Categories for News

Jun 6

2021

Senecas sue over Genesee industrial park

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Efforts to develop a large industrial park in Genesee County using tens of millions of dollars from New York State’s Buffalo Billion program are facing a new challenge — a lawsuit filed by the Tonawanda Seneca Nation. In a lawsuit filed Friday in state Supreme Court in Genesee County, the Nation is challenging the findings of the Genesee County Economic Development Center that determined, following a formal environmental review, that plans for the development of Plug Power’s new hydrogen fuel facility at its industrial park in the Town of Alabama would have no adverse impact on the nation’s territory as[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 5

2021

State relents, releases Tesla jobs report

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After several days of delay, the Cuomo administration has released an annual employment report filed by Tesla under the terms of the $950 million public investment in the company’s solar panel production facility in South Buffalo. Empire State Development Corp., which had denied several requests for a copy of the document from Investigative Post, responded Friday to an appeal filed following a denial of an earlier Freedom of Information Law request for the report that Tesla is required to file by May 31 of each year.  ESD, which earlier this week issued a statement on the company’s job creation numbers[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 2

2021

State withholding details on Tesla jobs

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The Cuomo administration is refusing to release a new report on the number of people employed at the Tesla plant built with $950 million in taxpayer funds in South Buffalo.  The Empire State Development Corp. says the report, due by May 31, was submitted, but the agency has refused to release it to Investigative Post.  Instead, ESD issued a statement indicating that Tesla now has 1,000 workers at the Gigafactory in Buffalo — 460 short of the total the company promised to create under its original agreement with the state. According to ESD, Tesla currently employs 1,600 people statewide, although[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 19

2021

Report: Samsung factory going to Austin

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South Korean media is reporting that Samsung will build a new $17 billion microchip plant in Austin, Texas. A formal announcement could come as soon as Friday following a meeting between President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.  Any such deal would dash local hopes about luring the plant – and its 1,900 jobs – to a 1,250-acre industrial park in rural Genesee County.  U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and officials with the Genesee County Economic Development Center have touted the Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park in the Town of Alabama as an ideal location for Samsung. Officials[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 14

2021

Battaglia Demolition still a problem

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A state Supreme Court judge is preparing to decide the penalty for Peter J. Battaglia Jr., three years after his illegal concrete crushing business in South Buffalo was shut down.  Judge Deborah Chimes has ruled Battaglia could be held personally liable for the damages requested in a lawsuit filed by the New York State Attorney General. Diane Lemanski, a nearby resident and a leader in the grassroots decade-long campaign against Battaglia Demolition, will be among those testifying before the court on Tuesday. On Friday, she and other residents who live near the abandoned business made their case at a press[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 21

2021

Reformers pushing for police referendum

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They’ve lost hope that Buffalo’s elected officials will make the police reforms activists have advocated since last summer. So a coalition of groups and individuals is seeking to bypass City Hall entirely and take one of those reforms directly to voters.  The coalition seeks to put a referendum on this November’s general election ballot. The referendum would create a new police review commission with the power to investigate complaints against officers, mete out discipline and review departmental policies and budgets. It’s a recommendation put forth last June by the Buffalo Police Advisory Board, one of three police oversight bodies in[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 19

2021

Profane, suspended police lieutenant retires

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 Lieutenant Michael DeLong, suspended last summer after being videotaped directing a vile, misogynist insult at a woman outside a West Side convenience store, has retired. DeLong called the woman a “disrespectful little fucking cunt” when she questioned how police were handling a man in distress outside the store who has a history of drug and mental health issues. The woman, Ruweyda Salim, a claims examiner for the Veterans Administration at the time, captured her exchange with DeLong on her cell phone camera outside a 7 Eleven convenience store on Prospect Avenue near D’Youville College.  The video generated a lot[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 14

2021

Paltry donations to Cuomo from WNY

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 Governor Andrew Cuomo has invested a lot of political capital — to say nothing of state tax dollars, starting with the Buffalo Billion — in Western New York. But an analysis by Investigative Post has found he’s not getting much love in return from local campaign donors. As first reported in our Money in Politics, and reported Wednesday on WGRZ, Cuomo’s campaign committee has raised $38.4 million statewide since 2017, which includes his last run for governor. Only $576,945 came from donors in Western New York. That’s only 1.5 percent of total donations. Investigative Post found one donor —[...]

Posted 3 years ago
Investigative Post

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