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Jun 9

2025

Another alt-weekly is not in Buffalo’s future

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Alternative weekly newspapers are “alive and well,” according to the Columbia Journalism Review.  I asked Geoff Kelly, my deputy editor, to read over the story and tell me what he thinks, as he edited Buffalo’s last two alt-weeklies before joining Investigative Post. Here’s what he had to say: We should be so fortunate as those cities where alt-weeklies persist. I’ve been editor of three alt-weeklies, one in Pittsburgh and two in Buffalo. Two are long dead, and the one where I started in this business, Artvoice — which used to be a force in this town — is an online[...]

Posted 2 hours ago

Jun 9

2025

Blah-blah-blah on the mayoral campaign trail

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Most everyone recognizes that fixing the city’s fiscal problems is job one for whoever is sitting in the mayor’s chair come January 1. There are, however, a lot of other issues that deserve discussion and consideration during the final weeks of the campaign, leading up to the June 24 Democratic primary. Instead, I’m hearing too much blah-blah-blah. You’d expect the daily newspaper to provide the most substantive coverage, but I’m disappointed in much of its issues-related coverage that consists of publishing written statements from the candidates rather than reported analysis. Lazy journalism. Take the issue of police reform. In its[...]

Posted 8 hours ago

Jun 6

2025

Concerning contributions to Scanlon campaign

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Under city law, one of Buffalo’s largest paving contractors could have been fined and barred from bidding on lucrative contracts because of its admission to wage theft. Instead, the Common Council, despite reservations and headed by then-President Chris Scanlon, awarded D&H Paving $6.9 million in work last July.  At the time, the lawmakers expressed concern that D&H Paving was under investigation by the state Department of Labor. That probe, the state’s second into D&H, resulted in a nearly $28,000 fine and a finding that the company’s violations were “willful.” In the midst of the Council’s deliberation, the company’s owner, Michael[...]

Posted 3 days ago

Jun 5

2025

Where Ryan stands on the issues

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State Sen. Sean Ryan at a May 30 press conference in Lafayette Square. This is the second of two stories on mayoral hopeful Sean Ryan. On Wednesday we published a political profile. Sean Ryan doesn’t lack for ideas on how to fix what he sees as dysfunction in City Hall and the impact it has had on neighborhoods across Buffalo. “We can’t do the basics. We’re not delivering basic services for our people. And that’s not even scratching the surface on our systemic problems,” he told Investigative Post. “The neglect is becoming more and more apparent. Can’t plow our roads,[...]

Posted 4 days ago

Jun 4

2025

Sean Ryan: a political profile

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State Sen. Sean Ryan at a May 30 press conference in Lafayette Square.  This is the first of two stories on mayoral hopeful Sean Ryan. On Thursday we published a  story on where he stands on the issues.  State Sen. Sean Ryan has a long history of advancing progressive causes, both in his 14 years as a state legislator and in his prior career as an attorney. He’s championed urban highway removal, affordable housing, living wage ordinances, tax subsidy reforms and a host of other issues that reflect the priorities of the heavily Democratic districts he’s represented in Albany.   Now,[...]

Posted 5 days ago

Jun 3

2025

Protesting city inaction on lead poisoning

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Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, executive director of the Partnership for the Public Good (center) joined by community advocates and state elected officials Jon Rivera (left) and April Baskin (right). Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel Local housing advocates and elected officials are condemning Buffalo’s failure to spend over three-quarters of a $2 million federal grant dedicated to removing toxic lead paint from city homes.  Meanwhile, proposed state legislation aims to pressure landlords to clean their property of lead when identified by housing inspectors.  Investigative Post reported last week that the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency to date has only spent  $479,481 of the $2[...]

Posted 6 days ago

Jun 2

2025

Incompetency and arrogance in service to cruelty

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Below is the complete verion of WeeklyPost, the newsletter we send via email on Sunday mornings. Our Monday Morning Read typically includes a portion of that newsletter; today, we’re publishing it in its entirety. If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so here. ICE did it again. Back in March it deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in defiance of a court order, an action that generated international attention and condemnation. ICE officials said the deportation was the result of an “administrative error.” Not that they’ve attempted to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Well, ICE[...]

Posted 1 week ago

May 30

2025

Another ICE deportation in defiance of court order

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For at least the second time since President Donald Trump took office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deported a migrant in defiance of federal judges — this time a Salvadoran man long held in detention in Western New York. The Trump administration’s most recent action occurred May 7. That morning, a panel of federal judges with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City granted the man, Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, permission to remain in the United States while his immigration case wound its way through the courts.  Twenty-eight minutes later, however, Melgar-Salmeron was on an ICE Air flight from[...]

Posted 1 week ago
Investigative Post