Categories for DailyPost

Oct 9

2025

Ryan leads the money race

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With less than a month to go in the race, State Sen. Sean Ryan, the Democratic nominee for Buffalo mayor, has more money left in his campaign account than his two rivals — James Gardner, running on the Republican and Conservative Party lines, and Michael Gainer, running on the independent Restore Buffalo line. The most recent campaign finance disclosure forms, due to the state elections board last Friday, paint a picture of a race whose energy and donors’ dollars are largely spent. Meanwhile, Gardner and Gainer have turned to other platforms — particularly social media — to remind voters the[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 8

2025

OTB hires Byron Brown’s brother-in-law

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Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. — headed by president and CEO Byron Brown — has hired the brother-in-law of the former mayor. Michael Lee Austin — brother of Brown’s wife, Michelle Austin Brown — began working last month as a sergeant supervising the security guards at Batavia Downs, the horse track, casino and hotel complex owned by OTB. The position pays $24.33 per hour and is eligible for overtime. Austin disclosed his relationship to Brown in his application for a state gaming license, a copy of which Investigative Post obtained via a Freedom of Information request. The hiring appears to[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 7

2025

Investigative Post event series is back on

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Investigative Post is relaunching its event series with three programs scheduled for November and December. We took a long break as a result of the pandemic and have staged a handful of events the last couple of years, including popular benefit shows at Sportsmen’s Tavern featuring Tom Toles and Junkman’s Choir. Our plan is to stage events at least once a month. We recently brought Seamus Gallivan onboard to manage our events. His LinkedIn profile describes him as a “social connecter specializing in events, media, and community engagement.” Seamus is perhaps best known for his role in establishing Slow Roll[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 7

2025

Pushing again for lead inspections in Buffalo

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From left: Matthew Parham, Daniel Corbitt, Sarah Wooton, Dawn Wells-Clyburn and Alex Fehrman Updated Monday at 4:49 p.m.  A group of tenants and community organizations on Tuesday appealed the dismissal of a lawsuit that sought more vigorous enforcement of a City of Buffalo program aimed at lead hazards in rental housing. The Partnership for the Public Good along with three other organizations and four tenants filed a lawsuit last July  in State Supreme Court against the city. The lawsuit alleged that the Department of Permits and Inspections was failing to provide a clean and healthful environment for its residents by[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 6

2025

The beginning of the end of the Buffalo News’ print edition

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The Buffalo News announced Friday that it will stop printing a Monday edition starting Nov. 3. It’s part of an industry trend, with some dailies publishing print editions as infrequently as three days a week. The News’ print circulation continues to spiral downward. Paid circulation has dwindled to an average of 23,792 according to the annual publisher’s statement filed in June with the United States Postal Service. Digital subscriptions were 67,430. The numbers pale in comparison with peak print circulation in the 1990s of over 300,000 daily and 400,000 on Sundays. Why eliminate the Monday edition? It’s one of the[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 3

2025

Overcrowding rampant at ICE facility in Batavia

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J. Dale Shoemaker summarizes the story. The ICE detention center in Batavia is bursting at the seams. Data obtained by Investigative Post shows an average of 727 migrants have been held at the 650-bed facility daily since early June. “We’ve heard reports of people sleeping on the floor of the gymnasium of the facility, given only individual workout mats to sleep on, not even mattresses,” said Aaron Krupp, regional coordinator for Justice for Migrant Families, an advocacy group that works with detainees. In mid-August, the number of people held in the detention center peaked at nearly 800. The count dropped[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Oct 2

2025

Judge faults Buffalo cops in overturning jury verdict

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Excerpt from Dean Taylor’s Nov. 8, 2019, interview with Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division. Two weeks ago state Supreme Court Judge John DelMonte did a rare thing.  He overturned a jury’s verdict clearing two Buffalo cops accused in a civil suit of assaulting a man who was using his phone to take video of a crime scene. The case dates back to Sept. 1, 2019. Police were investigating a report of shots fired near the corner of Kehr and Fougeron streets on the city’s East Side. Dean Taylor, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, stood on the sidewalk across the street[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Sep 30

2025

Buffalo’s Housing Court: Fewer fines, lax collections

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The City of Buffalo over the past six years has failed to collect $6.5 million in Housing Court fines that could help to address the city’s budget deficits.  Since January 2020, Housing Court judges have issued $7,024,200 in fines, according to data Investigative Post obtained from the New York State Office of Court Administration. The city has collected $481,500, or 8.5 percent of the fines issued. And between 2017 and 2019, the city failed to collect another $6.8 million in Housing Court fines, according to city records. That’s more than $13 million the city has left on the table over[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago
Investigative Post