Categories for Featured

Nov 25

2012

Q&A: Stephanie Simeon

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Stephanie Simeon is executive director of Heart of the City Neighborhoods, a non-profit housing development corporation serving Buffalo’s Lower West Side. Simeon, 31, is a native of Brooklyn who moved to Buffalo to attend the University at Buffalo, where she earned an undergraduate degree in social science and master’s degree in urban planning. She serves on the board of the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women. Last year she was selected by Business First as one of the region’s top 40 young people under 40. Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed Simeon on Nov. 20. A 4 minute, 45[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Nov 19

2012

UB pulls plug on Shale Institute

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The dark cloud is dissipating over the University at Buffalo and its short-lived Shale Resources and Society Institute. UB President Satish K. Tripathi announced Monday he has closed the institute. The decision comes seven months after the institute released a controversial study that claimed instances of pollution related to the process of natural gas drilling called hydrofracking declined 60 percent from 2008 to August 2011 because of regulation in Pennsylvania. As a result, the Marcellus industry cut incidences of environmental violations by more than half in three years, the study claimed. Artvoice exposed the institute before the university ever announced its existence, raising questions[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Nov 15

2012

DEC idling on enforcement

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Diesel fumes permeate the air near the gate to the Peace Bridge Duty Free store as nearby trucks idle in traffic and parking lots. The idling trucks are a sore spot for residents of the West Side that borders the bridge and its plaza on the American side. Diesel fumes contribute to air pollution believed to be partly responsible for health problems – including asthma rates nearly four times higher than the national average – among residents on the city’s lower West Side, according to Dr. Jamson S. Lwebuga-Mukasa, a leading researcher of air quality in the neighborhood. The World Health[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Nov 11

2012

Q&A: Political reporter Bob McCarthy

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Robert J. McCarthy is a 30-year veteran of The Buffalo News, the last 20 as political reporter. He’s covered a wide array of elections and candidates, including those for president, Congress, governor, the state legislature, mayor and county executive. In addition to his reporting, McCarthy writes a Sunday column and contributes to the Politics Now blog. He also covers the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed McCarthy on Nov. 7, the day after the election. A 3 minute, 54 second video clip including interview highlights is posted above. The full 15 minute, 29 second interview is[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Nov 5

2012

Recycling lessons from San Francisco

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San Francisco isn’t just a world champion in major league baseball. The City by the Bay’s recycling program is also world class. San Francisco has tripled its recycling rate since 1996 to about 78 percent. It’s one of the highest recycling rates in the nation and light years ahead of Buffalo’s, which fluctuates in the 12 to 16 percent range. How did San Francisco do it? Officials constantly educate the public and businesses, offer almost two dozen different recycling programs that are customized for each neighborhood district, and enforce the mandates in a way that could result in someone’s trash[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Nov 2

2012

City schools fail at recycling

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Buffalo’s public school system’s recycling efforts are even less ambitious than those of the city. Most schools aren’t even recycling bottles and cans, and the ones that do are only recycling paper and cardboard on a regular basis. “Most schools are not recycling,” said Andy Goldstein, the city’s former recycling coordinator said last month on WUFO-AM. “There are a few schools that have space issues and don’t have room for it, but it can be done.” Susan Eager, the district’s director of plant operations, said there have been varying degrees of recycling success over the years. Consistency has been a problem,[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Nov 1

2012

Recycling: City Hall’s bin is less than half full

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Editor’s note: This is a three-part series. Today’s story examines the city’s recycling program. Friday’s report, which will also be the subject of coverage on WGRZ, looks at recycling efforts in the city’s public schools.  On Monday, we look at the wildly success recycling program in San Francisco. City Hall’s halfhearted efforts to increase its anemic recycling rate is plagued by a failure to enforce laws, educate the public or act on a host of recommendations, Investigative Post has found. The result: Buffalo’s recycling rate is less than half the national average, costing Buffalo taxpayers more than $1 million in[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Oct 28

2012

Q&A: Muckraker David Cay Johnston

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While the term is little used these days, David Cay Johnston might be best described as a muckraker for his work as an investigative reporter producing both award-winning newspaper stories and best-selling books. Salon in 2004 said Johnston “has cultivated a reputation for being the kind of reporter unafraid to speak truth to power. He is diligent, persistent, and has a network of sources deep in government and in the corporate world.” Johnston got his first reporting job at age 19 with the San Jose Mercury News. He went on to report for the Detroit Free Press, Los Angeles Times,[...]

Posted 12 years ago
Investigative Post

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