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Feb 24

2012

Hydrofracking contributions to state pols

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Our first installment of Joe Friday involves contributions made to political candidates and parties by companies with a vested interest in New York State opening up the Marcellus Shale to drilling for natural gas through a controversial process called hydraulic fracturing. A Common Cause recently released a study that tracked contributions from 2007 to October 2011. While the Buffalo metropolitan area lies just northwest of the Marcellus Shale, the contributions have a Western New York flavor. Here are the facts: Natural gas interests made 2,340 contributions totaling $1.34 million to candidates and political parties in New York State. Four companies[...]

Posted 14 years ago

Feb 23

2012

Cuomo’s welcome break with the past

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A fair number of folks I’m talking to in economic development circles aren’t entirely sold on Andrew Cuomo’s plan to spend $1 billion to jump start the Buffalo economy. For starters, a lot of the details have yet to be worked out. There’s skepticism over the governor’s motives. And there’s his apparent intent to throw a lot of money at companies willing to relocate to the region, which has the makings of  good photo ops but a poor return on investment. But Cuomo is showing a willingness – indeed, an eagerness – to abandon the mindset behind the failed policies[...]

Posted 14 years ago

Feb 23

2012

Clearing up the confusion

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The governor wants all the development in the city. Or not. He’s focused on just a couple of big projects. Or maybe more. The answers vary regarding Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plans for $1 billion in state incentives to rally the local economy, depending on who is doing the talking. And a lot of people are talking. Mayor Byron Brown. State Sen. George Maziarz. Assemblyman Sean Ryan. Among others. Investigative Post interviewed the two local officials who have spoken directly with Cuomo about his intentions and who are among those charged with translating into action his $1 billion pledge of economic[...]

Posted 14 years ago

Feb 22

2012

Cuomo’s $1B economic stimulus for region: Promising vision, questionable assumptions

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to invest $1 billion of state incentives in an effort to revitalize the region’s economy is even bolder than the “B as in billion” suggests. Bold, but potentially flawed. Cuomo is alone among the nation’s 50 governors in targeting that kind of money at a regional economy. “To have a governor willing to spend $1 billion in one metropolitan area is truly exceptional these days, given states’ fiscal conditions,” said Greg LeRoy, a national expert on economic development subsidy programs and executive director of Good Jobs First. Moreover, Cuomo wants to break from current economic development[...]

Posted 14 years ago

Feb 22

2012

The journalistic DNA of Investigative Post

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I’ve had a quote from Carl Bernstein taped to the front of my computer terminal for the better part of 20 years that reads, “Reporting is not stenography. It is the best obtainable version of the truth.” They were words I worked by as I toiled at The Buffalo News and a mantra of sorts for my new venture, Investigative Post, non-profit investigative reporting center focused on issues of importance to Buffalo and Western New York. I’ve never been a fan of the “he said, she said” brand of journalism practiced by many reporters and taken to its lowest form[...]

Posted 14 years ago
Investigative Post