Categories for News

May 23

2017

Heaney discusses homicides on WGRZ

Published by

Jim Heaney tells Kelly Dudzik of WGRZ that Buffalo police have a poor track record of clearing homicides – generally solving a quarter to a third of murders in recent years. Departments nationally clear about 60 percent of homicides. Heaney’s comments were made in the context of plans announced by Common Council President Darius Pridgen to launch a newsletter that will feature murder victims. Pridgen, pastor of True Bethel Baptist Church, hopes the newsletter and a digital companion will help in some way to solve murders. Heaney and Steve Brown of WGRZ did stories in March of this year and[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Apr 6

2017

Woman threatened over lawn signs

Published by

An Amherst woman with a lawn sign that declares “Black Lives Matter” has been threatened by an anonymous letter writer who invoked the name of a right-wing news site. Ivy Yapelli received the letter two weeks ago stating that she had been placed on a “database of homeowners who may be deemed dangerous.” According to the letter writer, the “Black Lives Matter ” and “Resist” signs on Yapelli’s lawn promote “hatred and violence.” “It was clearly an attempt to intimidate me,” Yapelli said. No return address was provided, but the letter was signed, “Truth Revolt, Buffalo, NY Chapter.” The editor of Truth[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Feb 13

2017

Lawyer questions police over deadly encounter

Published by

It’s been six days since Wardel Davis, a 20-year-old African American man, died after an encounter with two Buffalo police officers on the city’s West Side. What little the public has been told has come primarily from the police and an attorney representing the two officers. Another side of the story is emerging in an exclusive interview with the attorney retained by Davis’s family. “There are troubling inconsistencies with the police version of events,” Steven Cohen told Investigative Post. Cohen, a veteran defense and civil rights attorney, said he is troubled by a lack of transparency on the part of police, including[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jan 24

2017

Pridgen wants Buffalo police accredited

Published by

Updated Jan. 25, 2017  Common Council President Darius Pridgen proposed a resolution Tuesday asking the Buffalo Police Department to seek accreditation as a means of bringing about improvements in the department. It was unanimously approved. As reported last week by Investigative Post, accreditation by outside evaluators is a long-ignored requirement of the City Charter. The resolution also calls for the police to provide updates to the Council on its application for accreditation. “That sounds very, very important to have the state or someone who then has oversight and then can come in and look at where there are pieces where we miss,”[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Dec 14

2016

City Hall in no rush to improve police training

Published by

Buffalo officials are in no hurry to address the police department’s lack of training in tactics that many other cities have deployed in response to police shootings of African Americans in Ferguson and elsewhere. In fact, Mayor Byron Brown said he is satisfied with the status quo. He said he sees no need to improve training programs that show officers how to de-escalate potentially volatile situations and make restrained use of force in dealing with citizens. “We are very pleased that when you look at what’s happening here in Buffalo versus other parts of the country, we are not experiencing[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Nov 22

2016

Water authority’s disinformation campaign

Published by

Investigative Post’s report two weeks ago showed how the Erie County Water Authority cut corners in its sampling program for lead in drinking water. The water authority responded to our report with a campaign that included an email to customers, posts to Twitter and paid advertising on Facebook. The authority’s underlying message: The water is more pure than many brands of bottled water. Therefore, there is nothing to be concerned about. We fact checked the authority’s campaign and found numerous misleading statements and unsubstantiated claims, some of which we discuss in this report aired Tuesday with our partners at WGRZ.  “They’re trying[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Oct 18

2016

City Hall acts on lead poisoning

Published by

The Common Council passed legislation Tuesday to address chipping and peeling lead paint hazards in rental units following years of reporting by Investigative Post on Buffalo’s serious lead poisoning problem. The new legislation requires landlords and property managers to: Permit inspectors to check for lead hazards on all rental units built before 1978. Certify that rental units built before 1978 are free of lead paint hazards by submitting a compliance letter from a licensed inspector. Disclose to renters that lead paint could be present in apartments built before 1978. Attend an accredited course on how to safely renovate, repair and paint[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Oct 11

2016

‘Billion mastermind Kaloyeros resigns

Published by

The fall from grace is just about complete for Alain Kaloyeros. The so-called “nano-tech guru” who Gov. Andrew Cuomo has praised as a “near genius” has resigned as CEO of SUNY Polytechnic Institute. His success building a nano-technology sector in the Albany area prompted Cuomo to put Kaloyeros in charge of his initiative to revitalize the upstate economy through a series a big-ticket projects in Buffalo, Dunkirk, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica. But reporting by Investigative Post into the awarding of a lucrative contract to LPCiminelli to build a factory for SolarCity triggered investigations by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and State Attorney General Eric[...]

Posted 8 years ago
Investigative Post

Get our newsletters delivered to your inbox * indicates required

Newsletters *