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Mar 17

2020

Virus prompts changes in court proceedings

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County and state court proceedings entered unchartered territory Tuesday, consolidating operations in downtown Buffalo and handling only arraignments of jailed defendants via video conference. The changes were implemented after a statewide memorandum ordered the cessation of non-essential functions, effective 5 p.m. Monday.  “It is hectic,” Andrew Isenberg, the Eighth Judicial District Executive, who oversees all regional court matters, told Investigative Post in an email.  “Our entire society has been turned upside down and that now includes our criminal justice system and, frankly, our entire court system,” said Erie County District Attorney John Flynn.  In Erie County, all arraignments are happening[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Mar 17

2020

Heaney talks Buffalo Billion on ‘Pressroom

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Jim Heaney and David Lombardo discuss problems with the IBM and Tesla projects in an interview broadcast Tuesday on The Capitol Pressroom. The program is heard on some 20 public radio stations across the state, including WBFO, where it airs weekdays at 8 p.m.  

Posted 5 years ago

Mar 16

2020

Coronavirus throws electioneering for a loop

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On Saturday, as part of the state government’s efforts to suppress the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo used his emergency powers to curtail the petitioning process for candidates aiming to make the ballot in the state’s June primaries. By executive order, that process — traditionally a door-to-door, face-to-face affair performed by a candidate and campaign volunteers — is suspended at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 17. All petitions must be filed by Friday, March 20.  The original deadline for filing petitions had been April 2. The petitioning season opened February 25. To compensate for the abbreviated petitioning period, Cuomo[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Mar 12

2020

Erie County ousting its OTB representative

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The Erie County Legislature wants to replace its representative on the governing board of the embattled Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp.  The Legislature’s Democratic majority announced its intention through a media advisory issued March 5 and is soliciting resumes from applicants. Lawmakers plan to interview candidates April 9. Erie County’s current appointee, Beverly Mazur, has served on the OTB board since July 2010.  Like most board members, Mazur has ties to the Republican or Conservative parties. She is a former secretary of the Erie County Conservative Party who was appointed when Republicans controlled the Erie County Legislature, in league[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Mar 5

2020

Buffalo Billion: $50 million of waste

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Fifty million dollars is a lot of money. To most of us, anyway. Andrew Cuomo, not so much. At a time the state is grappling with a deficit you can count in the B as in Billions, taxpayers have been greeted with the news that Tesla’s plant in South Buffalo has scrapped some $50 million of equipment purchased with state tax dollars. It turns out Tesla didn’t need the equipment after all, what with its constantly changing plans to produce solar power products at the plant. Steve Brown of WGRZ broke the story last week — not that you would[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Feb 26

2020

State stonewalling on IBM project

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Several years ago, the Cuomo administration spent $55 million of state taxpayer money to buy, renovate and equip seven floors of a downtown Buffalo office building to bring IBM to town. The payoff, we were told, would be 500 good-paying software engineering jobs and the start of a technology hub with all sorts of spin-off development. Now, four of those floors at Fountain Plaza are available for lease, raising all sorts of questions about IBM’s commitment to Buffalo. Has it pulled out? Working on a Plan B? None of the above? IBM isn’t saying. Neither is the Cuomo administration. In[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Feb 19

2020

Gambini talks OTB on WBFO

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Phil Gambini discusses his recent story on the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp.’s use of luxury suites it rents at KeyBank Center and New Era Field. On this installment of Press Pass, Gambini detailed how OTB tried to obstruct his reporting.  

Posted 5 years ago

Feb 19

2020

Lead poisoning plan missing key elements

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In January, the City of Buffalo launched its long-awaited pilot program to combat lead poisoning. The pilot program is small — much smaller than the problem in Buffalo, which has one of the highest rates of children afflicted with lead poisoning in the nation.  And, as it stands now, the program lacks funding mechanisms to make it bigger.  Furthermore, a key element is still missing: a new local law that will allow city inspectors access to the interiors of the city’s abundant rental singles and doubles in poor neighborhoods. Those dwellings comprise 80 percent of the city’s highest-risk properties. Still,[...]

Posted 5 years ago
Investigative Post