Categories for DailyPost

Oct 15

2025

James Gardner: A political profile

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James Gardner, the Republican and Conservative party candidate for Buffalo mayor, knows he’s fighting an uphill battle. Nearly two-thirds of the city’s registered voters are Democrats. They outnumber Republicans and Conservatives by a 6-to-1 margin. Voters haven’t installed a Republican in the mayor’s office in over 60 years. Still, Gardner believes the city’s many woes — dire finances, crumbling infrastructure, diminished services — present an opportunity for change. “My message is a simple one,” Gardner told Investigative Post in an interview last month. “This is what 60 years of one-party rule will get you. You have to change the way[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 14

2025

Michael Gainer: A political profile

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Michael Gainer moved to Buffalo 20 years ago, just as Byron Brown was campaigning for his first term as mayor — the office Gainer is seeking as an independent candidate in next month’s election.  An educator with construction experience, Gainer had picked up a job doing renovations on a house on Chapin Parkway. One day as he was working, listening to public radio, he heard Brown describe his plan to demolish 10,000 derelict houses over the next decade.  Gainer quickly did some math on a napkin. “It was like half a billion dollars,” he said. “We were going to spend[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 13

2025

Will a judge and jury believe this narc?

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To hear Erie County Sheriff John Garcia tell it, D.J. Granville has an unblemished record as his chief of narcotics. Except he doesn’t, as reported by Charlie Specht. The key evidence seized from a Buffalo home associated with [David] Burgin was thrown out of court after Granville and other members of his narco unit were caught on video allegedly staging evidence, conducting illegal searches, and misleading a judge, court records show. A federal judge wrote that the case revealed “damning evidence of … unlawful conduct by law enforcement officers” and said Granville’s actions were “an egregious violation of the Fourth[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 10

2025

Watch: IP’s Geoff Kelly on Capital Tonight

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Buffalo’s mayoral election is 25 days away. State Sen. Sean Ryan, the Democratic nominee, is the odds-on favorite to prevail.  Investigative Post’s Geoff Kelly appeared Thursday on Spectrum News’ Capital Tonight with Susan Arbetter to discuss the state of the race, as well as the brewing fight among Ryan’s fellow Democrats over who will fill his Senate seat come January. The scrapping over Ryan’s seat, which has been unfolding in the background for months, burst into the open on Thursday, when Ryan’s longtime political ally, Assembly Member Jonathan Rivera, declared his candidacy for the job. Zellner and Rivera both have[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 9

2025

Ryan leads the money race

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With less than a month to go in the race, State Sen. Sean Ryan, the Democratic nominee for Buffalo mayor, has more money left in his campaign account than his two rivals — James Gardner, running on the Republican and Conservative Party lines, and Michael Gainer, running on the independent Restore Buffalo line. The most recent campaign finance disclosure forms, due to the state elections board last Friday, paint a picture of a race whose energy and donors’ dollars are largely spent. Meanwhile, Gardner and Gainer have turned to other platforms — particularly social media — to remind voters the[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 8

2025

OTB hires Byron Brown’s brother-in-law

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Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. — headed by president and CEO Byron Brown — has hired the brother-in-law of the former mayor. Michael Lee Austin — brother of Brown’s wife, Michelle Austin Brown — began working last month as a sergeant supervising the security guards at Batavia Downs, the horse track, casino and hotel complex owned by OTB. The position pays $24.33 per hour and is eligible for overtime. Austin disclosed his relationship to Brown in his application for a state gaming license, a copy of which Investigative Post obtained via a Freedom of Information request. The hiring appears to[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 7

2025

Investigative Post event series is back on

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Investigative Post is relaunching its event series with three programs scheduled for November and December. We took a long break as a result of the pandemic and have staged a handful of events the last couple of years, including popular benefit shows at Sportsmen’s Tavern featuring Tom Toles and Junkman’s Choir. Our plan is to stage events at least once a month. We recently brought Seamus Gallivan onboard to manage our events. His LinkedIn profile describes him as a “social connecter specializing in events, media, and community engagement.” Seamus is perhaps best known for his role in establishing Slow Roll[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 7

2025

Pushing again for lead inspections in Buffalo

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From left: Matthew Parham, Daniel Corbitt, Sarah Wooton, Dawn Wells-Clyburn and Alex Fehrman Updated Monday at 4:49 p.m.  A group of tenants and community organizations on Tuesday appealed the dismissal of a lawsuit that sought more vigorous enforcement of a City of Buffalo program aimed at lead hazards in rental housing. The Partnership for the Public Good along with three other organizations and four tenants filed a lawsuit last July  in State Supreme Court against the city. The lawsuit alleged that the Department of Permits and Inspections was failing to provide a clean and healthful environment for its residents by[...]

Posted 3 months ago
Investigative Post