Categories for In-Depth

Sep 12

2018

A looming threat to the Niagara River

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Researchers are concerned that climate change could be helping to lay the groundwork for an eventual collapse of the Niagara River’s ecosystem. Populations of the Emerald Shiner, a minnow that serves as the foundation of the river’s food chain, have been cut drastically this summer. Researchers worry that as the region heats up, this could become the new norm. The Emerald Shiner is the primary source of food for many of the larger sporting fish in the Niagara River, such as bass, trout and walleye. Birds also feast on both the minnows and the larger fish that eat them. Because[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 23

2018

Another ‘Billion project falling short on jobs

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It was one of the first Buffalo Billion projects announced: a $50 million state investment in drug discovery company Albany Molecular Research Inc. which, Gov. Cuomo promised, would yield almost 200 spinoff jobs. Five years on, there’s little evidence those jobs have materialized. AMRI was responsible for creating only 55 jobs, a goal the company met earlier this year. The partner companies whose jobs the state had been counting towards the project’s overall goal of 25o jobs appear to employ only a few dozen people, rather than the 195 anticipated. And only a handful of those jobs seem to be directly[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 5

2018

Vet a victim of discrimination – and inaction

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The red brick apartment building on Crescent Avenue is two blocks from Delaware Park. Online listings show pictures of light-filled rooms with hardwood floors and decorative fireplaces. Reginald Holloway never got to see inside. In 2008, Holloway, a disabled Marine Corps veteran, was looking for a one-bedroom apartment in a peaceful neighborhood. He still struggled with flashbacks and nightmares from his military service and wanted to live somewhere quiet; doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs had diagnosed him with chronic post traumatic stress disorder. Holloway had a Section 8 voucher that would help him pay the rent and, in[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 5

2018

Buffalo not enforcing its fair housing law

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 The heating in her apartment was acting up and her knee problems made carrying groceries up the stairs difficult. So, Gloria Adkins had gone with a friend to look at an apartment in Black Rock, planning to ask the landlord if he had anything else available. After he said he did, she steeled herself to ask the all-important question: Did he take Section 8, a federal program that helps poor people pay their rent? She remembers him saying no: too much hassle, too much paperwork. Most people would have let it go. But Adkins knew that refusing to rent[...]

Posted 7 years ago

May 8

2018

Pegula back fracking – and violating regulations

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COUDERSPORT – Terry Pegula cashed in when he sold the bulk of his hydrofracking business in 2010 for $4.7 billion. He used a chunk of the change to buy Buffalo’s two major league teams, and made it clear when he purchased the Sabres that he was in it for the sports, not the money. “If I want to make some money, I’ll go drill another well,” he quipped at a press conference. Pegula is, in fact, drilling other wells. He started another fracking company – JKLM Energy, drawing on the first letters of his children’s names – and has been[...]

Posted 7 years ago

May 1

2018

Safety practices ignored in Lehner’s drowning

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If training practices elsewhere are any indicator, the Buffalo Police Department had no business sending Officer Craig Lehner into the rapid currents of the Niagara River last October. Depending on the agency, trainees for swift water diving elsewhere typically start out in water moving somewhere between 1 and 4 knots, or under 5 miles per hour. But the Niagara River on the day Lehner trained – and drowned – was moving at a much faster clip – between 8 and 12 knots, or up to nearly 14 miles per hour. Records obtained from the U.S. Coast Guard show that some divers[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Apr 5

2018

Neighbors contest bid to expand Niagara landfill

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A hazardous waste facility in the Town of Porter with a history of spills and regulatory violations is seeking state permission to construct a new landfill, which one nearby resident has decried as “insanity.” CWM Chemical Services is one of only a handful of hazardous waste facilities in the Rust Belt. Before CWM ran out of space in 2015, it accepted toxic materials such as PCBs, lead and asbestos, from industrial plants, brownfields and Superfund sites across the United States and Canada. The company has tried for over a decade to obtain a permit to construct another landfill on their[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Mar 22

2018

No job search for Buffalo police commissioner

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 Mayor Byron Brown didn’t search for job applicants or interview any candidates other than Byron Lockwood before he nominated him to succeed Daniel Derenda as police commissioner in February. Selecting a police commissioner without conducting a job search is not standard practice for large municipalities. Other cities take their candidate hunts national by posting on professional police association job forums, like the one provided by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. In towns like Amherst and Cheektowaga, applicants take a civil service exam and only the three top-scoring candidates are considered for the position by the town boards.[...]

Posted 7 years ago
Investigative Post