Categories for News

May 8

2025

City Hall discusses ‘public-private partnership’ for culturals

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Kleinhans Music Hall. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s administration wants to set the record straight: Under no circumstances will the City of Buffalo sell the buildings used by its cultural institutions. “There was never the word ‘sale’ mentioned out of the mayor’s mouth, or anyone in this building’s mouth,” Deputy Mayor Brian Gould said in a recent interview with Investigative Post. “We’ve never said the word ‘privatization.’ We’ve never said the word ‘sale.’” Indeed, it wouldn’t even be possible for the city to sell Kleinhans Music Hall, for example — the deed forbids it. But questions[...]

Posted 15 hours ago

May 6

2025

ICE detainee in legal limbo

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Saul Valverde-Venegas and his wife, Paula Diaz, on the Maid of the Mist tour in Niagara Falls. Photo provided. Saul Valverde-Venegas, the Buffalo man arrested two weeks ago by federal immigration officers, is stuck — legally and literally. “I’m trying to have a strong mindset,” he told Investigative Post in a phone interview from the Buffalo Federal Detention Center in Batavia, where he’s been held since his April 23 arrest on the city’s West Side. He said the arrest caught him by surprise. “We went out to go to work and they just caught us,” he said. “Of course I[...]

Posted 3 days ago

May 3

2025

Scanlon considers “privatization” of Kleinhans

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The Scanlon administration has been talking about unloading city-owned cultural institutions as part of its efforts to shore up Buffalo’s short- and long-term finances. Since taking office, Acting Mayor Christopher Scanlon and his aides have discussed selling Kleinhans Music Hall, perhaps to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, which is the venue’s principal user. They also have discussed shifting the maintenance costs of city-owned cultural venues — including Kleinhans, Shea’s Buffalo Theater, Sahlen Field, the Buffalo History Museum, the Buffalo Museum of Science and the Buffalo Zoo — to Erie County.  Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz threw cold water on that idea,[...]

Posted 6 days ago

Apr 30

2025

ICE seeks to deport Buffalo man over traffic tickets

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking to deport a Buffalo man whose only offense appears to be traffic citations. And in a second case, ICE appears to be attempting to deport someone arrested for a crime they committed prior to entering the United States. ICE officers last week arrested West Side resident Saul Valverde-Venegas, a roofing contractor, while he was loading a work truck. For days, ICE refused to explain why. In a statement Monday evening, an ICE spokesperson described him as “unlawfully” entering the United States more than a decade ago and said he had “since acquired several vehicle[...]

Posted 1 week ago

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 week 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 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago
Investigative Post