Categories for DailyPost

Sep 16

2025

Shaky math involving Buffalo’s budget balancer

Published by

The 52-year-old Charles R. Turner Ramp across from Buffalo City Hall. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. The City of Buffalo’s current budget and its four-year financial plan rely on $42 million from the anticipated sale of four downtown parking ramps to a newly formed public authority.  But how Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s administration came up with that number, and whether it accurately reflects the price the ramps will fetch, is a mystery. City officials have refused to share documents showing how they determined what the ramps are worth. The board treasurer of the organization that manages the ramps now — and[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 15

2025

A tax subsidy that’s not funny

Published by

There are a lot of ways to look at New York’s tax credit program intended to keep film and television producers working in the Empire State. The tax credits are projected to total $920 million this year. The subsidy works out to an average of $65,000 per job. The return on investment: about $1 in tax revenue for every $3 in subsidy. Put another way, during the first three months of this year, the producers of Saturday Night Live received more tax breaks than anyone, some $21 million, or $83,000 per job. (To not be very funny, I might add.)[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 12

2025

A potential boost to ICE deportation efforts

Published by

U.S. Rep. Tim Kennedy. Amid the backdrop of the Trump administration’s mass deportation program, Congressman Tim Kennedy, a Democrat, has sponsored a bill that would mandate the hiring of thousands of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. Kennedy’s staff says the new hires would be used to facilitate people and goods crossing the borders. But data shows the Trump administration is using the class of officers covered by Kennedy’s bill to arrest and deport immigrants. The bill — dubbed the “Securing America’s Ports of Entry Act of 2025” — would require the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection to hire[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 11

2025

Buffalo forfeits more than $1 million in federal lead funds

Published by

Signage in a lead abatement training facility. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. The City of Buffalo will return more than half of a $2 million federal grant it received in 2021 for lead hazard remediation. Investigative Post in May reported that the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency had spent only about a quarter of its Lead Hazard Reduction Program grant funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. BURA officials told Investigative Post in a statement that “the program remains in progress” and that $796,050.71 in grant funds have been earmarked or spent on lead remediation. That’s $300,000 more than[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 10

2025

How the investigation on police misconduct was done

Published by

This story is co-published with The New York Times and New York Focus. It’s a followup to yesterday’s story about police officers who drive drunk, crash cars, and escape meaningful consequences. In the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in 2020, New York State repealed a law that for decades kept the disciplinary records of its police officers secret. The New York Times and New York Focus, a nonprofit newsroom, have since gathered more than 10,000 such files from around half of New York State’s nearly 500 law enforcement agencies. The documents, most[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 10

2025

Jemal late in paying millions in bills

Published by

Contractors have filed nearly $3.7 million in liens for unpaid bills against Doug Jemal’s projects in Western New York over the past year and a half. It’s another indicator that high interest rates and the diminished market for office and retail space have put the screws to the developer’s business.  Jemal called those conditions “a pandemic of real estate” that have made cash flow tight for his company and real-estate developers across the country.  “There’s cash flow issues, no doubt,” he told Investigative Post. “But we’re taking care of this. We pay our bills.” The mechanics liens — a legal[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 9

2025

Police who drink, drive and avoid charges

Published by

Ronald W. Wilson, an investigator with the New York State Police, admitted to drinking and driving this vehicle in 2021 but received only a traffic ticket. Photo courtesy of the Orchard Park Police Department. This story is co-published with the New York Times and New York Focus. An Orchard Park police officer found the man on the shoulder of Southwestern Boulevard, standing near his crumpled black BMW, arguing with his girlfriend. It was 11 p.m. on a Saturday in 2021. The BMW had slammed into a Jeep, smashing its left taillight. White high heels were toppled on their sides on[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 8

2025

The Good (Tish James), the Bad (Trump) and the Ugly (Musk’s trillion dollar pay package)

Published by

I’ve long thought Attorney General Letitia James should be doing more to prosecute political corruption in New York. But I’ve got to hand it to her: She’s no slouch when it comes to Donald Trump, as detailed in a profile in the current edition of The Nation. “No attorney general in the country is battling President Donald Trump more proficiently—and drawing more of his fire—than James,” wrote The Nation. “James and her partner AGs have hit the president with a barrage of lawsuits that have temporarily halted some of his worst orders in the past seven months.” “In their quest[...]

Posted 1 month ago
Investigative Post