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Mar 2

2017

State still behind the curve on lead poisoning

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The state Department of Health is providing free testing for lead in drinking water, but the $1.5 million allocated to the pilot program won’t go very far. At $70 per test, the program would provide testing for some 21,400 households across the state. Nonetheless, the program is a step in the right direction that will inform people about the dangers of lead poisoning and lead in drinking water. Lead is a toxic metal harmful to the developing brains and nervous systems of young children. But the state still falls short when it comes to combating lead poisoning, which remains a serious problem in[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Mar 2

2017

Heaney talks Buffalo police on ‘Pressroom

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Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom interviewed Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney on Thursday about his organization’s recent reporting on problems within the Buffalo Police Department. Recent stories include a story Heaney did with Steve Brown of WGRZ on the city’s low homicide clearance rate and a piece by Daniela Porat on a the inadequate monitoring of police conduct. 

Posted 9 years ago

Mar 1

2017

Still getting away with murder in Buffalo

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Two years ago, Investigative Post and WGRZ teamed up to examine the Buffalo Police Department’s inability to solve murders. At the time, police were solving only about a quarter of homicides. A follow-up investigation which aired Wednesday on WGRZ found the department still has a low batting average. Police have cleared only 38 percent of murders committed in the past three years, including 25 percent last year. That compares with a national clearance rate of about 60 percent. Investigative Post and WGRZ found that police are clearing about three-quarters of murders involving robberies, domestic disputes, child abuse and the like.[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 22

2017

Five years on for Investigative Post

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Today marks a milestone for Investigative Post: We celebrate our fifth year in business. We launched with what turned out to be a prophetic story: an analysis of what was then a fledgling program known as the Buffalo Billion. I quoted experts offering advice on how to make smart use of the money and cautioning against the temptation of spending tax dollars to secure on trophy projects. I re-read the story a couple of months ago and it seems as though Gov. Andrew Cuomo has done the opposite of what the experts recommended. Investigative Post has built its reputation for[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 21

2017

Buff State’s deal with Greenleaf raises red flags

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Buffalo State College will prohibit seniors from living on its Elmwood Avenue campus starting this fall to benefit a developer with an unsavory track record of renting to students. The college and one of its foundations struck a deal with developer Greenleaf Development and Construction that facilitated the building of dorm-style housing adjacent to campus without competitive proposals or independent review by the state comptroller. These are procedures that typically govern SUNY dealings with private businesses. A Buffalo State official who brokered the deal insisted the college did nothing wrong. “We would follow SUNY procurement rules if they applied in[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 15

2017

Scant oversight of Buffalo police

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It’s a question that has taken on greater urgency in post-Ferguson America: Who polices the police? The answer in Buffalo is no one. The city’s police department is not subject to the type of civilian oversight that takes place in cities such as Rochester, Pittsburgh and, more recently, Chicago. The task of investigating citizen complaints of police misconduct in Buffalo is assigned primarily to the department itself. But its Internal Affairs Division rarely finds officers at fault when it investigates allegations of excessive use of force. Internal Affairs cleared officers of wrongdoing in 58 of the 62 completed investigations into[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 13

2017

Lawyer questions police over deadly encounter

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It’s been six days since Wardel Davis, a 20-year-old African American man, died after an encounter with two Buffalo police officers on the city’s West Side. What little the public has been told has come primarily from the police and an attorney representing the two officers. Another side of the story is emerging in an exclusive interview with the attorney retained by Davis’s family. “There are troubling inconsistencies with the police version of events,” Steven Cohen told Investigative Post. Cohen, a veteran defense and civil rights attorney, said he is troubled by a lack of transparency on the part of police, including[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 9

2017

Paying price for radioactive hotspots in Niagara

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John Raymond was about to sell his home in Lewiston until Environmental Protection Agency officials showed up last spring armed with radiation detectors. Turns out that Raymond’s basement had radon, a potent radioactive gas linked to lung cancer, at levels three times greater than regulatory limits. EPA officials said it’s possible Raymond has radioactive fill under his home that may be linked to similar material found across the street by Holy Trinity Cemetery. That’s where the EPA detected radioactivity more than 75 times higher than what’s normal for the local environment. “Basically I’m stuck,” Raymond said. “One of the guys[...]

Posted 9 years ago
Investigative Post