Categories for News

Sep 13

2018

Attorney senses a police coverup is afoot

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Steve Cohen – a civil rights attorney retained by the family of Rafael “Pito” Rivera, who was shot dead by police Wednesday – told Investigative Post he suspects Buffalo police are engaging in a coverup. Cohen, in an exclusive interview with Investigative Post, said police have been uncooperative, to the point of refusing to allow the Rivera family to view the body or provide basic information about the fatal encounter. Police, he said, are typically quick to share information in the case of justifiable shootings. “When the police refuse to interact with the family, refuse to interact with the family’s[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 13

2018

Dispute over Tonawanda Coke soil study

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Residents who live near Tonawanda Coke want to know whether pollution from the plant has contaminated the soil in their yards and their children’s schools and playgrounds. A federal judge agreed and ordered the Tonawanda Coke Corp. to fund a $711,000 study investigating how the plant’s foundry coke emissions have contaminated soil in surrounding communities. It’s being conducted by a research team from the University at Buffalo. That study is now the subject of a dispute between the mayor of the City of Tonawanda and researchers from UB. Mayor Rick Davis said he decided to pull the city’s support for[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 12

2018

Council presses mayor’s staff on fair housing

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 The Common Council has asked the Brown administration to account for its enforcement of – or, failure to enforce – the city’s fair housing law. Last week, the Council asked for a report on the city’s handling of housing discrimination complaints over the past three years. At a brief appearance before a Council committee Tuesday, Harold Cardwell, the city’s fair housing officer, agreed to provide that report within 30 days. The Council’s request, initiated by President Darius Pridgen, came after Investigative Post reported in July that City Hall has largely failed to enforce the fair housing law. The law[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 5

2018

Heaney discusses Tonawanda Coke

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Jim Heaney tells Scott Levin of WGRZ that Tonawanda Coke has been a rouge operation for years. The foundry coke plant off River Road was back in the news Monday, when federal prosecutors hauled the company into court and public officials questioned the firm’s conduct after they temporarily blocked firefighters from dealing with a blaze at the facility. Heaney gave Levin a rundown on the plant’s troubled history, including violations of the Clean Air Act and worker safety violations.

Posted 6 years ago

Aug 1

2018

Job deadlines set for Tesla solar plant

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The Buffalo News is reporting that the state and Tesla have agreed on deadlines for the company to create jobs related to its solar panel manufacturing plant in South Buffalo. Tesla has two years to create 1,460 jobs in the Buffalo area, including 500 at the factory at Riverbend. Tesla faces fines of up to $41 million a year if it fails to meet the job goals. The state spent $750 million of taxpayer money to build and equip the facility, the centerpiece of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion initiative. Alain Kaloyeros, a top state economic development official, and Louis[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Aug 1

2018

Council considers action on fair housing law

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Buffalo’s fair housing law is supposed to prevent landlords from refusing to rent to someone simply because they rely on government assistance – like a Section 8 voucher – to help pay their rent. But that law, introduced in 2006, has gone largely unenforced, despite the more than two dozen discrimination complaints, most of them substantiated by undercover testing, that have been filed with the city. Last week, members of the Common Council said they would consider taking steps to ensure the law is enforced. “If we find out something is not being enforced or something is not staffed, it[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jul 2

2018

Lehner family sues over police diver’s drowning

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The family of Officer Craig Lehner filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against City Hall and the Buffalo Police Department. Lehner drowned during a dive training exercise in the Niagara River last October with the department’s Underwater Recovery Team. The lawsuit contends the city and police department “violated and departed from” the rules and regulations guiding dive training. Several of the allegations in the filing are similar to the findings in an Investigative Post story published earlier this year, which exposed shortcomings in the dive team’s training, equipment, and safety procedures. The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court, contends: Lehner[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jun 28

2018

Lehner family to file wrongful death lawsuit

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The family of Officer Craig Lehner intends to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the Buffalo Police Department and the City of Buffalo in the coming weeks, an attorney for the family confirmed to Investigative Post. The family had previously signaled its intention to do so with the filing of a notice of claim. Lehner drowned during a training exercise in the Niagara River last October with the police Underwater Recovery Team. Investigative Post subsequently reported that inadequate training and equipment contributed to his death. Dangerously fast currents typical of the Niagara River were also a factor. On the day Lehner drowned,[...]

Posted 6 years ago
Investigative Post

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