Categories for DailyPost

Jun 27

2024

Hochul, Schumer pressured regulators over STAMP

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Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part package. Our second story is here. In the drive to build a massive industrial park in rural Genesee County, the offices of Gov. Kathy Hochul and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer pressured regulators to issue approvals for the project that ran afoul of environmental laws and policies, ignoring an indigenous nation’s legal rights along the way. Investigative Post found that: Aides to Hochul pushed top officials at the state Department of Environmental Conservation to work more quickly. Schumer aides intervened with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And a string of state[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jun 26

2024

Erie County Democrats attack challengers

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A Democratic Party mailer supporting favored candidates in party committee races. The Erie County Democratic Party sent a message last weekend to city voters in the handful of election districts where candidates challenged insiders and incumbents for seats on the party committee: Vote for the party’s “endorsed county committee candidates” to ward off “convicted felon Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican Party,” advised a mailer paid for by party headquarters.  Because “democracy hangs in the balance.” You’d think the party’s “endorsed county committee candidates” were fighting a pitched battle against a rabid red wave of Republicans seeking seats of critical[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jun 25

2024

A purchase by the sheriff with limited value

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office plans to acquire equipment to detect whether motorists are under the influence of drugs, even though results aren’t admissible in court due to accuracy concerns.  The purchase of five SoToxa drug analyzers at a cost of $26,000 would be funded through a $2.9 million state grant approved unanimously last week by the county Legislature with no debate or discussion. The money also would pay for surveillance cameras, drones, license plate readers and mobile x-ray equipment designed to capture images of vehicles that would be deployed at[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jun 24

2024

You think the past week was hot?

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The past week has been sweltering. And a warning of what lies ahead if we don’t get serious about climate change. Here’s a sobering chart. Energy consumption is on the rise, and 82 percent of it involves fossil fuels. In other words, there is no real energy transition occurring. Among the consequences: rising sea levels. Not good news for, among other places, the tri-state area centered in New York City. New York State is missing deadlines to meet many of its climate goals, while governors like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott remain in a state of denial. Wall Street doesn’t[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jun 20

2024

East Side landlord faces big fines

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Farhad Raiszadeh, left, with city building inspector Tracey Krug. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. An East Side landlord being sued by the state attorney general for lead paint violations is also under the gun from city building inspectors — and it’s going to cost him. The city is prosecuting 69-year-old Farhad Raiszadeh in Buffalo Housing Court for 125 code violations at 11 properties.  Raiszadeh, who lives in San Diego, was in Housing Court earlier this month, when he was ordered by Judge Patrick Carney to pay the city $65,000, half of which will cover the costs of demolishing a house and[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jun 19

2024

Smart law enforcement or Big Brother?

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The Erie County sheriff’s office wants to buy x-ray equipment for scanning vehicles that’s typically used for military purposes and has raised privacy concerns in the civilian world.  The requested “whole vehicle scanning system” would be used to “enhance the agency’s details at all mass gatherings and critical infrastructure,” according to the department’s grant application filed with the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. It’s a groundbreaking ask. “We’re not aware of any other agencies applying for x-ray systems capable of scanning entire vehicles,” said Kirstan Conley, spokeswoman for the Division of Criminal Justice Services, which administers requests from police[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jun 18

2024

Lawsuit: Radioactive waste killed Lewiston woman

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Six months after his wife died from breast cancer, an environmental remediation team digging underneath Philip Palmeri’s Lewiston home uncovered “black fine grain radioactive sand, refractory brick, ash slag, and what appears to be lime.” That’s not all they found.  Over the course of a three-year, $7 million cleanup operation, the team removed 4,800 tons of waste from Palmeri’s and an adjacent property, some of it emitting radiation 50 times beyond what’s considered a safe or normal level. The workers also found among the waste eight “index card sized metal plates.” Printed on the metal plates was the name of[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jun 17

2024

Buffalo needs a hard control board

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Mayor Byron Brown made it clear last week he has no intention of resolving the city’s pending fiscal crisis. In an interview with Deidre Williams of The Buffalo News, the mayor said rather than cutting spending, he’s looking for increased revenue from the county, state and perhaps federal governments to close a projected deficit of at least $41 million for the budget year starting July 2025.  In fact, the feds have already been bailing him out. In the past three budgets, the city has used $100 million in federal pandemic aid to balance the books. It expects to use at[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post