Categories for DataBank

Jul 20

2012

DataBank: Housing Court fines by the numbers

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A look at the numbers behind Investigative Post’s explosive expose this week on the unwillingness of delinquent property owners to pay $22 million in Housing Court fines since 2006 and the failure of City Hall to collect those debts.            

Posted 12 years ago

Jun 26

2012

DataBank: WNY’s richest, poorest communities

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Think the city’s East Side is the most impoverished section of Buffalo? Think again. Poverty is even worse on the West Side. And Niagara Falls has its share, too. iPost unveils DataBank, a new weekly feature that tracks key issues by the numbers.

Posted 12 years ago

Apr 8

2012

Sabres fans get poor return on investment

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It turns out Joe Friday is a hockey fan. Who woulda thunk it, Joe being from Los Angeles and all. Detective Friday realizes that while Terry Pegula owns the Buffalo Sabres, the team’s fan base pays the bills. What kind of return on investment did they get this season? When you consider the Sabres ranked No. 2 for payroll and No. 18 for points, the ROI was among the worst in the league. Only two teams spent more per point. Here are the facts: Team Team payroll for 2011-12 season: $69,830,000. Rank in league: Second highest after the Philadelphia Flyers[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Apr 2

2012

Older but wiser, or at least better educated

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After a couple of editions about political contributions, we decided to mix things up a bit, so Joe Friday this week deals with the change in population characteristics in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area between 2000 and 2010, according to the Census. Two trends jump out: The drop off in population is most pronounced among school-aged children and there’s a dramatic increase in the number of college graduates. Here are the facts: Population as a whole is down 34,402, or 3 percent, We’re still over 1 million, at 1,135,509. We’re older, with median age climbing from 38 to 40.6. Why[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Mar 16

2012

The Maziarz money machine

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George Maziarz is probably Western New York’s most powerful state legislator. The Newfane Republican represents the 62nd District, which includes all of Niagara County outside the City of Niagara Falls, Orleans County and the western portion of Monroe County. He has served in the Senate since 1995  and is currently chairman of the Energy and Telecommunications Committee and Vice President Pro Tempore. Maziarz’s stature has position him to raise a lot of campaign funds. Here’s Joe Friday’s look at Maziarz’s campaign contributions since January 1999, when the state Board of Elections began tracking donations online. Total contributions since 1999: $3,767,175[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Mar 1

2012

Hormoz Mansouri’s political contributions

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Our second installment of Joe Friday involves the campaign contributions of Hormoz Mansouri, regarded as one of the largest financial backers of local and state politicians, including those in league with veteran political operative Steve Pigeon. Joe Friday tracked his contributions from 2005 to January of this year. Mansouri made a vast majority of contributions in his name; others were made by his wife and three companies he owns, EI Team, an engineer and architecture firm; HLM Holdings, a development company; and NPTS Inc., an engineering, design and consulting firm providing services to the nuclear power industry and the U.S.[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Feb 24

2012

Hydrofracking contributions to state pols

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Our first installment of Joe Friday involves contributions made to political candidates and parties by companies with a vested interest in New York State opening up the Marcellus Shale to drilling for natural gas through a controversial process called hydraulic fracturing. A Common Cause recently released a study that tracked contributions from 2007 to October 2011. While the Buffalo metropolitan area lies just northwest of the Marcellus Shale, the contributions have a Western New York flavor. Here are the facts: Natural gas interests made 2,340 contributions totaling $1.34 million to candidates and political parties in New York State. Four companies[...]

Posted 12 years ago
Investigative Post

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