Categories for DailyPost

Apr 1

2025

Feds locking up families, children at Canadian border

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Pedestrian entrance to Rainbow Bridge Customs station. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. In a departure from past practice, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is detaining people — including families with young children — at official ports of entry along the New York-Canada border for as much as two weeks at a time. In multiple instances since mid-February, families with young children have been detained in cells at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. An Investigative Post reporter personally confirmed one of those family detentions. In that case, the family was held for two weeks.  Jennifer Connor, a Buffalo advocate for[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Apr 1

2025

Judge rules radioactive waste lawsuit “untimely”

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Metal plate bearing the name “Titanium Alloy Manufacturing Co.” Photo from court records. A federal magistrate has recommended dismissal of a wrongful death claim filed last year by a Lewiston man who blamed his wife’s death on radioactive waste buried on the couple’s property. U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Roemer ruled Philip Palmeri filed his lawsuit long after the two-year statute of limitations had expired, as measured from the date in 2018 when his wife, Tracey Palmeri, was first diagnosed with breast cancer. In a footnote to his ruling, Roemer acknowledged this was not “a fair result” for the plaintiff.  Palmeri[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Mar 31

2025

D.J. Granville and the “blue wall of silence”

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At the heart of the scandal enveloping Erie County Sheriff John Garcia and his chief of narcotics, D.J. Granville, is the so-called “blue wall of silence” — the unwritten understanding that law enforcement officers protect one another by refusing to report or corroborate wrongdoing among their ranks. For nearly a year Granville has been protected by that code. A deposition the narcotics chief gave for a lawsuit in November — nearly seven months after the incident that in recent weeks has made him famous — illustrates his own commitment to it. First, a refresher: Granville last April 11, while driving his[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Mar 28

2025

OTB settles lawsuit, pays whistleblower

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Michael Nolan, at one time the second-in-command of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., has settled a wrongful termination lawsuit with his former employer, related to his firing more than four years ago. As a result, OTB will pay Nolan a $550,000 settlement. In a statement saying the “long-standing litigation” had been resolved, OTB attorney John Owens said simply that “the parties are satisfied with the settlement.” OTB spokesperson Mike DeGeorge declined to comment further. Steven Cohen, Nolan’s attorney, also declined to comment. Owens said OTB will pay $150,000 of the settlement and its insurance company will pay the rest. Neither[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Mar 27

2025

A new approach to East Side development

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Henry Louis Taylor of UB presents plans for Census Tract 166. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel Census Tract 166 — an economically devastated community situated in the heart of the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood — will be ground zero for a new approach to revitalizing the East Side. The census tract is peppered with 1,300 vacant lots, more than any other neighborhood in the city.  Only 25 percent of its adult residents work, according to 2022 US census estimates. More than a quarter of its households live below the poverty level. Henry Taylor, director of the University at Buffalo’s Center for Urban Studies,[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Mar 25

2025

Wage theft widespread in Western New York

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The theft of employee wages is widespread across Western New York, data from state and federal labor departments show. State and federal labor investigators found some 1,900 regional employers withheld $17.1 million in pay and benefits from 23,613 workers over the past decade.  That’s an average of $3,066 per affected worker, according to data collected by Documented and analyzed by Investigative Post. Some employers were found to owe a handful of employees large amounts — more than $40,000 in some cases — while others were found to owe many workers small amounts. The median worker was returned $500 due to[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Mar 24

2025

Sheriff John Garcia goes Sergeant Schultz

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia pulled a Sergeant Schultz the other day, saying, with a straight face that he knows nothing about the hit-and-run antics of Daniel “D.J.” Granville that Geoff Kelly reported on two weeks ago. And, get this, he proclaimed he will “do the right thing” if ongoing investigations turn up evidence of wrongdoing on Granville’s part. What a bunch of, ah, hooey.  Granville is a ranking member of Gracia’s command staff and it’s inconceivable that he was not aware of his narcotics chief’s conduct last April when he smashed into seven parked cars.  Sorry, but the time[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Mar 19

2025

More subsidies for restaurateur accused of wage theft

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A Niagara Falls restaurateur under investigation for allegations of wage theft received a third round of tax breaks Wednesday. With little discussion, the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency unanimously approved $51,000 in sales tax breaks for Muhammad Shoaib to open a Church’s Chicken, Jamba Juice and Carvel Ice Cream in downtown Niagara Falls. Meanwhile, five former employees, three of them managers, have come forward with new allegations that Shoaib and his wife, Hina Qureshi, failed to pay overtime and withheld tips from their workers. They told Investigative Post the couple altered payroll entries and told employees to destroy records and[...]

Posted 1 month ago
Investigative Post