Latest

Mar 20

2023

Moog seeking 14th tax subsidy from IDA

Published by

Moog Inc., one of Western New York’s largest employers, is a highly profitable company, netting $155 million last year alone. That’s partly due to the billions in federal defense contracts it’s landed over the past decade. Yet time and time again — 13 times since 1973 — Moog has gone before the Erie County Industrial Development Agency seeking — and receiving — millions in tax breaks. It’s received nearly $10 million in subsidies since 2006. The company is headed back to the IDA on Wednesday asking for a 14th round of subsidies. Moog’s request for $2.9 million in sales and[...]

Posted 1 day ago

Mar 19

2023

Monday Morning Read

Published by

What wait until Monday? You can read WeeklyPost on Sunday morning, delivered free to your inbox. Subscribe here. ChrissieCaBoom stopped dodging the media long enough last week to talk with Charlie Specht of The Buffalo News about her off-the-wall posts on Twitter – the ones she later deleted because she’s all about, well, “accountability,” in her words. The GOP candidate for Erie County executive didn’t exactly make a convincing case, saying at one point she was simply trying to game the platform’s algorithms. Yeah, right. Chrissy Casilio-Bluhm was responding to reporting from Investigative Post and WNYMedia.net. Her endorsement by the[...]

Posted 2 days ago

Mar 18

2023

Help wanted: criminal justice reporter

Published by

Investigative Post is seeking an experienced, aggressive reporter to produce deeply reported, high-impact investigative and enterprise stories on the criminal justice system in Western New York for our website and television partner. Investigative Post will build off its extensive coverage of the Buffalo Police Department and extend its reporting to the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and other local police agencies. The beat will also focus on criminal courts, including Buffalo City Court and the U.S. Western District Court. Also of interest are jails and prisons; parole and probation; and the policies and practices of the district attorneys in Erie and[...]

Posted 3 days ago

Mar 15

2023

Commitment to diversity on stadium project

Published by

State and local officials on Wednesday pledged that construction of the new Buffalo Bills stadium will include opportunities for local businesses owned by women and people of color — and that they’re working with local unions to diversify their ranks ahead of the groundbreaking. Officials also said the new stadium in Orchard Park will include additional bus service for Bills fans who can’t or don’t want to drive to games. Those commitments came as the Erie County Stadium Corp. — a subsidiary of the state Empire State Development Corp. — met to approve a framework for the $1.4 billion stadium[...]

Posted 6 days ago

Mar 13

2023

Get a load of @ChrissyCaBoom’s tweets

Published by

As a first-time candidate for elected office, one of Chrissy Casilio-Bluhm’s biggest challenges is introducing herself to voters. But it appears the Republican challenger to incumbent Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz doesn’t want voters to know her too well. In the days prior to and since winning the GOP endorsement on Feb. 25, Casilio-Bluhm scrubbed her Twitter account of posts and retweets that amplified conspiracy theories, including the belief that COVID was the creation of “ONE Globalist Party,” which “rigged an election” and “destroyed Trump” for “exposing the Swamp.” She also promulgated the conspiracy that the Buffalo Bills covered up[...]

Posted 1 week ago

Mar 12

2023

Monday Morning Read

Published by

Subscribe to WeeklyPost and receive our weekly newsletter in your inbox Sunday mornings. Tim Howard’s management of the county’s two jails was a nightmare; more than 30 prisoner deaths during his tenure attests to that. There’s a new sheriff in town, in the person of John Garcia, but it appears it’s business as usual. The Buffalo News had to go to court to obtain video footage of Correctional Officer Daniel Piwowarczyka kicking a handcuffed prisoner in the head. Garcia tried to block release claiming – get this – he wanted to protect the privacy of the prisoner. The story pointed out that no[...]

Posted 1 week ago

Mar 8

2023

Union busting hamstrings adoption agency

Published by

The complicated process of adopting a child was upended last year after Western New York’s largest adoption agency lost a third of its staff, an exodus triggered by what one labor attorney called the worst case of union busting she has seen. Adoption STAR, founded in 2000 in Amherst, fired four staff members last April who were attempting to organize a union. The firings resulted in an exodus of the agency’s staff — 13 out of approximately three dozen employees. The departures included the agency’s executive director — who left a month after the firings — and an associate director.[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Mar 6

2023

Bonuses for executives at embattled OTB

Published by

Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. awarded $40,000 in bonuses to its top executives in January, even as federal and state investigators continued a probe into allegations of malfeasance at the public benefit corporation. At OTB’s January 19 board meeting, the 13 directors present voted unanimously to award a bonus of $12,000 to Henry Wojtaszek, president and chief executive officer. Including the bonus awarded by the board, Wojtaszek is making more than $200,000 in salary, plus benefits. The board also awarded bonuses of $6,000 each to Scott Kiedrowski and William White, both vice presidents, and $6,000 to Jacquelyne Leach, chief financial[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago