May 14
2019
Geoff Kelly’s current “PoliticalPost” blog details the risky assumptions Mayor Byron Brown has built into his proposed city budget. Kelly discussed those concerns on WBFO’s Press Pass.
May 10
2019
There is little fat in Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown’s proposed 2019-2020 budget, as befits a city where, despite aspirational talk of a renaissance, population is stagnant and job growth and real wages trail national averages. However, that word aspirational also applies to some projected revenue streams on which Brown’s budget relies. Other words and phrases come to mind, too, such as tentative, maybe, never going to happen, and zombie. Below is a quick look at some of those revenue projections, totaling about $20 million of the $508 million budget. (Today, the office of interim City Comptroller Barbara Miller Williams released its[...]
May 9
2019
In just over two years, New York State issued nearly 1.7 million driver’s license suspensions to more than 620,000 drivers — a disproportionate number of them poor, people of color or both. These suspensions were not the result of reckless or drunken driving, or other dangerous behavior; they were slapped on drivers who failed to pay a traffic ticket fine or show up for a court date over it. These numbers come from an analysis released on Wednesday by Driven By Justice, a statewide coalition that worked with state Sen. Tim Kennedy on a bill to end the practice of[...]
May 8
2019
The obfuscation of the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. was on full display Tuesday night when its president, Henry Wojtaszek, spoke at a meeting of the Niagara County Legislature. Wojtaszek had been asked by lawmakers to address several issues, including his refusal to release the names of those provided tickets and Sabres and Bills tickets purchased by the OTB. Former State Senator George Maziarz has charged that OTB employees and board members are improperly helping themselves to tickets. Wojtaszek insisted that the tickets are given out to high rollers at the OTB’s casino at Batavia Downs, but he has refused[...]
May 7
2019
Investigative Post has scheduled three events for this summer, capped by its popular benefit concert at Sportsmen’s Tavern featuring Tom Toles and The Outlyers. The Aug. 16 show will cap a summer that also includes two speaker panels at Big Ditch Brewing. On Tuesday, June 4, Geoff Kelly, former editor of The Public and Artvoice, will discuss the past, present and future of the alternative press in Buffalo. On Wednesday, July 17, two Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonists, Toles and Adam Zyglis of the Buffalo News, will discuss their craft and current affairs at Big Ditch. Toles, editorial cartoonist with The[...]
May 6
2019
Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney, whose reporting exposed corruption in the Buffalo Billion program, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Nellie Bly Award for Investigative Reporting. The award, named in honor of the pioneering investigative reporter from the late 19th century, is granted by the Albany-based Museum of Political Corruption. “The judges found much about Heaney’s passion for justice and determination to uncover the truth that mimics Bly’s celebrated career,” according to the museum’s press release announcing the award. Heaney in 2014 exposed irregularities in the state’s awarding of a contract to LPCiminelli to develop a $750[...]
May 2
2019
Investigative Post reported last week that the FBI is investigating the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. Editor Jim Heaney discussed the investigation, and related issues, Thursday with Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom. Heaney also discussed a recent Investigative Post story on Buffalo’s failure to enact recommendations made more than a year ago to address the city’s serious lead poisoning problem.
May 1
2019
Hundreds of young children living in Buffalo’s inner-city neighborhoods continue to be diagnosed every year with lead poisoning. And City Hall continues to do next to nothing about it. “Buffalo has not made as much progress as other communities have and not as much progress as perhaps they could,” said Andrew McLellan, president of Environmental Education Associates, which trains contractors and others to recognize and remediate lead hazards. Thirteen months ago, the Center for Governmental Research, a consulting firm in Rochester, developed an action plan with 19 recommendations for the city, county and state to adopt. The county has[...]