Categories for In-Depth

Mar 24

2015

Cuomo still stonewalling on Buffalo Billion

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The Cuomo administration has redoubled its efforts to suppress the release of documents that disclose how it is selecting developers and spending money on the Buffalo Billion program. The Fort Schuyler Management Corp., charged with managing the program, is still refusing to release information sought by Investigative Post despite a legal opinion recently issued by the State Committee on Open Government that concluded the agency is subject to the Freedom of Information Law. “In my opinion, it is cut and dried,” said Robert Freeman, the committee’s executive director. “It is, in essence, a governmental agency, that it is required to[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Mar 23

2015

City Hall inflating Buffalo’s recycling rate

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Mayor Byron Brown’s administration has found a new way to inflate the city’s recycling rate by counting clothing donations given to nonprofits such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army. By taking credit for clothing donations – some 4,800 tons last year – the Brown administration is expanding on a practice started in 2013 of counting materials the city does not collect and which state and federal authorities discourage localities from including when calculating recycling rates. Brown, by including these materials, has claimed an ever increasing recycling rate. But data obtained by Investigative Post shows the city’s curbside recycling rate has[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Mar 6

2015

Stonewalling on Outer Harbor is transparent

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In Part Two of our report about contamination on Buffalo’s Outer Harbor, Dan Telvock documents the failure of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. to release public documents and answer questions regarding efforts to develop the waterfront. A growing list of critics have faulted the state agency for its lack of transparency. Part One can be found here.

Posted 9 years ago

Mar 5

2015

Outer Harbor: Toxins, yes; transparency, no 

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(Editor’s note: Watch WGRZ’s 6 p.m. newscast Friday for a second installment of the package.) The state’s latest approach to developing the Outer Harbor calls for expediting the construction of housing next to a partially remediated Superfund site contaminated with sludge that possibly causes cancer. The revised scheme is aimed at mollifying opposition to the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation’s original plan to build housing next to the environmentally sensitive Times Beach Nature Preserve. Shifting the first phase of residential and commercial development a mile south of Times Beach borrows from a plan advocated by Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper that has[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 26

2015

Urban League hits back at whistleblowers

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The Buffalo Urban League, accused of submitting inflated bills for social services to Erie County, is retaliating against whistleblowers and impeding an investigation by the county comptroller, numerous sources have told Investigative Post. Some of these sources said whistleblowers have nevertheless provided investigators with evidence of “blatantly fraudulent billing” that buttresses their original claims that the Urban League was bilking the county. They’ve provided the comptroller documents purporting to show, among other things, 15 instances of double-billing and a one-day bill from a single employee that claimed 170 hours of work, sources said. Despite public statements to the contrary, internal[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 12

2015

Falls hotel subsidies defy recommendation

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The American side of Niagara Falls has too many cheap hotels and not enough high-end ones – so a specialist consultant told state officials in a 2011 report. The proposed solution: build more high-end hotels and don’t subsidize budget or mid-range ones because of their “limited potential for economic impacts.” The state has since invested $5.6 million to help finance three upscale hotels. The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency has given another $8.3 million in tax breaks to three high-end hotels, including two that also received money from the state. But the IDA has also approved $7 million in tax[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 8

2015

Rochester’s success at solving murders

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Unlike in Buffalo, police down the Thruway in Rochester are solving most murders committed in their city, Steve Brown of WGRZ reports. His story concludes a three-part series, the first two of which were done in collaboration with Investigative Post. The first two installments can be found here and here.

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 8

2015

Why killers are getting away with murder

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Authorities in Buffalo cleared only 39 percent of homicides from 2010 to 2014 and that solve rate has been steadily declining. In part two of our report, Jim Heaney of Investigative Post and Steve Brown of WGRZ explain the reasons for the low rate, which include a decline in the police department’s homicide squad and a lack of cooperation from witnesses, and sometime victims. Some also fault prosecutors for not being aggressive enough. Part one of our series can be found here; a concluding report here.

Posted 9 years ago
Investigative Post

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