Categories for Featured

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 13 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 13 years ago

Oct 24

2012

Not the same as the old boss

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These are about to be interesting times at the Buffalo News. I say this because for the first time in decades—maybe forever—the paper has gone outside to hire an editor. Margaret Sullivan, who started at the News as an intern, held the editor’s job for 13 years before leaving in August for the New York Times, where she works as the public editor. Her predecessor, Murray B. Light, held the top job for 20 years, plus a lengthy stretch when he split a shared editorship. The legendary Alfred Kirchhofer ran the newsroom for 39 years. Put another way, factoring out[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Oct 24

2012

Panel makes case for watchdog journalism

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By Jeremy Izzio More watchdog, less lapdog. That’s the prescription David Cay Johnston, president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, offered for American journalism Tuesday to an audience of about 140 people at Burchfield Penny Art Center. Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winner and best selling author, headed a panel to consider “The State of Investigative Reporting”  hosted by Investigative Post. “Government derives its power from the consent of the people,” Johnston said. “Government is a fiction we create to make our society work. But if the only people paying attention to the government are those who make money off it, it[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Oct 22

2012

Q&A: Larry Quinn

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Larry Quinn, once a boy wonder, turned 60 earlier this year. He’s a couple of years removed by his tenure as managing partner of the Buffalo Sabres and membership on the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. During his carrer, he served as development commissioner under Mayor Jimmy Griffin and later oversaw the construction of what is now First Niagara Center. His tenure with the Sabres won him both praise for helping to rescue the franchise out of bankruptcy and implementing a number of innovations, and criticism for the loss of popular stars including Pat Lafontaine and Chris Drury. He’s now[...]

Posted 13 years ago
Investigative Post