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Jun 25

2025

Five takeaways from the Buffalo mayoral primary

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Editor’s note: This story was updated Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. State Sen. Sean Ryan scored a resounding victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Buffalo mayor, beating Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon — his chief rival — by 11 percentage points. Ryan finished with over 46 percent of the vote in the five-way race, while the incumbent had just over 35 percent. The three other candidates — former fire commissioner Garnell Whitfield, University District Council Member Rasheed Wyatt and former Assembly staffer Anthony Tyson-Thompson — split the rest. Here are five takeaways from yesterday’s results: It was all about turnout Ryan’s base[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Jun 24

2025

Sean Ryan handily wins Buffalo mayoral primary

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State Sen. Sean Ryan beat Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon in yesterday’s Democratic primary by about 11 percentage points — nearly 3,000 votes. I thought it would be closer. So did Ryan’s campaign team. There are provisional ballots still to be counted, but not enough to change the results. We’ll provide an analysis of the race and what voters say motivated them this afternoon on our website. But here’s a few things to know about how it broke down: — Ryan had 12,249 votes at the close of the night, Scanlon 9,278. Ryan captured 46.5 percent of the vote, Scanlon 35.2[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Jun 24

2025

Uncertain prospects for rent subsidies

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A rent subsidy program that helps some 10,000 households in Erie County is bracing for cuts in federal assistance.  Two of three agencies that administer the Section 8 program have stopped issuing new vouchers, despite long waiting lists. Some agencies are calling this a “complete 180” to their previous efforts in November to provide renters with better access to apartments in the suburbs and more well-to-do neighborhoods in the city. In January, HUD began basing Section 8 voucher awards on ZIP codes, adjusting payments to match neighborhood market conditions. That resulted in larger subsidies for rentals in affluent communities where[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Jun 23

2025

Troubling transparency issues with local cops

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Sandy Tan of The Buffalo News produced an excellent piece on the lack of transparency on the part of many local law enforcement agencies. Ignoring or slow-walking requests made under the Freedom of Information Law. Failing to release information about taxpayer-funded settlements involving public employees. Having a seemingly separate set of rules for dealing with reported criminal behavior when it involves a police officer. Not acknowledging property damage incidents. It is all part of a well-worn playbook now being followed in the case of Daniel “D.J.” Granville, the embattled Erie County Sheriff’s Office narcotics chief who has been on sick[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Jun 20

2025

Feds seeking to deport sickle cell patient over theft

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U.S. immigration officials are seeking to deport to Venezuela a 20-year-old migrant living in Buffalo and suffering from sickle cell disease because he has been accused of shoplifting at the Walden Galleria Mall. A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Investigative Post the charge of shoplifting “nullifies” Anderson Contreras-Hernandez’s legal status and, under the newly enacted Laken Riley Act, means he must be detained by immigration authorities. To date, he has not been convicted of any crime. The spokesperson described Contreras-Hernandez as “amenable to deportation.” His attorneys, in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, have appealed to U.S. District Judge[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Jun 19

2025

Buffalo’s $2 million mayoral primary

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Next Tuesday’s Democratic primary election for Buffalo mayor is already a $2 million affair, as of the most recent campaign finance disclosures, with a weekend of TV and radio spots, phone banks, social media ads and mailers still to come. That figure doesn’t count independent expenditures — money spent by political committees unaffiliated with, but supporting, a one candidate or another. The first such independent expenditure took place this week in support of Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, paid for by an Albany-based group whose backers are for now a mystery. On its own account, Scanlon’s campaign committee has spent $950,879[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Jun 17

2025

Feds won’t retrieve wrongfully deported migrant

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Jordin Melgar-Salmeron. Photo submitted. Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, the Salvadoran man long detained in Batavia and deported to his home country last month in violation of a federal court order, is allowed to return to the United States. But only if he can get to the border himself. That’s the position the Trump administration has taken in the case, according to recent court filings reviewed by Investigative Post. Melgar-Salmeron’s attorneys are demanding the government actively facilitate his return, as it did for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, another Salvadoran man deported in violation of a court order whose case has gained wide attention. Following[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Jun 17

2025

Podcast: Profiling Buffalo mayoral candidates

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There’s just one week left until the Democratic primary fro Buffalo mayor, the marquee race this election season. In the last month, Investigative Post’s government and politics reporter, Geoff Kelly, profiled four of the five candidates on the ballot: state Sen. Sean Ryan, University District Council Member Rasheed Wyatt, former Assembly staffer Anthony Tyson-Thompson and former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield. In January Kelly wrote a three-part profile of the fifth candidate, Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon. Editor Jim Heaney last week sat down to ask Kelly his impressions of the candidates and the contest. The candidates and their issues Acting[...]

Posted 1 month ago
Investigative Post