Categories for Investigations

Nov 15

2012

DEC idling on enforcement

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Diesel fumes permeate the air near the gate to the Peace Bridge Duty Free store as nearby trucks idle in traffic and parking lots. The idling trucks are a sore spot for residents of the West Side that borders the bridge and its plaza on the American side. Diesel fumes contribute to air pollution believed to be partly responsible for health problems – including asthma rates nearly four times higher than the national average – among residents on the city’s lower West Side, according to Dr. Jamson S. Lwebuga-Mukasa, a leading researcher of air quality in the neighborhood. The World Health[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Nov 8

2012

Trash is worth something

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The New York Times Green blog has an interesting story about what a market in Mexico City does to increase recycling efforts. Here’s a snippet of the blog post: Part bottle depot, part farmers’ market, part family outing, the Mercado de Trueque, or barter market, promotes recycling in a region with serious waste management and water issues. Problems range from a lack of landfill space to litter that plugs storm sewers and results in flooding. The barter market’s coordinator, Paola de María y Campos, describes it as an educational project. “We’re trying to show people that trash is worth something,” he[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Nov 5

2012

Recycling lessons from San Francisco

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San Francisco isn’t just a world champion in major league baseball. The City by the Bay’s recycling program is also world class. San Francisco has tripled its recycling rate since 1996 to about 78 percent. It’s one of the highest recycling rates in the nation and light years ahead of Buffalo’s, which fluctuates in the 12 to 16 percent range. How did San Francisco do it? Officials constantly educate the public and businesses, offer almost two dozen different recycling programs that are customized for each neighborhood district, and enforce the mandates in a way that could result in someone’s trash[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Nov 2

2012

City schools fail at recycling

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Buffalo’s public school system’s recycling efforts are even less ambitious than those of the city. Most schools aren’t even recycling bottles and cans, and the ones that do are only recycling paper and cardboard on a regular basis. “Most schools are not recycling,” said Andy Goldstein, the city’s former recycling coordinator said last month on WUFO-AM. “There are a few schools that have space issues and don’t have room for it, but it can be done.” Susan Eager, the district’s director of plant operations, said there have been varying degrees of recycling success over the years. Consistency has been a problem,[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Nov 1

2012

Recycling: City Hall’s bin is less than half full

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Editor’s note: This is a three-part series. Today’s story examines the city’s recycling program. Friday’s report, which will also be the subject of coverage on WGRZ, looks at recycling efforts in the city’s public schools.  On Monday, we look at the wildly success recycling program in San Francisco. City Hall’s halfhearted efforts to increase its anemic recycling rate is plagued by a failure to enforce laws, educate the public or act on a host of recommendations, Investigative Post has found. The result: Buffalo’s recycling rate is less than half the national average, costing Buffalo taxpayers more than $1 million in[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Oct 30

2012

Global warming not a hot topic at debates

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Maybe you can blame it on the moderators, but for the first time since 1988 neither of the presidential candidates said a word about global warming and neither did their vice-presidential counterparts during the debates. Even Sarah Palin acknowledged global warming in her 2008 debate with VP Joe Biden. In his debate with Obama in 2008, Sen. McCain said, “We may hand our children and grandchildren a damaged planet.” Obama said in that same debate that, “This is one of the biggest challenges of our times and it is absolutely critical that we understand that this is not just a[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Oct 28

2012

Nearly $4M spent on 7,800 commercials

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    Kathy Hochul and Chris Collins will spend more than $4 million on television advertising this campaign season to win a job that pays $174,000 a year. But it’s not really about the pay, it’s about control of Congress, which Democrats are trying to wrestle back from the Republicans after losing it two years ago. An Investigative Post analysis of spending in TV ads for the 27th District race, based on contracts on file with major network affiliates in Buffalo and Rochester, found that Collins has outspent Hochul $2.2 million vs. $1.7 million, thanks in large part to the[...]

Posted 13 years ago
Investigative Post