Jan 18
2016
Quick Hit: Funding for Scajaquada cleanup
State funds to restore the badly polluted Scajaquada Creek are beginning to trickle in. Will federal funds follow? Read Dan Telvock’s “Quick Hit” in The Public.
Posted 8 years ago
Jan 18
2016
State funds to restore the badly polluted Scajaquada Creek are beginning to trickle in. Will federal funds follow? Read Dan Telvock’s “Quick Hit” in The Public.
Dec 23
2015
The story of the four-year-old boy who spent days alone with his mother’s dead body, surviving on milk and maple syrup, has prompted a public outpouring of sympathy and the donation of gifts that piled up at police headquarters. Former employees of the Buffalo Urban League say there’s another side to the story. The boy’s mother, Shaleena Hamilton, had been receiving preventive services under the $1 million contract recently audited by the county comptroller, according to six current and former Urban League caseworkers. The audit, released two weeks ago, found extensive problems in the agency’s handling of the contract, including overbilling, a[...]
Dec 9
2015
An audit by the Erie County Comptroller has confirmed allegations leveled a year ago by social workers at the Buffalo Urban League that their employer charged the county tens of thousands of dollars for work never performed. Among the abuses: bills claiming some employees worked as many as 170 hours in a single day. The audit also found the Urban League tried to stonewall investigators and retaliated against the whistleblowers who brought the problems to the comptroller’s attention. All eight have now left the agency – either fired or effectively forced out of their jobs. The Department of Social Services,[...]
Dec 9
2015
Dan Telvock reports on how state and city officials have failed to follow through on promises made over a year ago to clean up operations of a construction and demolition debris facility that’s the subject of a decade-long dustup with residents of the Seneca-Babcock neighborhood.
Dec 8
2015
State and city officials have failed to follow through on promises made over a year ago to clean up operations of a construction and demolition debris facility that’s the subject of a decade-long dustup with neighbors. As a result, Seneca-Babcock residents said they endured yet another summer of dust, noise and diesel truck fumes from Battaglia Demolition’s operation off Seneca Street. Battaglia Demolition collects concrete, bricks and other construction and demolition debris. The facility also crushes concrete and brick, which residents say stirs up clouds of dust that settle on their properties. In addition, up to 200 trucks a day[...]
Nov 25
2015
Charlotte Keith reports on hiring of construction workers at SolarCity project. While contractors and unions are meeting 15 percent affirmative action hiring goals, African Americans account for only about one-third of those workers. Some African American leaders maintain the pipeline of unionized workers needs to be more diversified. Web and television story can be found here.
Nov 25
2015
Not to rain on the parade, but despite talk from politicians about Buffalo’s resurgence, job growth in Erie and Niagara counties continues to lag behind the nation and state. Sounds like this might make for a good discussion.
Nov 24
2015
Diversity hiring goals set for the construction of the SolarCity plant in South Buffalo have not translated into a lot of jobs for African-American workers. While African Americans make up an increasing share of the project’s workforce, they accounted for only 5.7 percent of those on the job for the quarter ending this September, an Investigative Post analysis found. That’s in a city that’s almost 40 percent African-American and a county with a workforce that’s 11 percent black, according to the state Department of Labor. The project is nevertheless meeting its minority workforce goal of 15 percent, largely through the[...]