Categories for Outrages & Insights

Dec 20

2012

Job claims inflated for Billion To Buffalo project

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Governor Andrew Cuomo summoned hundreds of muckety-mucks to the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center two weeks ago to make the kind of announcement that politicians live for: government aid to bring jobs to an economically struggling region. In this instance, Cuomo told the assembled that the first $50 million of his $1 billion in promised state economic development funds had leveraged a commitment from Albany Molecular Research Inc. to bring 250 jobs and up to $250 million in private investment to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Reads the headline on the governor’s press release: “Governor and (Western New York Regional Economic[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 10

2012

Antoine Thompson? Really?

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Antoine Thompson couldn’t find a job when voters fired him from his state Senate job two years ago. So, of course, Mayor Byron Brown has now hired Thompson to help the county’s 37,900 unemployed find jobs. Yeah, right. This is about as blatant – and shameless – as patronage hiring gets. First consider that Thompson and Brown have been joined at the hip, politically speaking, for most of their careers, dating back to their days together in Grassroots, the political club that helped spawn both of their careers. Thompson worked as a legislative aide to Brown when he served on[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 5

2012

Good plan off to bad start

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There’s a lot to like about the blueprint for spending $1 billion in state aid to revitalize the Western New York economy that was released Tuesday. I’d feel better about the plan’s prospects, however, if Gov. Andrew Cuomo hadn’t used its release to announce a heavily subsidized deal to bring 250 jobs here that smacks of the business-as-usual, smokestack-chasing approach that has failed us in the past. Let me get my skepticism out of the way up front. The state has agreed to spend $50 million on a biomedical facility and equipment to accommodate an expansion of Albany Molecular Research to[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Nov 15

2012

Transparency is the best policy

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Note: This post was written in November 2012 and has been amended to reflect a change in the presidency of Investigative Post. Dan Telvock, our environmental reporter, has a new report about the failure of the Department of Environmental Conservation to aggressively act on requests to enforce state law at the Peace Bridge that prohibits trucks from idling. It is the first in a series of stories that Dan intends to produce regarding the Peace Bridge. In many ways, covering the Peace Bridge makes perfect sense for Investigative Post, although it is not without complications, for reasons I’ll explain in[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Oct 24

2012

Not the same as the old boss

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These are about to be interesting times at the Buffalo News. I say this because for the first time in decades—maybe forever—the paper has gone outside to hire an editor. Margaret Sullivan, who started at the News as an intern, held the editor’s job for 13 years before leaving in August for the New York Times, where she works as the public editor. Her predecessor, Murray B. Light, held the top job for 20 years, plus a lengthy stretch when he split a shared editorship. The legendary Alfred Kirchhofer ran the newsroom for 39 years. Put another way, factoring out[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Aug 8

2012

White hue of Brown’s cabinet extends to politics, policy

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Byron Brown’s track record of hiring African Americans administrators – he doesn’t, for the most part – is surprising until you put it in a larger context. An analysis by Sue Schulman of The Buffalo News two weeks ago showed blacks account for only one of 12 commissioners, all of whom operate under the heavy hand of Deputy Mayor Steve Casey, who, is, well, let’s just say it’s doubtful he’s got Dr. Dre or Lil Wayne loaded in his CD player. Yes, the Brown administration is hiring more women and people of color for lower-level positions, and that should not[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Jun 21

2012

Democracy and demagoguery

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Kevin Gaughan is challenging Sean Ryan for the 149th Assembly seat. Good. I mean this as no disrespect towards Ryan. Rather, he was essentially handed the seat last year when Sam Hoyt stepped down to head up Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s economic development and political operations for Western New York. There were no party primaries for the vacant seat and Ryan cruised over a weak Republican opponent in the September special election. Sorry, but that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. Folks other than a handful of Democratic Party insiders ought to have a say in who holds elected office,[...]

Posted 12 years ago

May 31

2012

The rap (sheet) on the Common Council

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Brian Davis’s plea to federal corruption charges Tuesday comes as no surprise. Neither does the Common Council’s appointment of a bartender to fill Mickey Kearn’s vacant seat. Such is the state of the Common Council. Jimmy Griffin used to call them the “Comical Council” back in the day and yes, they used to bicker a lot. But once upon a time, the Common Council had a core of stellar lawmakers—think Gene Fahey, Jim Pitts, and Dave Rutecki, among others, followed in later years by the likes of Brian Higgins and Kevin Helfer—who attempted to deal with serious issues and function[...]

Posted 12 years ago
Investigative Post

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