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Mar 6

2019

OTB protecting its perks

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The regional Off Track Betting Corporation has a story – two stories, actually – and they’re sticking to them. Officials there continue to insist that the OTB is authorized to provide health, dental and vision insurance free of charge to its board of directors. Gold-plated insurance, described to me by one health insurance expert as “literally the richest plan available.” I reported in December that the state Attorney General issued an opinion in 2008 that appears to conclude that OTBs are not permitted to provide health insurance coverage to board members. President Henry Wojtaszek responded by pledging to ask the[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Mar 5

2019

A changing tide on license suspensions

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New York is one of at least 41 states that suspend drivers’ licenses if they fail to pay traffic fines. In 2016, the state Department of Motor Vehicles issued 53,648 suspension or revocation orders to drivers in Erie County, according to data obtained Investigative Post. This captures suspensions issued for any reason, but experts said the vast majority are related to traffic tickets. “Suspending a license is a patently absurd remedy to someone who can’t pay traffic tickets,” Blake Strode, the executive director of ArchCity Defenders, a civil rights law firm based in Missouri, told Investigative Post. New York’s practice[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Feb 28

2019

Heaney talks OTB on ‘Pressroom

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Jim Heaney walks Susan Arbetter through his recent story on the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. OTB officials, he said on The Capitol Pressroom, are resisting calls to stop providing health insurance to board members and to disclose who is using tickets purchased to attend concerts and sporting events.  

Posted 7 years ago

Feb 27

2019

City Hall cashing in on traffic tickets

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 First, City Hall talked the state into allowing it to keep most of the money from traffic tickets issued by Buffalo police. Police then started handing out tickets in record numbers, jumping from around 32,000 in the year before the Buffalo Traffic Violations Agency was created in 2015 to more than 52,000 the year after. Since then, police have written far more tickets for tinted windows than for speeding or running red lights and stop signs. Revenues soared accordingly—up from around $500,000 in the year before the traffic agency was created, to more than $2.8 million in the fiscal[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Feb 13

2019

Proposed wind turbines generating conflict

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Pam Atwater lives on six and a half acres in the Niagara County Town of Somerset. Her home is primarily fueled by energy from the solar panels on the rooftop of her barn and a geothermal system that heats and cools her house. Despite her embrace of renewable energy, Atwater leads a group fighting to prevent a Virginia-based company from placing 47 wind turbines across the southern shore of Lake Ontario in her community and the neighboring Town of Yates. The project could create enough energy to power 53,000 homes. The 591-foot wind turbines would be among the tallest structures[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Feb 7

2019

Water quality projects go begging for funds

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 Only half the projects eligible for state aid to improve sewage and drinking water systems received funding in recent years, according to a report issued Thursday. The problem, according to Environmental Advocates of New York, is that the $200 million a year the state has allocated for the work falls well short of what’s needed. “Those aren’t the odds we need to protect New York’s drinking water,” said Robert Hayes, the author of the report, during a press call. “But at the moment, there simply isn’t enough funding to go around.” Projects include upgrading wastewater treatment plants, replacing eroding water[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jan 16

2019

Report: Tainted soil near Tonawanda Coke

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A university research team released a report Wednesday that found — to no one’s surprise — that some of the soil around the Tonawanda Coke plant is contaminated with a host of toxic chemicals. The affected areas include two areas near the plant in the town and city of Tonawanda. Contamination was also found across the Niagara River in a section of Grand Island, as well as two public schools. The study by scientists from the University at Buffalo and SUNY Fredonia found elevated levels of toxins in the soil including lead, mercury, arsenic, cyanide and PCBs. The judicial order that[...]

Posted 7 years ago
Investigative Post