Investigative Post

It’s rarely, if ever, a good thing when a chain buys a newspaper. And so it is with the surprise announcement today that The Buffalo News is being sold to Lee Enterprises, one of the larger newspaper chains in the country. We can expect cuts to an already depleted newsroom if Lee’s track record at […]

Air pollution killed 7 million worldwide last year, the World Health Organization reports. Put another way: dirty air is associated with one in eight deaths. While the problem is more prevalent in rapidly developing Third World nations, we in WNY deal with the problem, as well. A story from the New York Times.

He’s been protecting male lawmakers who sexually harass female employees for years. Now comes a report that the Assembly speaker has used his influence to thwart development that would have brought low-income residents to Silver’s neighborhood. A report from The New York Times.

A federal court judge Wednesday fined Tonawanda Coke $12.5 million and ordered it to underwrite studies that will cost the company up to an additional $12.2 million. The plant’s retired manager was sentenced to a year in prison. Some criticize the punishment as lenient. A report from The Buffalo News.

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is moving towards legalizing marijuana. Morgan Pehme of City and State NY wonders aloud if tribes here might follow suit. “Growing and selling marijuana on Indian reservations could provide a massive windfall for New York’s economically depressed tribes,” he writes.

The Associated Press confirms what many working reporters already know: the federal government is using the pretext of national security to deny a growing number of requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. Secrecy at the federal level is part of a trend throughout government to thwart the public’s right to know.

“Intercept,” the first online publication produced by the partnership involving Pierre Omidyar and Glenn Greenwald, serves up this troubling report: “Western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction.”