Categories for News

Aug 14

2024

New Tesla deal slashes penalties, ups rent

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New York State officials are prepared to slash penalties on Tesla in coming years, even if the company fails to hire enough workers at its South Buffalo plant and across the state. Under the company’s current arrangement with the state, Tesla must employ 1,460 workers in Buffalo and 2,000 statewide or else pay a $41 million fine. That deal, however, expires this year. According to details of a draft agreement, which could run through 2034, Tesla must employ 1,800 in Buffalo and 3,000 statewide. The current penalty will stay in place through 2029 but will drop to $10 million after[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Aug 8

2024

City pulls back on “amusements” fee

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The Town Ballroom on Main Street. Photo by Garrett Looker. The City of Buffalo has backed off from a plan to tax music and other entertainment venues for every event for which they charge admission. Investigative Post last week broke the story about the city’s effort to collect an “amusements fee” described in an obscure and unevenly applied section of the city code. Music club owners and managers two weeks ago began receiving letters from the city’s Department of Permit & Inspection Services “reminding” them of their obligation to pay the fee — which few of them had previously heard[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Aug 6

2024

Judge orders ‘House from Hell’ demolished

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149 Arkansas St., slated for demolition. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. The “House from Hell” will soon be a pile of rubble. Following years of neighborhood complaints, Housing Court Judge Patrick Carney has issued a demolition order for 149 Arkansas St. — a run-down, vacant house used by squatters and drug users, where two dead bodies were found in 2022.  Carney also slapped owner Kwayo Ithe Bonkuka with a $10,500 fine. “I have had Council reports, block club reports. They’re still screaming,” Carney said of the property’s many complainants. Carney issued the demolition order after building inspector Sean Myers testified during[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Aug 2

2024

OTB chairman rescinds Pledge of Allegiance demand

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OTB Chairman Dennis Bassett. Photo by Garrett Looker. The chairman of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. has backed off his demand that those attending board meetings recite the Pledge of Allegiance.  Dennis Bassett chastised an Investigative Post reporter after OTB’s last board meeting on July 25, contending he wasn’t effusive enough in reciting the pledge. “Why can’t you put your hand on your heart and recite the Pledge?” Bassett said to the reporter after the meeting. “Because if you can’t do that, I would like for you not to be in here when the Pledge is recited. You’re insulting[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Jul 31

2024

City Hall targets music clubs with costly tax

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The City of Buffalo, facing projected budget shortfalls and desperate for revenue, is turning to a little-known chapter of the city code to collect a fee from music clubs and other entertainment venues for every ticketed event they produce. The fee could add tens of thousands of dollars to the operating costs of bigger venues like Babeville, RiverWorks, Iron Works and Town Ballroom, as well as smaller clubs like Nietzsche’s and Mr. Goodbar.  Nearly all the venue owners and managers Investigative Post spoke to said they were blindsided by the fee, which they learned about last week via letters sent[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Jul 31

2024

Rural IDA leader highest paid in New York

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Steven G. Hyde retires effective Aug. 1. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. When he steps aside tomorrow, Steven G. Hyde — a Genesee County official — will retire as the highest-paid economic development leader in the public sector in New York. His $274,898 salary as president and CEO of the Genesee County Economic Development Center was nearly $25,000 more than Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2023 salary. It was also more than every other industrial development agency leader in the state. To wit: His counterpart in New York City earned $243,500 in 2023. His counterpart in Erie County made $205,000. His counterparts at[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Jul 30

2024

So long, bed bugs

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BMHA Executive Director Gillian Brown, left, and LBJ Apartments tenant representative Erma Ecford. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. The bed bug infestation is gone. So are the rats. And most of the washers and dryers in the laundry room are working again. That’s what tenants at the Lyndon B. Johnson apartments recently said, just over three months after Investigative Post reported that residents had been living with insect and rodent infestations, leaky ceilings and security concerns, among other issues. Tenant representative Erma Ecford, who initially brought to light conditions at the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority-owned senior complex, said the incessant swarms[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Jul 26

2024

Recite the Pledge of Allegiance … or leave

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OTB Chairman Dennis Bassett. Photo by Garrett Looker. If you want to walk into Batavia Downs, the price of admission is pretty obvious: You’ve got to have a few pennies for the slot machines. But the board of directors that runs the casino and harness track has decided there’s a new cost if you want to hear them discuss the business of the publicly owned Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation: Stand up, place your hand over your heart and recite the Pledge of Allegiance loud enough for Chairman Dennis Bassett to hear you.  If you don’t? Bassett doesn’t want you[...]

Posted 10 months ago
Investigative Post