Categories for DailyPost

Aug 27

2025

Granville case costing city taxpayers

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The City of Buffalo has paid more than $200,000 to the five police officers who responded to the Erie County narcotics chief’s hit-and-run accident on the city’s West Side last spring since they were put on leave in April. The total cost to city taxpayers is considerably higher, however, because the city also has to pay officers to backfill the shifts those five cops are missing.  And sometimes the city has to pay overtime for that, because the police union’s contract calls for mandatory overtime pay when the department has to call in officers to take the place of colleagues[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Aug 26

2025

ICE deports West Side restaurant owner, family

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Katherine Gomez stands outside of Sabores De Mi Tierra, which she purchased from her deported client. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. During the four years William Murcia Henao owned Sabores De Mi Tierra — literally, “flavors of my land” — his West Side Colombian restaurant was celebrated. Opened in 2021, the Niagara Street eatery quickly earned local media attention, praise from a local blogger and a nomination for a state Business Council award from Assemblymember Jonathan Rivera. The restaurant won particular acclaim for its traditional Colombian dishes, which Rivera and others said was missing from Buffalo. But then, in May,[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Aug 25

2025

Let’s talk football: Terry Pegula’s yacht and brain damaged players

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It turns out Terry Pegula owns a yacht valued at up to $100 million.  Fox News reports the yacht “was custom-built and delivered in 2021 and is valued between $75 million and $100 million. From designer interiors, including Louis Vuitton and Gucci, the yacht offers a glass-sided spa pool, sauna, gym, cinema lounge and much more … The yacht is reportedly available to charter at around $500,000 per week.” The story notes that taxpayers are forking over $850 million to help build a new stadium for Pegula’s Bills. As if he needed the money. Today’s football heroes are tomorrow’s damaged[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Aug 25

2025

The coming duopoly at Channels 2 and 4

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Editor’s mote: This story was updated on Sept. 1 My item last week about the pending purchase of Channel 2’s parent company by Channel 4’s parent company generated a lot of traffic and a fair amount of speculation and hand-wringing.  Well, the deal went through last week and from what I’ve learned, there’s plenty of justification for continued hand-wringing. Alan Pergament of The Buffalo News wrote a good analysis on the local impact and The Washington Post produced an insightful analysis from a national perspective. Both are worth a read. (The Post story is a gift link.) Pergament wrote about[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Aug 21

2025

Comptroller: Granville was off duty, liable for damages

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  Report from Michael Wooten, 7 News D.J. Granville was off duty when he crashed his county-owned pickup truck into seven parked cars last year on Buffalo’s West Side, News 7’s Michael Wooten reported Tuesday evening. Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick told Wooten in an interview that the news comports with county payroll records. And Hardwick said it means Granville, not county taxpayers, should be on the hook for the cost of the damage he did to the truck he was driving and the cars he hit. Granville pleaded guilty last week to one criminal misdemeanor count of reckless driving[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Aug 20

2025

State attorney general cites Buffalo cop for misconduct

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A Buffalo cop, in the course of responding to a domestic abuse call, tried to solicit a date with the woman who made the call, then attempted to sell her a car. The same cop, in uniform and on duty, threatened the owner of an auto repair shop, saying he’d “fuck with him like never before” over a failed vehicle inspection. And finally, the cop — Officer Kiam Gunn, a seven-year veteran of the department — brandished a gun while off-duty at the Delaware Park basketball courts, after a couple asked him to stop smoking marijuana near their children.  “You[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Aug 19

2025

Judge overturns immigration court arrest

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This story was produced in partnership with The Intercept, an award-winning investigative news outlet. Akela Lacy is a staff reporter with The Intercept. In a rare win against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month, a judge ordered that a detained 19-year-old asylum seeker be released back to his family.  Oliver Mata Velasquez’s arrest May 21 outside a immigration court in downtown Buffalo following his hearing on his asylum case was unlawful, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo wrote.  “Mata Velasquez followed all the rules,” Vilardo wrote. “On the other hand, the government changed the rules by fiat, applied them retroactively,[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Aug 18

2025

Bad news on the horizon for Channels 2 and 4

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You could have read this Sunday if you subscribed to our free newsletters, sent Sunday and Wednesday. Sign up at this link. We’re facing the prospect of a merger involving the chain owners of Channels 2 and 4, who between them dominate the local TV news ratings. According to press reports, Nexstar, whose holdings include WIVB, is negotiating to acquire TEGNA (WGRZ) in a deal that would involve 264 stations nationally. Media consolidations are rarely a good thing, and the Buffalo market is likely to be  ill-served by a Nexstar-TEGNA merger. Competition is likely to take a hit and a[...]

Posted 2 months ago
Investigative Post