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May 11

2017

Buffalo Niagara’s middling job gains

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To hear Gov. Andrew Cuomo tell it, the Western New York economy is a “national success story.” Indeed, there has been improvement during his six years in office, including the addition of 29,500 jobs and a drop in the unemployment rate. But while Buffalo Niagara is faring well against its sorry history, the region’s recovery is modest by national standards, an Investigative Post analysis found. Its job growth during the Cuomo years is one-half to one-quarter the national average, depending on which statistics you use. And half the drop in the unemployment rate can be attributed to a shrinking workforce,[...]

Posted 9 years ago

May 5

2017

Telvock discusses toxic landfill on Press Pass

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Dan Telvock of Investigative Post discusses his reporting on the toxic landfill on the Wheatfield/North Tonawanda border with Jay Moran on WBFO‘s Press Pass. The landfill is owned by the Town of Wheatfield and once contained Love Canal waste.

Posted 9 years ago

Apr 28

2017

A threat to Scajaquada Creek – and neighbors

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It’s not the view from Virginia Golden’s front porch of the former General Motors plant that bothers her. It’s the toxic gunk – up to 110,000 gallons of it – that’s underneath the plant. Neighborhood residents have been waiting – and worrying – for a decade since state environmental regulators declared several acres of the plant on East Delavan Avenue a significant threat to public health. The contaminant of concern are PCBs – so toxic that the federal government banned the manufacturing of them in 1979. The residents want the property cleaned up, but have instead endured inaction from state[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Apr 25

2017

Heaney talks mayoral race on ‘Pressroom

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Jim Heaney handicaps Buffalo’s upcoming race for mayor with Susan Arbetter on The Capitol Pressroom. Heaney, in an interview taped April 20, said challenger Mark Schroeder, the city comptroller, faces an uphill battle against incumbent Byron Brown. But he cited several factors that could change the dynamics of the election, including a decision by Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant to enter the Democratic primary. Grant announced several days after the interview that she, indeed, intended to enter the race.  

Posted 9 years ago

Apr 24

2017

National focus on Buffalo lead poisoning

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Investigative Post has reported for years that Buffalo is Ground Zero for lead poisoning in upstate New York. But a new report by Reuters designates Buffalo as among the “most dangerous lead hotspots in America.” WGRZ’s Michael Wooten interviews Investigative Post reporter Dan Telvock about his investigations and how President Trump’s proposed cuts to lead programs could impede progress. Click here to read all of Investigative Post’s reporting on the city’s serious lead poisoning problem.

Posted 9 years ago

Apr 17

2017

Cuomo: Expand study of Wheatfield landfill

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed state environmental regulators to move “quickly and thoroughly”on an investigation of a toxic landfill with a Love Canal legacy in the Town of Wheatfield. Cuomo wants the Department of Environmental Conservation to collect soil and groundwater samples from residential yards in the neighborhoods closest to the landfill “to determine whether offsite migration of contaminants has occurred.” The DEC, so far, has maintained that chemicals have been confined to the landfill. Current and former neighbors of the landfill, and their attorneys, have contended in a lawsuit that their soil tests show that landfill chemicals already have contaminated their properties. “We[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Apr 6

2017

Woman threatened over lawn signs

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An Amherst woman with a lawn sign that declares “Black Lives Matter” has been threatened by an anonymous letter writer who invoked the name of a right-wing news site. Ivy Yapelli received the letter two weeks ago stating that she had been placed on a “database of homeowners who may be deemed dangerous.” According to the letter writer, the “Black Lives Matter ” and “Resist” signs on Yapelli’s lawn promote “hatred and violence.” “It was clearly an attempt to intimidate me,” Yapelli said. No return address was provided, but the letter was signed, “Truth Revolt, Buffalo, NY Chapter.” The editor of Truth[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Mar 30

2017

Heaney talks subsidy reform in ‘Pressroom

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Continuing a discussion that started Tuesday on Capitol Pressroom, Jim Heaney and Susan Arbetter discuss the “State of Subsidies” series published this week by Investigative Post in partnership with ProPublica and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Posted 9 years ago
Investigative Post