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Apr 3

2015

Scajaquada Creek coverage honored

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Investigative Reporters & Editors has cited Investigative Post and WGRZ for their coverage of the sorry state of Scajaquada Creek. IRE, the world’s leading professional organization of investigative journalists, recognized the Scajaquada Creek coverage in announcing the winners of its annual reporting awards.  The Scajaquada Creek coverage was listed as one of three finalists for multi-platform reporting in the small market category. The competition involved more than 550 entries from news organizations that include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, ProPublica, Frontline and CNN. IRE handed out first-place awards in 14 categories and recognized 51 finalists. The[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 26

2015

Panel split on need for new Bills stadium

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A new stadium for the Buffalo Bills would cost $1 billion to construct and require up to $600 million in public infrastructure improvements, an entrepreneur who has proposed building a facility on the Outer Harbor says. A new Bills stadium was the topic of discussion for a panel of speakers Wednesday during a happy hour discussion at Allen Street Hardware sponsored by Investigative Post. But do the Bills really need one, especially considering the $130 million in renovations to Ralph Wilson stadium that the team unveiled this past season? “Absolutely yes,” said George Hasiotis, vice president of the Greater Buffalo Sports &[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 24

2015

Cuomo still stonewalling on Buffalo Billion

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The Cuomo administration has redoubled its efforts to suppress the release of documents that disclose how it is selecting developers and spending money on the Buffalo Billion program. The Fort Schuyler Management Corp., charged with managing the program, is still refusing to release information sought by Investigative Post despite a legal opinion recently issued by the State Committee on Open Government that concluded the agency is subject to the Freedom of Information Law. “In my opinion, it is cut and dried,” said Robert Freeman, the committee’s executive director. “It is, in essence, a governmental agency, that it is required to[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 23

2015

City Hall inflating Buffalo’s recycling rate

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Mayor Byron Brown’s administration has found a new way to inflate the city’s recycling rate by counting clothing donations given to nonprofits such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army. By taking credit for clothing donations – some 4,800 tons last year – the Brown administration is expanding on a practice started in 2013 of counting materials the city does not collect and which state and federal authorities discourage localities from including when calculating recycling rates. Brown, by including these materials, has claimed an ever increasing recycling rate. But data obtained by Investigative Post shows the city’s curbside recycling rate has[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 13

2015

Thwarting the public’s right to know

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Government reluctance to release public records is at an all-time high – particularly in New York State and the City of Buffalo – a panel of experts said Wednesday at a luncheon sponsored by Investigative Post. “It’s increasingly difficult to acquire records in a timely way,” said Robert Freeman, executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government. Freeman said that while the Cuomo administration has made progress on open data and providing online access to some records, the length of time it takes state agencies to fulfill Freedom of Information requests “warrants criticism.” “Across all levels of[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 10

2015

Council’s slow motion response to murder crisis

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Steve Brown and I reported five weeks ago that Buffalo has a serious murder problem. Our city’s homicide rate is among the highest in the nation — and the solve rate is among the worst. Over the past five years, police have cleared only 39 percent of homicides, and that rate has been steadily dropping, to just 23 percent last year. Gang violence and a resulting lack of cooperation from witnesses, and the community at large, partly explain the low clearance rate. But shortcomings in the city’s homicide squad also come into play. The problems are pronounced enough that Erie[...]

Posted 11 years ago
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