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Sep 18

2024

Infographic: Buffalo transplants prefer Tampa area

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We reviewed eight years of IRS data and found more people moving out of Erie County each year than moving in. The spread had been declining but started getting wider from 2019 to 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic hitting in 2020. The spread continued to grow, right up to 2021-22, the most recent year the data is available. There were 3,655 more people moving out of Erie County than moving in from 2021 to 2022, the numbers show. A closer look at 2021-22 We took a deeper dive into the 2021-22 data to get a better sense of where people[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Sep 17

2024

Help wanted: Investigative Post is hiring a managing editor

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Investigative Post is hiring a managing editor to work with Editor Jim Heaney in overseeing our award-winning coverage of Buffalo and Western New York. The ideal job candidate has an accomplished track record as both an editor and investigative reporter. They’re facile with data. Good working with reporters to develop stories. A good line editor who is not shy about rewriting copy when necessary. And has good people skills. Investigative Post is highly regarded for our high-impact reporting and considered the go-to source for accountability journalism in Western New York. We distribute our work through our website and several television[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Sep 17

2024

New York’s toothless FOI Law

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Criminal justice reporter Bruce Rushton. Photo by Garrett Looker. I’ve been a reporter for a half dozen daily and alternative news organizations, including Investigative Post, in five states since 1987. New York has been the worst one I’ve worked in when it comes to public records. In Illinois, government turns over documents because the law matters. That’s why Rahm Emanuel is ambassador to Japan instead of mayor of Chicago, where autopsy reports, unlike here, are public records. While mainstream media slept, an independent journalist 10 years ago exposed a Windy City murder by requesting the autopsy report on Laquan McDonald,[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Sep 15

2024

Arena/stadium planning done right

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They’re thinking big in Carolina. The hockey Hurricanes just unveiled an ambitious $1 billion plan to develop 80 acres into a mixed use campus. That’s on top of a $300 million renovation to its PNC Arena, which sits adjacent to the North Carolina State’s football stadium. It’s funny what you can do when you put sports facilities next to each other – located in the city proper, no less.  Buffalo News hockey writer Mike Harrington noted the lack of progress around KeyBank Center, aside from LECOM Harborcenter and a couple of hotels. Alumni Plaza has been untouched for more than[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Sep 12

2024

And the next mayor of Buffalo is …

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Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown hasn’t yet accepted his job offer from Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.  He hasn’t submitted a letter of resignation from office. I asked the city clerk on Tuesday, just to be sure. But smart money says he’ll have vacated the second floor of City Hall before Halloween, leaving Common Council President Chris Scanlon as acting mayor. As acting mayor, Scanlon will be a quasi-incumbent when voters choose a new mayor next year. That may not be much of an advantage, given the city’s financial issues, and there will be many candidates vying for many different voting[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Sep 10

2024

Jail deaths substantially higher than reported

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At least 57 Erie County jail inmates have died since 2005, a much higher number than previously reported. The death rate has barely budged in nearly a quarter century. Indeed, it has ticked up since Sheriff John Garcia took office, taking over from a predecessor widely criticized for the number of jail deaths on his watch. Forty-four prisoners, or one inmate every 4½ months, died under former Sheriff Timothy Howard, who became sheriff in June 2005, after five inmates had already died earlier that year under the previous sheriff, Patrick Gallivan. With eight deaths since Garcia took office in January[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Sep 9

2024

Buffalo fails to collect $2.3 million in ambulance fees

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The company that provides ambulance service to the City of Buffalo hasn’t paid an annual franchise fee to the city since its contract expired in 2020. That lapse has cost the cash-strapped city nearly $2.3 million in revenue, according to city budget documents and Fillmore District Council Member Mitch Nowakowski, chair of the Common Council’s Finance Committee. Nowakowski blames the company for not paying and Mayor Byron Brown’s administration for failing to collect the money and negotiate a new contract. “They are operating in our city without a contract and for free,” Nowakowski told Investigative Post. “This a failure within[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Sep 8

2024

So much for reforming OTB

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The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. stayed true to form last week in hiring Byron Brown as its new president and CEO. OTB, perhaps the sleaziest government operation in Western New York, conducted what appears to be a sham recruitment process leading up to the mayor’s hiring. Officials have been largely silent about how they went about advertising the job, aside from Chairman Dennis Bassett telling The Buffalo News the agency posted the job on LinkedIn. LinkedIn? No ads in trade journals? No outreach through recruiters? If OTB did anything beyond LinkedIn, officials aren’t saying. OTB officials said 133 people[...]

Posted 8 months ago
Investigative Post