Categories for DailyPost

May 3

2025

Scanlon considers “privatization” of Kleinhans

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The Scanlon administration has been talking about unloading city-owned cultural institutions as part of its efforts to shore up Buffalo’s short- and long-term finances. Since taking office, Acting Mayor Christopher Scanlon and his aides have discussed selling Kleinhans Music Hall, perhaps to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, which is the venue’s principal user. They also have discussed shifting the maintenance costs of city-owned cultural venues — including Kleinhans, Shea’s Buffalo Theater, Sahlen Field, the Buffalo History Museum, the Buffalo Museum of Science and the Buffalo Zoo — to Erie County.  Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz threw cold water on that idea,[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

May 1

2025

Prison nurses face choice between patients, abusive guards

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Illustration by Dion MBD for The Marshall Project. When New York corrections officers attack prisoners in infirmaries — as has happened dozens of times in the past 15 years — it is nurses who must document and treat the resulting injuries. Their choices can save lives or cover up abuse. A prisoner at Green Haven Correctional Facility, in the Hudson Valley, accused a nurse of medically clearing him to be sent to solitary confinement to cover up a beating by guards that left him with life-threatening injuries: a punctured lung, broken ribs and a fractured hand. By contrast, at nearby[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Apr 30

2025

ICE seeks to deport Buffalo man over traffic tickets

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking to deport a Buffalo man whose only offense appears to be traffic citations. And in a second case, ICE appears to be attempting to deport someone arrested for a crime they committed prior to entering the United States. ICE officers last week arrested West Side resident Saul Valverde-Venegas, a roofing contractor, while he was loading a work truck. For days, ICE refused to explain why. In a statement Monday evening, an ICE spokesperson described him as “unlawfully” entering the United States more than a decade ago and said he had “since acquired several vehicle[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Apr 30

2025

In some state prisons, infirmaries dens of hidden violence

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Guards beating Robert Brooks in an infirmary at Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, 2024. Brooks died the next day. Photo: New York State Attorney General’s Office. The guards carried Robert Brooks into the infirmary face down, holding him by his cuffed hands and ankles. Once inside a private exam room at Marcy Correctional Facility, near Syracuse, New York, on Dec. 9, officers beat and choked him while nurses lingered in the hall. Brooks died the next day at a nearby hospital. Lawyers for the Brooks family say the guards intentionally took him to the infirmary because it lacked cameras[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Apr 29

2025

Neighbors say site of Allentown murders was ‘unsafe’

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Neighbors of Mickey Harmon and Jordan Celotto — the Allentown couple murdered in their home on March 4 — say the tragedy might have been averted if the building they lived in had been better maintained and secured. The couple’s landlord disputes that notion. Harmon and Celotto moved into the lower apartment at 5 St. Louis Place last September. Their upstairs neighbor, Jordan Bidwell, who lived in the property since 2021, was not was not home during the break-in, but she claimed the basement window that accused murderer Bryan Chiclana used to access the house was boarded up with a[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Apr 28

2025

A Buffalo mayoral poll, plus city budget news

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There was a poll out in the field last week gauging Buffalo voters’ opinions of two Democratic candidates for mayor and the campaign messages they’ve been testing out against one another. I took the survey on my landline at home last Tuesday evening. I took what felt like an abbreviated version of the same poll by text the next day. Six Democrats have qualified to run in the June primary, but the poll focused squarely on two of them: Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon and state Sen. Sean Ryan, who has the Democratic endorsement for the June primary. Two Democrats on[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Apr 25

2025

ICE arrests two Buffalo men

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  Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents detain man on Buffalo’s West Side. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Wednesday morning arrested two Buffalo men on the city’s West Side, Investigative Post has learned. ICE has so far refused to acknowledge the arrests but bystanders and family members confirmed that two men were arrested around 9 a.m. Wednesday. Witnesses said four unmarked law enforcement vehicles pulled up to the corner of Rhode Island and 14th streets. Photographs provided to Investigative Post show ICE officers arresting two men who were loading a blue Chevrolet Silverado work truck. A witness told Investigative Post[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Apr 24

2025

Scanlon disputes Kleinhans “privatization” meeting

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Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon didn’t like our story on discussions he’s had about offloading maintenance costs for city-owned cultural venues such as Kleinhans Music Hall, Shea’s Performing Arts Center and the Buffalo Zoo. Scanlon Thursday morning put out a statement calling the report “inaccurate, misleading and irresponsible.” He took particular issue with our reporting that he’d discussed “the potential of ‘privatizing’ or ‘selling’ Kleinhans Music Hall.” “In fact, there was not and will not be any talk about selling city-owned cultural facilities as long as I’m mayor,” he wrote. Here’s a screenshot of the acting mayor’s full statement. It was[...]

Posted 1 month ago
Investigative Post