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Nov 13

2019

DA moving, judges lagging on bail reform

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 Erie County is ahead of the curve on bail reform. Changes in the law that take effect January 1 prohibit the imposition of cash bail on defendants charged with misdemeanors and non-violent crimes. But in Erie County, as of November 1, assistant district attorneys cannot ask for bail on those offenses without prior approval from a supervisor. “Come December first, only I can approve it,” said John Flynn, the Erie County District Attorney. “That’s how we’re phasing it in. Then come January, none of us can ask because the judges cannot do it.” He added: “Individuals who are charged[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Nov 6

2019

Toxins at Niagara Falls airbase

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The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station has landed on an ignoble list. The facility ranks seventh on a list of the 100 U.S. military sites most contaminated with PFAS, or per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances. That’s according to a report issued in early October by the Environmental Working Group, based on data procured from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense. PFAS is a family of chemicals linked in animal studies to infertility, birth defects, developmental disorders and cancer. PFAS compounds have been used commercially in a wide variety of products since the 1950s. They include the[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Nov 6

2019

iPost annual fundraising drive underway

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Investigative Post has launched its annual fundraising drive, which is critical to underwriting our reporting efforts in the coming year. Once again, donations of up to $1,000 made by Dec. 31 will be matched by NewsMatch, funded by seven national foundations and media organizations. During last year’s annual drive, Investigative Post raised $43,883 in matchable donations from 359 contributors. “Our goal is to top those numbers, which would enable us to expand our coverage and hopefully hire a fourth full-time reporter,” said Jim Heaney, Investigative Post’s editor and executive director. The annual drive culminates another successful year of journalism for[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Nov 5

2019

iPost event features Spotlight reporter

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Western New York has learned, sadly, that scores of Catholic priests have sexually abused children over the past 60 years. It’s a scandal that has hit diocese after diocese across the nation, indeed, the world and it was first exposed by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team in a Pulitzer Prize winning investigation in 2002. Matthew Carroll was one of four reporters on the Spotlight team and he will headline an Investigative Post event on Wednesday, Dec. 4. Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney will interview Carroll about the Globe’s investigation, the Academy Award winning movie it inspired, and the ongoing scandal[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Oct 31

2019

Locked, loaded and stuck in storage

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More than half of the 125 rifles Buffalo police bought two years ago to use in the event of a mass shooting sit unused because the department has yet to train most officers in their use. And police say it’s probably going to be another two years until all the necessary training is completed. “For some reason, unknown to us, the training ceased,” said John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association. As a result, the rifle purchase ”seems like a colossal waste of money.” The police attribute the slow rollout to factors including training requirements and the time[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Oct 23

2019

Heaney talks data centers on ‘Pressroom

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Susan Arbetter and Jim Heaney discuss two Investigative Post stories that published this week regarding a proposal to build state-subsidized data centers in western and central New York. The interview aired on The Capitol Pressroom.  

Posted 6 years ago

Oct 23

2019

Questionable data center assumptions

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An alliance of environmental, community organizations and local governments support a plan to build massive data centers in two upstate towns, including Somerset in Niagara County.  Project backers contend the data centers would help the environment, provide jobs to displaced workers and replenish the tax coffers of local governments.  “It really is a win-win-win for the community, the environment and for workers,” Lisa Dix, senior New York campaign manager for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, told Investigative Post. There is reason to question those assumptions, however. The project calls for new steel structures to be built on the near-defunct coal[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Oct 22

2019

Data centers: Big subsidies, few jobs

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Subsidized data centers can be expensive propositions for taxpayers. They typically require hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer assistance for every job created — and the price tag is sometimes much steeper. The cost of subsidizing data centers built over the past decade in Lockport, for example, worked out to $1.9 million per job. That’s far higher than the typical cost per job for a government-subsidized project. What’s more, there are few indications that data centers inspire other new businesses to enter a locale, said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a subsidy watchdog organization that has[...]

Posted 6 years ago
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