Latest

Aug 29

2022

Monday Morning Read

Published by

Subscribe to WeeklyPost and you’ll get Jim Heaney’s recommended reading – and more – a day early. Well, I suppose we should talk about Matt Araiza, the so-called Punt God drafted, signed and given a roster spot by our Buffalo Bills. It turns out he’s also an accused rapist. And, as a result, a former Bill, as of Saturday night. The obvious questions are when did the Bills find out about the accusation and how could they have allowed the situation to get as far as it did? Team officials initially claimed they did a thorough investigation, but the accuser’s[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Aug 24

2022

Subsidies for South Buffalo pot farm

Published by

Updated: 1:46 p.m. A pot growing operation in South Buffalo has received two major subsidies from economic development agencies. The first, in January, came from the New York Power Authority, which approved an allocation of 2.9 megawatts of discounted hydropower. That equates to $3.5 million in savings over 10 years, based on 2021 energy prices, a NYPA spokesman told Investigative Post. The second subsidy came Wednesday from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency, which approved tax breaks worth $3.1 million over 15 years.  It’s the first subsidy the IDA has awarded to a marijuana producer and the second largest tax-break[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Aug 23

2022

Just how rich is Carl Paladino?

Published by

  Carl Paladino, who says he’ll be “a voice for the people” in Congress, waited until the Friday before election day to tell voters how rich he is. Spoiler alert: He’s very rich. Paladino’s income was at least $4.5 million last year, according to a personal financial disclosure he filed last Friday with the U.S. House Ethics Committee. The outer limit of his income was seven times greater. In addition, he listed assets worth as much as $86 million. The Republican real-estate developer was a month late in filing the disclosure statement, required of all candidates running for federal office.[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Aug 21

2022

If Henry Wojtaszek was Pinocchio

Published by

Here’s the latest recommended reading – and this week, viewing – from Jim Heaney. Subscribe to his Sunday email newsletter and you’ll get the news a day earlier, along with a recap of Investigative Post’s reporting from the previous week. Updated: 12:22 p.m. Henry Wojtaszek, the embattled CEO of the embattled Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., took the unusual step of answering questions from a reporter last week. He appeared Wednesday on WGRZ’s 5:30 p.m. newscast. Michael Wooten asked the right questions and Wojtaszek, well, let’s just say if he was Pinocchio, his nose would have been very long by the[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Aug 17

2022

Police union pressing to suppress records

Published by

Buffalo’s police union is making headway in its efforts to put a lid on the release of officers’ disciplinary records. Last Friday, lawyers for the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association filed a lawsuit against the City of Buffalo, asking a judge to order the city to honor an arbitrator’s decision curtailing the public’s right to learn about allegations of police misconduct. If successful, the lawsuit would require the city to destroy all records of a misconduct complaint against an officer unless the department’s Internal Affairs Division finds the officer guilty.  That would eliminate records of almost all complaints and the investigations[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Aug 15

2022

Judge tosses libel lawsuit against iPost

Published by

A state Supreme Court judge has dismissed a libel lawsuit brought by a Buffalo developer against Investigative Post and reporter Dan Telvock.  State Supreme Court Judge Mark Montour also ruled developer James Sweizy and his company Greenleaf Development & Construction failed to prove Telvock’s story, published in 2017, contained any false information and dismissed a related “injurious falsehood” claim.  The 2017 report documented how officials at SUNY Buffalo State failed to follow usual procurement rules in dealing with Greenleaf regarding construction of student housing adjacent to the Elmwood Avenue campus. The story also reported that Swiezy gave a college official[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Aug 14

2022

Monday Morning Read

Published by

Consider this food for thought to start your week. Available, by the way, Sunday mornings, along with a summary of what Investigative Post published the previous week, in an email newsletter. It’s free, so, hey. Subscribe here. The New York Times sizes up the race between Carl Paladino and Nick Langworthy.  The Times also writes about how the attack on Salman Rushdie has shaken the Chautauqua Institution.   Ken Kruly, in his Politics and Other Stuff, details all the money spent by local companies and nonprofits to lobby officials in state government. It’s a lot. Ken’s list of individual spending by organizations[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Aug 12

2022

Meet Investigative Post’s newest reporter

Published by

The hiring of I’Jaz Ja’ciel completes the rebuilding of Investigative Post’s reporting staff. A Buffalo native, Ja’ciel comes to Investigative Post from Spectrum News, where she was a multimedia, general assignment journalist. Before that, she was a weekend anchor for WBFO. Ja’ciel, 29, earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism at SUNY Buffalo State, winning numerous awards for academic excellence. She went on to earn a master’s degree from Buffalo State in data science and analytics. “I’Jaz brings a lot of skills, including broadcast production and data-based reporting, to our newsroom,” said Editor Jim Heaney. Said Ja’ciel: “Having lived in Buffalo[...]

Posted 1 month ago