Aug 23
2021
Kathy Hochul’s largest donors
Posted 4 years ago
Aug 23
2021
Aug 11
2021
Updated: 4:52 p.m. Where does the superintendent of Buffalo schools live? Kriner Cash’s employment contract requires him to live in the city. But he’s told the state of Massachusetts that his primary domicile is his million-dollar home on Martha’s Vineyard. That’s where he votes, holds his driver’s license and registers his cars. Investigative Post looked into his residence in the face of persistent rumors Cash spends a good deal of time away from Buffalo in Martha’s Vineyard, including long stretches during the pandemic. Cash, through the district’s spokesperson, refused interview requests from Investigative Post. His only comment, when asked about his[...]
Aug 2
2021
E. coli is a nasty waterborne bacteria that can cause vomiting and diarrhea. Authorities close beaches when levels exceed safety limits. But they’re doing next to nothing about unsafe readings in other local waterways. There’s a particular problem with the Black Rock Canal, popular with fishermen, the occasional swimmer and, most notably, the West Side Rowing Club and high school and college crew teams. E. coli readings consistently exceed safe limits — by up to 14 times — established by the federal government. “There are people coming in contact with water with E. coli from human feces every single day,”[...]
Jul 8
2021
Generating business growth in downtown Niagara Falls has proven to be a challenge for years. A state agency charged with job creation has adopted a unique approach, even by Western New York standards. The state-run USA Niagara Development Corp. gave Buffalo-based T.M. Montante Development four properties valued at nearly $1 million in the city’s Third Street business district. Now, as the company plans to renovate and reopen two Third Street buildings— one as a small event center and the other as a brewery and restaurant— state and county economic development officials are preparing to sweeten the pot with $1.7 million[...]
Jun 30
2021
The math of Byron Brown’s loss in the June 22 Democratic primary is simple. The mayor’s traditional base of voters on the East Side stayed home, while voters on the other side of Main Street — from the Lower West Side and Allentown to the Elmwood Village — turned out in comparatively high numbers and overwhelmingly chose India Walton. The result: Walton beat the four-term incumbent by 7 percent. Ken Kruly is a political analyst for WGRZ-TV, publisher of Politics and Other Stuff and author of Money In Politics for Investigative Post. In an analysis for Investigative Post, Kruly compared Brown’s[...]
Jun 27
2021
Updated: 5:15 p.m. Mayor Byron Brown told reporters Friday he has received “an outpouring of support” encouraging him to wage a write-in campaign in November’s general election rather than concede his loss to India Walton in last Tuesday’s Democratic primary. According to text messages acquired this weekend by Investigative Post, the mayor plans to repeat that claim on Monday. But the support, rather than being spontaneous, is being orchestrated by his supporters, including associates of Carl Paladino. According to those texts, at least some of that “outpouring of support” is being solicited and coordinated by top Brown lieutenants in City[...]
Jun 25
2021
Wondering whether Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is giving serious consideration to mounting a write-in campaign to keep his job in November? The answer might have been in plain sight Thursday night at Sahlen Field, where Brown threw out the first pitch before the Toronto Blue Jays went on to drop the Baltimore Orioles, 9-0. Outside the park, a crowd of Byron Brown supporters gathered in front of the main entrance to make a pitch of their own. They wore T-shirts bearing Brown’s name and carried signs reading “Keep Byron Brown.” This was no extemporaneous, grassroots expression of support for the[...]
Jun 23
2021
Updated at 2:15 p.m. At least 84, and perhaps as many as 175 employees assigned to downtown office space paid for with $55 million in Buffalo Billion funds have been told they’re losing their jobs. The funding was used to recruit IBM to establish a high-tech hub at Key Center that would employ 500 software engineers and other highly paid workers. IBM has not followed through on that pledge, employing a small but undetermined number of workers at the site. Instead, a portion of the space has been sublet to two call center operations. As previously reported by Investigative Post,[...]