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Mar 6

2024

Controversy around incoming Buff State president

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Editor’s note: Story has been updated to reflect new information and to correct the name of a faculty group. Some faculty at the University of Houston-Victoria are raising ethical concerns about their provost, Chance Glenn, selected to head Buffalo State University later this year. The concerns are over potential conflicts involving Glenn’s university position and his work with a private research corporation he founded, according to a March 2 article in Victoria Advocate. “We’re calling for an interim provost by the end of March,” Jeff Blodgett, a marketing professor at the Texas university, told Investigative Post. “We’re supposed to be[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Mar 5

2024

Lawsuit accuses Erie County Sheriff of stonewalling

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Erie County Sheriff John C. Garcia. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office is being sued for jail records. Again. The Partnership for the Public Good, which asked for records last May, filed suit in December after its request for documents for the downtown holding center and Alden lockup was refused. It’s the third time since 2018 that the sheriff’s office has been sued over jail records. In the two previous cases, courts ordered the sheriff’s office to provide requested documents.  “They don’t give up stuff they should give up,” said Nan Haynes, who sued the sheriff in[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Mar 4

2024

Julian Assange’s prosecution is an assault on journalism

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Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame is locked up in a British prison and fighting an effort by Joe Biden’s Justice Department to extradite him to stand charges here of violating the Espionage Act. Hearings related to his deportation were held last week in London.  Assange was a hero to many for exposing leaks from Chelsea Manning and others involving U.S. military conduct in Iran and Afghanistan and U.S. diplomatic cables.  Others have villainized him for releasing the emails of Hillary Clinton and files and emails of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential election. Suffice to say, Assange has[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Mar 1

2024

Demolition threatened for Buffalo’s ‘house from hell’

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Over a year after two dead bodies were found in a boarded-up Arkansas Street house, a city court judge is once again calling for demolition of the property.  Meanwhile, the owner is now facing similar issues with a burned-out house he owns in a different West Side neighborhood.  His attorney says Kwayo Ithe Bonkuka could afford to fix the problem properties if he gets back $80,000 he paid for a city-owned house, but never received ownership of. “If we enter into an agreement, money will be transferred back for properties,” attorney Daniel Tarantino said in a recent Housing Court appearance.[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Feb 29

2024

It’s not just kids who struggle to read

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Leah Walter teaches English as a second language to adults. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel.  Before escaping to the United States as a refugee, Baseme Muiza didn’t know how to read. She didn’t speak English. She hadn’t spent a single day in a classroom, nor had she ever received a formal education in her native Swahili. “She didn’t know nothing at all, but now she can express herself a little bit more,” Muiza said through the help of a translator, Maggie Baundea.  She’s not alone. One in six adults in Erie and Niagara counties only have the most basic literacy skills.[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Feb 28

2024

Disgraced former judge returns to the bench

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A former Lackawanna judge who resigned in disgrace 11 years ago is getting a second chance at the job, which pays close to $100,000 a year. Lackawanna Mayor Annette Iafallo will appoint Louis Violanti an associate city court judge effective March 1, a spokesman for the city confirmed.  Violanti, 50, held that same post from 2007 until 2013, when he stepped down in the wake of a ticket-fixing scandal.  In December 2012, Violanti promised a friend he’d “take care of” a citation the friend had been given for an expired registration, according to an investigation into the incident by the[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Feb 26

2024

WBEN is no longer Buffalo’s powerhouse radio station

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You could have read this yesterday in our WeeklyPost newsletter. Subscribe here. George Soros, the left-leaning billionaire and favorite bogeyman of the radical right, has bought a big chunk of debt of the bankrupt Audacy radio chain, whose local holdings include WBEN, 930 AM, and WGR, 550 AM. That positions his management fund to be Audacy’s largest shareholder when the chain emerges from bankruptcy and presumably gives him a voice in the content of its 220 stations.  That prompted Alan Pergament of The Buffalo News to speculate what it portends for WBEN and its lineup of right-of-center talk show hosts.[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Feb 23

2024

Downtown Buffalo hostel facing quick eviction

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Hostel Buffalo-Niagara at 667 Main Street in downtown Buffalo. Buffalo’s downtown hostel was notified this week that it must evacuate the Main Street building its occupied for nearly 30 years so stabilization work can begin on the hostel and an adjacent structure Initially, the hostel was given until March 1 to vacate. But by the end of  Friday, in response to concerns raised by the hostel, the city extended the deadline until March 25 – although representatives for the hostel are saying it’s still not enough time. “We feel heard for right now, but we need more and we want[...]

Posted 2 months ago
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