Categories for Featured

Jun 22

2015

Shenanigans beset Buffalo Billion

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Editors note: A version of the following story published this past weekend in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Albany Times Union, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, and Poughkeepsie Journal. The accompanying video was co-produced with WGRZ.  Editorials calling for greater transparency in the program were subsequently published by the Democrat & Chronicle and Times Union. The Buffalo Billion program championed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a bold and costly experiment in economic development that is beset by secrecy and politics, and banking on a company with a history of losing money. The program — hailed in Buffalo but resented across much of the rest of New[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Jun 17

2015

SolarCity update: Progress and problems

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Construction of the massive $750 million solar panel manufacturing plant is approaching the half-way point and SolarCity is starting to hire in anticipation of a phase in of operations early next year. Meanwhile, the company is losing record amounts of money, its stock price is languishing and federal investigators continue to look at some of its past dealings out of state. New York officials, for their part, continue to thwart efforts to open the SolarCity project to public scrutiny.

Posted 10 years ago

Jun 2

2015

Goodyear’s emissions a concern

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Investigative Post and WGRZ continue their coverage of the potential risk air pollution poses to residents in Niagara County. We reported Monday that the risk to public health from air pollution released from chemical and industrial plants, most of them in or around Niagara Falls, is higher in Niagara County than in nine out of every 10 counties across the United States where emissions are reported to the federal government. In Tuesday’s report, we focus on Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. The plant’s emissions, which include two carcinogenic chemicals, account for nearly half the county’s risk score. Goodyear’s risk score is[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Jun 1

2015

Pollution risks in Niagara Falls

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Joe Cessna’s neighbors include chemical plants that are as much a part of the Niagara Falls landscape as the Cataracts. He’s constantly reminded of their presence. There’s the “nasty smell” that permeates his neighborhood and the greasy film that coats his pool in the summer and car year-round. “I can wash my car and within a couple of hours there’s a film on it,” he said. “Everybody says it’s safe, but you’ve got to wonder.” Cessna has good reason to wonder. And perhaps worry. Twenty-six industrial plants in Niagara County, most of the larger ones located in Niagara Falls, reported[...]

Posted 10 years ago

May 21

2015

Central Terminal decays as board delays

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For years, the Central Terminal suffered from willful neglect at the hands of its private owners. While the building lay open to vandals, artifacts were stolen and metal pipes stripped out. When the non-profit Central Terminal Restoration Corporation took ownership in 1997, the hope was that the group would halt the building’s deterioration and find a responsible developer to secure its long-term future. But the building is still deteriorating. And dysfunction in the Restoration Corporation’s board of directors has hampered progress in preserving and redeveloping it, former board members have told Investigative Post. “There’s so many different things wrong with[...]

Posted 10 years ago

May 19

2015

iPost sues over suppression of records

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Investigative Post has sued a state development corporation so intent on withholding records involving the Buffalo Billion program that a leading state official likened efforts to obtain them under the Freedom of Information Law to an act of terrorism. Investigative Post has asked the State Supreme Court to rule on whether the Fort Schuyler Management Corp. is subject to the state FOI Law. WGRZ and the Gannett Company are helping to finance the lawsuit that was filed Monday in Albany. Fort Schuyler is managing the construction of three facilities that will house SolarCity, IBM and Albany Molecular Research Inc., which have been[...]

Posted 10 years ago

May 12

2015

Tonawanda Coke settles civil case for $12M

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Federal prosecutors and environmental regulators hailed Monday’s $12 million civil settlement with Tonawanda Coke as a “tremendous environmental victory.” The company will spend $8 million on pollution control upgrades at its century-old plant on River Road. Tonawanda Coke also will hire a third party environmental expert to audit its operations for additional safety and environmental improvements. In addition, the state and federal governments collect $2.75 million in penalties. Another $1.3 million is earmarked for environmental projects to benefit residents of Tonawanda. The only project formally announced Monday was $357,000 to the nonprofit Ducks Unlimited to acquire and preserve a wetland within[...]

Posted 10 years ago

May 8

2015

Progress to report on Scajaquada Creek

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There is limited, but noteworthy progress to report some 10 month after Investigative Post and WGRZ reported on the sorry state of Scajaquada Creek. The Town of Cheektowaga is poised to sell more than $12 million in bonds to finance the first phase of work to line sewer pipes to seal cracks and update infrastructure in the Winston-Vegola neighborhoods which have the most sewer overflow problems in the town. Another $41 million in planned work will be spread out over a decade. The Buffalo Sewer Authority, meanwhile, continues to study the feasibility of treating more of Cheektowaga’s sewage to reduce overflows into the[...]

Posted 10 years ago
Investigative Post