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Apr 29

2025

Neighbors say site of Allentown murders was ‘unsafe’

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Neighbors of Mickey Harmon and Jordan Celotto — the Allentown couple murdered in their home on March 4 — say the tragedy might have been averted if the building they lived in had been better maintained and secured. The couple’s landlord disputes that notion. Harmon and Celotto moved into the lower apartment at 5 St. Louis Place last September. Their upstairs neighbor, Jordan Bidwell, who lived in the property since 2021, was not was not home during the break-in, but she claimed the basement window that accused murderer Bryan Chiclana used to access the house was boarded up with a[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Apr 28

2025

A Buffalo mayoral poll, plus city budget news

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There was a poll out in the field last week gauging Buffalo voters’ opinions of two Democratic candidates for mayor and the campaign messages they’ve been testing out against one another. I took the survey on my landline at home last Tuesday evening. I took what felt like an abbreviated version of the same poll by text the next day. Six Democrats have qualified to run in the June primary, but the poll focused squarely on two of them: Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon and state Sen. Sean Ryan, who has the Democratic endorsement for the June primary. Two Democrats on[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Apr 25

2025

ICE arrests two Buffalo men

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  Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents detain man on Buffalo’s West Side. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Wednesday morning arrested two Buffalo men on the city’s West Side, Investigative Post has learned. ICE has so far refused to acknowledge the arrests but bystanders and family members confirmed that two men were arrested around 9 a.m. Wednesday. Witnesses said four unmarked law enforcement vehicles pulled up to the corner of Rhode Island and 14th streets. Photographs provided to Investigative Post show ICE officers arresting two men who were loading a blue Chevrolet Silverado work truck. A witness told Investigative Post[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Apr 24

2025

Scanlon disputes Kleinhans “privatization” meeting

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Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon didn’t like our story on discussions he’s had about offloading maintenance costs for city-owned cultural venues such as Kleinhans Music Hall, Shea’s Performing Arts Center and the Buffalo Zoo. Scanlon Thursday morning put out a statement calling the report “inaccurate, misleading and irresponsible.” He took particular issue with our reporting that he’d discussed “the potential of ‘privatizing’ or ‘selling’ Kleinhans Music Hall.” “In fact, there was not and will not be any talk about selling city-owned cultural facilities as long as I’m mayor,” he wrote. Here’s a screenshot of the acting mayor’s full statement. It was[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Apr 21

2025

Who’ll make the primary ballot?

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Attorney Jessica Kulpit is a lock to be elected to an Erie County Court judgeship this November. There are two county judgeships on the ballot this fall and, as is so often the case around here, exactly the same number of candidates to choose from. Kulpit and incumbent James Bargnesi — both Democrats — will appear on the Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Working Families party lines. The cross-endorsement deal between parties also ensures the reelection of incumbent Erie County Family Court Judge Brenda Freedman, a Republican who will have the Democratic and Conservative lines, as well as that of her[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Apr 18

2025

Listen: I’Jaz Ja’ciel guest-hosts NPR’s What’s Next?

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Investigative Post reporter I’Jaz Ja’ciel recently signed on as a new guest host for Buffalo Toronto Public Media NPR’s What’s Next? — a program that discusses topics pertaining to Buffalo’s marginalized communities. Donate to support our nonprofit newsroom Her first episode aired Thursday and featured Dr. Marcus Watson, an associate professor and program coordinator of Africana Studies at Buffalo State University, and two seniors from Buffalo State, Jay Phillips and Jadon Williams. The discussion included details about Black Buffalo Speaks: An Africana Studies Event, a conference the university will host Saturday, April 19 from 10:30 am to 4 pm. Ja’ciel[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Apr 17

2025

IDAs responsible for millions in tax breaks, fees

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Meetings of the Erie and Niagara county IDAs (top) and the Genesee County IDA industrial park (bottom). Across Western New York last year, some 639 companies were allowed to skip out on $91 million in tax payments. In exchange, those companies kept nearly 18,000 people employed.  The story doesn’t end there. The companies also paid fees to the industrial development agencies that issued those tax breaks — nearly $22 million in 2024. For nine of the 13 IDAs in the region, those fees covered 75 percent or more of their annual budgets. Those figures are spelled out in the annual[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Apr 16

2025

Wojtaszek back on the public payroll

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Wojtaszek at one of his final Western OTB meetings. Photo by Garrett Looker. Months after leaving his six-figure job as president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., Henry Wojtaszek has landed a new position as a “relicensing attorney” for the Town of Lewiston.  Town board members agreed during a work session on Monday to hire Wojtaszek at a rate of $300 per hour to assist in an upcoming review of part of a 50-year federal relicensing agreement that provided the town with an allocation of low-cost power from the New York Power Authority.  Wojtaszek’s hiring came at the[...]

Posted 2 months ago
Investigative Post