories for Broadcast on WBFO

May 25

2017

Heaney talks ‘Billion abuses on ‘Pressroom

Published by

Jim Heaney tells Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom about the “outrageous” payments made by the Fort Schuyler Management Corp. to LPCiminelli on the SolarCity project. The reimbursements were reported Tuesday by Charlotte Keith of Investigative Post. Heaney and Arbetter conclude their conversation with a brief discussion on another Investigative Post story, this one done by Dan Telvock, about the state stocking a badly polluted creek in Niagara County with fish despite an advisory to not eat fish caught in the creek.

Posted 7 years ago

May 23

2017

Perks of LPCiminelli’s Buffalo Billion contract

Published by

It was an expensive dinner after a long day of meetings on the SolarCity project. A senior executive at LPCiminelli, the company building the factory, ate at an upscale Italian restaurant in Albany, joined by two architects working on the project. The cost of the meal topped $120 each. That night, LPCiminelli picked up the tab. But, ultimately, state taxpayers footed the bill. A few months later, the company listed the meal as a reimbursable expense under its contract to build the vast solar panel factory, the marquee project of the governor’s Buffalo Billion initiative, and was paid back, in[...]

Posted 7 years ago

May 17

2017

Regulators at cross purposes at 18 Mile Creek

Published by

Eighteen Mile Creek in Niagara County is so polluted that the state Department of Health doesn’t want people to eat the fish caught there. It’s one of only six waterbodies in the state with such a warning. This hasn’t stopped another arm of the state, the Department of Environmental Conservation, from stocking the contaminated creek each year with an average of 160,000 of what are considered among the most desirable of fish: salmon and trout. As a result, a section along Eighteen Mile Creek in the Town of Newfane has become a fishing hotspot, part of the Lake Ontario watershed’s[...]

Posted 7 years ago

May 16

2017

Police rifle purchase triggers concerns

Published by

Community activists, echoing community distrust of law enforcement, have been advocating for change in the Buffalo Police Department. Better training to avoid situations like police using a patrol car to strike a suspect. Answers about the recent deaths of Wardel Davis and Jose Hernandez-Rossy during encounters with police. And more oversight of a department that clears officers of wrongdoing almost every time they are accused of using excessive force against civilians. The change activists are seeing involves not reform but rifles. And they’re alarmed by it. Buffalo police are buying approximately 115 semi-automatic rifles and 450 protective vests through a[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Feb 21

2017

Buff State’s deal with Greenleaf raises red flags

Published by

Buffalo State College will prohibit seniors from living on its Elmwood Avenue campus starting this fall to benefit a developer with an unsavory track record of renting to students. The college and one of its foundations struck a deal with developer Greenleaf Development and Construction that facilitated the building of dorm-style housing adjacent to campus without competitive proposals or independent review by the state comptroller. These are procedures that typically govern SUNY dealings with private businesses. A Buffalo State official who brokered the deal insisted the college did nothing wrong. “We would follow SUNY procurement rules if they applied in[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Feb 15

2017

Scant oversight of Buffalo police

Published by

It’s a question that has taken on greater urgency in post-Ferguson America: Who polices the police? The answer in Buffalo is no one. The city’s police department is not subject to the type of civilian oversight that takes place in cities such as Rochester, Pittsburgh and, more recently, Chicago. The task of investigating citizen complaints of police misconduct in Buffalo is assigned primarily to the department itself. But its Internal Affairs Division rarely finds officers at fault when it investigates allegations of excessive use of force. Internal Affairs cleared officers of wrongdoing in 58 of the 62 completed investigations into[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Feb 9

2017

Paying price for radioactive hotspots in Niagara

Published by

John Raymond was about to sell his home in Lewiston until Environmental Protection Agency officials showed up last spring armed with radiation detectors. Turns out that Raymond’s basement had radon, a potent radioactive gas linked to lung cancer, at levels three times greater than regulatory limits. EPA officials said it’s possible Raymond has radioactive fill under his home that may be linked to similar material found across the street by Holy Trinity Cemetery. That’s where the EPA detected radioactivity more than 75 times higher than what’s normal for the local environment. “Basically I’m stuck,” Raymond said. “One of the guys[...]

Posted 7 years ago
Investigative Post

Get our newsletters delivered to your inbox * indicates required

Newsletters *