Categories for Featured

Dec 20

2019

Attorney charges OTB intimidating witness

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The attorney for a senior manager of the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. says his client is being punished for cooperating with a federal investigation of the agency. Federal investigators apparently consider the allegation of witness intimidation serious enough that they have subpoenaed records from the OTB to review the matter. “He’s being intimidated because he’s cooperating,” Steven Cohen, the senior manager’s attorney, said. “All my client is doing is not lying to federal investigators.” Not only are OTB Chairman Richard Bianchi and President Henry Wojtaszek retaliating against his client, Cohen contends, but they have falsified OTB records. “Henry[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Dec 19

2019

Metro Rail riders losing benefit of the doubt

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Come next summer, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority plans to abandon its honor system to ride Metro Rail. Instead, it will require riders on the underground portion of the transit line to pay and pass through a turnstile to board a train. The change is intended, in part, to discourage riders from boarding without paying a fare at Metro Rail’s eight underground stations. “It’ll make it a little easier on the officers because it’ll be a very clear barrier that people will know, without a doubt, that if you go through this turnstile, you need a ticket,” said George Gast,[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Dec 10

2019

Buffalo Billion felon: Wired and hired

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 Republicans on the Niagara County Legislature voted Tuesday to hire a felon involved in the Buffalo Billion scandal to serve as the county’s spokesperson. In a partisan 8-5 vote, the Legislature approved the hiring of Kevin Schuler, a politically wired executive at LPCiminelli until he pleaded guilty in May 2018 to two felony charges involving the fixing of a bid to manage the construction of the $750 million Tesla plant in South Buffalo. Schuler will serve as the county’s public information officer and earn $79,003, an increase of nearly $10,000 from the job’s 2019 salary. The job entails handling[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Dec 6

2019

Buffalo Billion felon candidate for county job

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 A felon who played a central role in the Buffalo Billion scandal is now a finalist to land a job as the public face of Niagara County government. Kevin Schuler is one of two candidates county legislators are scheduled to interview Monday for the job of public information officer, who acts as spokesman for county government and fields media requests. The county’s 2020 budget proposes the PIO job pay $79,003 a year. The new salary amounts to a nearly $10,000 raise. Schuler was the longtime political fixer for Louis Ciminelli, a prominent developer and influential Republican until his fall[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Nov 25

2019

Buffalo’s complacent Control Board

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 The Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority, better known as the control board, costs city and state taxpayers more than $1 million a year. Its job, since it was imposed by the state in 2003, has been to keep an eye on Buffalo’s finances.  But during the past eight years it has done nothing to stop Mayor Byron Brown and the Common Council as they’ve drained the city of more than $100 million in reserves, leaving City Hall with nothing in the bank to close budget gaps.  In six of the last eight budget cycles, the Brown administration has depleted its[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Nov 13

2019

DA moving, judges lagging on bail reform

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 Erie County is ahead of the curve on bail reform. Changes in the law that take effect January 1 prohibit the imposition of cash bail on defendants charged with misdemeanors and non-violent crimes. But in Erie County, as of November 1, assistant district attorneys cannot ask for bail on those offenses without prior approval from a supervisor. “Come December first, only I can approve it,” said John Flynn, the Erie County District Attorney. “That’s how we’re phasing it in. Then come January, none of us can ask because the judges cannot do it.” He added: “Individuals who are charged[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Oct 31

2019

Locked, loaded and stuck in storage

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More than half of the 125 rifles Buffalo police bought two years ago to use in the event of a mass shooting sit unused because the department has yet to train most officers in their use. And police say it’s probably going to be another two years until all the necessary training is completed. “For some reason, unknown to us, the training ceased,” said John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association. As a result, the rifle purchase ”seems like a colossal waste of money.” The police attribute the slow rollout to factors including training requirements and the time[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Oct 10

2019

OTB relents, discloses ticket recipients

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 For months now, the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. has refused to release the names of people who attended Bills and Sabres games in luxury suites it leases from the teams. Today, the OTB relented and released 201 documents that purports to identify ticket recipients. OTB acted in the face of a threatened lawsuit from the Niagara Gazette, which, along with Investigative Post, filed Freedom of Information requests this spring that were subsequently denied. OTB officials contended that release of names would represent an invasion of privacy of ticket recipients. Officials from the state Committee on Open Government[...]

Posted 5 years ago
Investigative Post

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