Categories for Co-produced with WGRZ

Aug 1

2018

Council considers action on fair housing law

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Buffalo’s fair housing law is supposed to prevent landlords from refusing to rent to someone simply because they rely on government assistance – like a Section 8 voucher – to help pay their rent. But that law, introduced in 2006, has gone largely unenforced, despite the more than two dozen discrimination complaints, most of them substantiated by undercover testing, that have been filed with the city. Last week, members of the Common Council said they would consider taking steps to ensure the law is enforced. “If we find out something is not being enforced or something is not staffed, it[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 23

2018

Another ‘Billion project falling short on jobs

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It was one of the first Buffalo Billion projects announced: a $50 million state investment in drug discovery company Albany Molecular Research Inc. which, Gov. Cuomo promised, would yield almost 200 spinoff jobs. Five years on, there’s little evidence those jobs have materialized. AMRI was responsible for creating only 55 jobs, a goal the company met earlier this year. The partner companies whose jobs the state had been counting towards the project’s overall goal of 25o jobs appear to employ only a few dozen people, rather than the 195 anticipated. And only a handful of those jobs seem to be directly[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 12

2018

Buffalo Billion verdicts warrant further action

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Alain Kaloyeros has been known as many things during his career. Dr. K. Near genius. Nanotech guru. And as of Thursday, convicted criminal. Ditto for Lou Ciminelli. Civic leader. Power broker. Philanthropist. And yes, convicted felon. Down the list of defendants we go. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. And, at the risk of repeating myself, guilty. It was a good day for clean contracting, for good government. But the job is far from done. Testimony during the trial established that the governor’s office installed Todd Howe, a longtime Cuomo associate, as the administration’s “eyes and ears” inside the operation that Kaloyeros headed[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 5

2018

Buffalo not enforcing its fair housing law

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 The heating in her apartment was acting up and her knee problems made carrying groceries up the stairs difficult. So, Gloria Adkins had gone with a friend to look at an apartment in Black Rock, planning to ask the landlord if he had anything else available. After he said he did, she steeled herself to ask the all-important question: Did he take Section 8, a federal program that helps poor people pay their rent? She remembers him saying no: too much hassle, too much paperwork. Most people would have let it go. But Adkins knew that refusing to rent[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jun 29

2018

Heaney offers his take on corruption trial

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WGRZ anchor Maryalice Demler interviewed Jim Heaney on Friday regarding the Buffalo Billion corruption trial. Heaney discussed what he found striking in the testimony thus far. For starters, he said testimony has established the degree to which state officials tried to cover their tracks. They used private emails – later deleting some of them – and messaging devices that destroyed text shorty after sending. Also noteworthy, he said, was testimony about the placement of Cuomo operative Todd Howe in the economic development agency headed by Alain Kaloyeros. Heaney said Howe’s involvement raises all sorts of questions about the possible role of[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jun 28

2018

Cuomo flunkies cross the line

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A former Cuomo flak testified the other day that another of the governor’s minions attempted several years ago to dissuade donors from continuing their support of Investigative Post in retaliation for its reporting on corruption in the Buffalo Billion program. “There was an effort made by people that Todd [Howe] knew that had donated to Investigative Post in the past, there was an effort to get them to stop doing that,” said David Doyle, a former spokesman for Alain Kaloyeros, the disgraced nanotech guru on trial along with three developers who just so happened to be major contributors to Cuomo’s[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jun 28

2018

Lehner family to file wrongful death lawsuit

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The family of Officer Craig Lehner intends to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the Buffalo Police Department and the City of Buffalo in the coming weeks, an attorney for the family confirmed to Investigative Post. The family had previously signaled its intention to do so with the filing of a notice of claim. Lehner drowned during a training exercise in the Niagara River last October with the police Underwater Recovery Team. Investigative Post subsequently reported that inadequate training and equipment contributed to his death. Dangerously fast currents typical of the Niagara River were also a factor. On the day Lehner drowned,[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jun 26

2018

Buffalo Billion project kept hush-hush

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Executives at LPCiminelli kept the state-affiliated nonprofit overseeing Buffalo Billion projects in the dark about a second project the company was awarded under a no-bid contract, a key witness testified Monday in the ongoing corruption trial. The company was chosen – quietly – to build a lab and office for biotech company Albany Molecular Research Inc. before LPCiminelli had even submitted their response to the Request for Proposals to build a factory for SolarCity that prosecutors said was rigged in their favor by Alain Kaloyeros and lobbyist Todd Howe. Kevin Schuler, a former LPCiminelli executive who has pled guilty to[...]

Posted 7 years ago
Investigative Post