Categories for In-Depth

Feb 27

2019

City Hall cashing in on traffic tickets

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 First, City Hall talked the state into allowing it to keep most of the money from traffic tickets issued by Buffalo police. Police then started handing out tickets in record numbers, jumping from around 32,000 in the year before the Buffalo Traffic Violations Agency was created in 2015 to more than 52,000 the year after. Since then, police have written far more tickets for tinted windows than for speeding or running red lights and stop signs. Revenues soared accordingly—up from around $500,000 in the year before the traffic agency was created, to more than $2.8 million in the fiscal[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Feb 13

2019

Proposed wind turbines generating conflict

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Pam Atwater lives on six and a half acres in the Niagara County Town of Somerset. Her home is primarily fueled by energy from the solar panels on the rooftop of her barn and a geothermal system that heats and cools her house. Despite her embrace of renewable energy, Atwater leads a group fighting to prevent a Virginia-based company from placing 47 wind turbines across the southern shore of Lake Ontario in her community and the neighboring Town of Yates. The project could create enough energy to power 53,000 homes. The 591-foot wind turbines would be among the tallest structures[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Dec 19

2018

Battle rages over proposed landfill expansion

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There’s been a tug of war for 15 years between CWM Chemical Services, which has proposed expanding its hazardous waste landfill in Porter, and opponents of the project. Since Investigative Post last reported on the proposed expansion, opponents have filed paperwork with the state that aim to show the community is a bad fit for a hazardous waste landfill. As part of these filings, opponents challenged claims by CWM that the new landfill would generate nearly $1.2 billion in economic benefits for the community. Opponents also filed an engineering report that found that at one point, as many as two out[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Dec 13

2018

VA limits benefits for Gold Star families

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Nearly 7,000 American soldiers have died fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere following 9/11. The federal government subsequently established programs for their children, but has befuddled and frustrated many families with confusing, and sometimes contradictory, eligibility guidelines. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs changed eligibility rules for these programs again this week, to the detriment of these “Gold Star” children of soldiers who died. The changes could save the federal government tens of millions of dollars, while costing individual Gold Star children who attend university up to an estimated $25,600 in benefits. The handling of these programs, some of it[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Dec 4

2018

OTB’s part-time board enjoys gold-plated perks

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The workload is modest, as is the pay. But, oh, the benefits. The public service corporation that manages off-track betting operations in western and central New York provides free health insurance to its board members in exchange for showing up for meetings two days a month. And the perks aren’t limited to health coverage. Board members are eligible for dental and vision insurance, too. The coverage was described by one health insurance expert as “literally the richest plan available.” Indeed, board members have access to plans that feature a $5 copay for generic prescription drugs, a $15 copay for routine[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Nov 7

2018

Slowdown in Power Authority subsidy programs

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It’s an unusual problem: subsidy programs that can’t find takers. The New York Power Authority has two of them in Western New York. One provides low-cost hydropower to local industry, but a quarter of the pool of electricity lacks for customers and is sold on the wholesale market. The profits from the sale of this unallocated power are earmarked for a program that funds business activity and community projects throughout Western New York. But that money hasn’t been in high demand recently, either. Roughly $4 million sits, unused, in the fund and the board in charge of awarding the money[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Sep 19

2018

Police policy seen as lacking on de-escalation

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The Buffalo Police Department’s use of force policy lacks “important provisions” and is “very weak” on the de-escalation of crisis situations, two national experts have told Investigative Post. The shortcomings, first documented by Investigative Post two years ago, are again open to question following the fatal shooting of Rafael “Pito” Rivera, 32, by a police officer last week. Video tape shows Rivera was running away from police when he was shot three times, including once in the back. No gun is readily visible on Rivera in the video, although police maintain he was in possession of a handgun and posed[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Sep 13

2018

Dispute over Tonawanda Coke soil study

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Residents who live near Tonawanda Coke want to know whether pollution from the plant has contaminated the soil in their yards and their children’s schools and playgrounds. A federal judge agreed and ordered the Tonawanda Coke Corp. to fund a $711,000 study investigating how the plant’s foundry coke emissions have contaminated soil in surrounding communities. It’s being conducted by a research team from the University at Buffalo. That study is now the subject of a dispute between the mayor of the City of Tonawanda and researchers from UB. Mayor Rick Davis said he decided to pull the city’s support for[...]

Posted 7 years ago
Investigative Post