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Dec 18

2024

Vote for our top story of 2024

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We will publish some 250 stories and other pieces of content in 2024, plus another 50 pieces we co-produced for our television partners.  Likewise, we’ve also enjoyed a 65 percent surge in traffic to our website this year.  We’re asking our readers to vote for their favorite Investigative Post story of 2024.  Twelve stories are up for consideration. Tell us which story you liked the best in the ballot below. Please note that you can only vote once.  You can vote through Thursday, Jan. 2. 

Posted 5 months ago

Dec 17

2024

Departing OTB chief splurged on travel

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Henry Wojtaszek is going out in style. The departing president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. traveled grandly during his final year on the job, records show.  Consider:  A three-night stay at a swanky hotel on the Las Vegas Strip at a cost of $3,300.  A $1,600 tab — dinner for five — at a top-rated Las Vegas steakhouse owned by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck during that same trip.  An August trip to Saratoga Springs that included a $2,420 tab — dinner for nine — at a farm-to-table steakhouse. And an overnight stay at a four-star New York[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Dec 16

2024

Judge Carney exits soon-to-be-changed Housing Court

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Buffalo City Court. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel After 30 years on the bench, the last 14 presiding over Buffalo’s Housing Court, Judge Patrick Carney has hung up his robes, making way for what could be significant changes in the way Housing Court operates. While Carney’s current term runs through the end of December, the retiring judge said last Friday was his final day in the courtroom. Although Carney’s successor has not been officially named, City Court Judge Phillip Dabney will fill in for Carney through the end of the year, according to Eighth District Administrative Judge Kevin Carter. Carter declined[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Dec 15

2024

University Money, Dirty Hands? Tracing Campus Endowment Ties to Global Gambling Giants

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How can a university preach responsibility by day and profit from addiction by night? That’s the question students in Australia asked when it was revealed the University of Sydney had invested millions in gambling companies. The expose sparked backlash not just because of the investments, but because of how little was known about them. Now, students across the U.S. are beginning to ask whether their own universities may be doing the same—with billion-dollar endowments often hidden behind vague financial labels. From Lecture Halls to Roulette Tables: How University Funds Flow into Gambling University endowments in the U.S. reached over $839 billion[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Dec 11

2024

Prospect of more scrutiny for OTB

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Batavia Downs, the flagship of Western Regional OTB. Photo by Garrett Looker. Two state authorities appear to be eyeing probes into the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., Investigative Post has learned. The Inspector General, responding to a request from two state lawmakers, has obtained documents including buyout deals for Henry Wojtaszek, OTB’s outgoing  president and CEO, and two of his top lieutenants. The Inspector General’s office would neither confirm nor deny whether the records request has progressed into a formal investigation. In addition, the state comptroller is considering a request from Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick for a “performance and[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Dec 11

2024

Council: Not so fast on forgiving Braymiller loan

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  Braymiller Market. Photo by Garrett Looker The City of Buffalo could call in the $561,000 it loaned to Braymiller Market and reallocate the money for a different use, according to city officials and an Investigative Post review of records. Some lawmakers want to know why the acting mayor, facing a financial crisis that threatens to starve city departments and initiatives of funding, seems reluctant to do that. “I want to know why we wouldn’t require somebody who didn’t honor their commitment, who took money from the city, to at least pay it back,” Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Dec 10

2024

Buffalo schools replacing lead poisoning risks

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Buffalo’s challenge to address lead poisoning of children includes cleaning up contaminated water sources in city schools. Lead in school water isn’t a result of lead pipes leading from streets or in the buildings, but plumbing fixtures, school officials said. Testing conducted in 2022 and 2023 revealed 237 fixtures, including water fountains, with lead levels above current state limits, Investigative Post found. Lead-contaminated water fountains and cafeteria fixtures — 34 fountains and 19 kitchen/cafeteria faucets and kettles, according to an Investigative Post count — have been replaced districtwide over the past few years, school officials said. “Fixtures that are used[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Dec 8

2024

Our neighbors to the north are not a problem

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Donald Trump has lumped Canada in with Mexico as a source of drugs and undocumented immigration and threatened to impose tariffs as a consequence.  Jerry Zremski of The Buffalo News debunks the claim. Twenty-four times more drugs have been seized at the southern border than the northern one. Undocumented immigrants: 11 times greater crossing from Mexico than Canada so far this year. Buffalo police want to use artificial intelligence as a crime fighting tool. The ACLU cautions of the potential for abuse when police are given AI tools without proper guardrails. Niagara Falls is starting to smarten up when it[...]

Posted 5 months ago
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