Apr 10
2020
Phil Gambini reported Thursday on what detainees say are dangerous conditions at the immigrant detention center in Batavia. Today, he discussed his reporting with Susan Rose on WBEN.
Apr 9
2020
Updated: 1:10 p.m. It’s called B-2, one of nine units at the detention center run by ICE in Batavia. These days it’s a terrifying place for those held there. Most of the 50 or so men confined there are coughing and displaying other symptoms of COVID-19. The entire unit has been placed in a 14-day quarantine. Six detainees were removed Wednesday, and today a government attorney told a federal court that four of them had tested positive. Four others from B-2 are awaiting test results. Social distancing? Near impossible in detention settings. Soap and hand sanitizer? Running in short supply.[...]
Apr 8
2020
As one might expect, the COVID-19 shutdown has dramatically cut the number of people traveling by air and public transit. Indeed, the numbers are stark. Just a month ago, 6,000 to 7,000 passengers flew in and out of Buffalo Niagara International Airport each day. Now, it’s fewer than 1,000, according to figures provided by the Niagara Frontier Transit Authority. Ridership on NFTA buses and light-rail trains is also down, by around three-quarters. Train ridership has been especially hard hit, as downtown businesses and government buildings have shut down to all but essential employees and officials have discouraged in-person interactions with[...]
Apr 6
2020
Geoff Kelly reported Friday that the pandemic has drained hospitals of revenues while driving up costs. Medical practices both big and small are also hurting financially. Listen to his interview Monday morning with Susan Rose on WBEN.
Apr 6
2020
Although local jails are potential incubators for the spread of COVID-19, authorities are moving slowly, some not at all, to release inmates being held on low-level charges and parole violations, or who are at high risk of contracting the deadly virus. Only 10 of 89 parolees being held in Erie and Niagara county jails for low-level violations had been released as of Friday, a week after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that 1,100 such parolees would be freed statewide. Nor have any of the 225 inmates – 165 in Erie County, 60 in Niagara County – been released who are serving[...]
Apr 2
2020
Western New York’s hospitals were in dire financial shape coming into 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic — with the attendant costs in equipment, staffing and, perhaps most damagingly, lost revenue — is going to compound their problems. “It’s going to be ugly,” Kaleida spokesman Michael Hughes told Investigative Post in an email. It’s not just hospitals that will feel the pain, either. Primary care practices, clinics and other medical service providers, their business greatly diminished by the shutdown, all are facing pay cuts, layoffs and even closure. The $2.2 trillion federal CARES Act, passed last week by Congress, includes a $100[...]
Apr 2
2020
Prisons and jails are dangerous places for inmates and staff alike during the ongoing pandemic. Editor Jim Heaney discusses Investigative Post’s reporting on the topic on NewsRadio 930 WBEN, noting that there’s a fair number of people in county jails for non-violent misdemeanor offenses or low-level parole violations. Heaney also spoke about Investigative Post’s most-recent story about how Western New Yorkers aren’t curtailing their travel as much as residents in most other communities in the face of the pandemic. Heaney’s interview with Brian Mazurowski on “A New Morning” marks his first appearance since Investigative Post added WBEN to its distribution network. Heaney[...]
Apr 1
2020
Investigative Post has added another news outlet to its distribution network. Starting Thursday, Editor Jim Heaney, and on occasion, his reporters, will appear several times a week on the morning news program on NewsRadio 930WBEN. The station will also post links to our stories on its website. Investigative Post and WBEN are developing a partnership on the fly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigative Post, the region’s nonprofit investigative reporting center, is producing stories daily on the pandemic’s impact on Western New York. WBEN’s morning news show, “A New Morning with Susan Rose and Brian Mazurowski,” is the[...]