Investigative Post

Tesla reported first quarter losses Wednesday of $702 million. What’s worse, Tesla reported a big drop in its solar business. Solar panel installations dropped by more than one third during the first quarter. Installations are down five-fold since peaking in 2015. Its market share has tumbled in recent years from 33 to 9 percent. All this […]

 Kevin Schuler, the prosecution’s star witness in the Buffalo Billion corruption trial, escaped a prison term at his sentencing in Manhattan on Friday. Schuler was an executive at LPCiminelli who detailed the bid rigging scheme that resulted in the company landing the contract to build the SolarCity plant in South Buffalo. His testimony was […]

Hold up a gas station and you’re looking at a minimum of five years in prison. Get napped with an ounce of crack and the mandatory minimum is five to ten years. Engage in bid rigging, and in the process violate the public’s trust and cost taxpayers potentially million of dollars? If you’re Louis Ciminelli, […]

Four years ago, local manufacturing startup ASi was riding high, the first ever $1 million prize winner of the state-funded 43North business plan competition. Now, the company is in financial trouble. It’s not currently operational, has just one employee – the founder and CEO – and recently defaulted on a $250,000 loan from the Erie County Industrial […]

 The agreement that will place a new headquarters for Amazon in Queens is the biggest economic development deal for a private company New York has ever seen, with a subsidy package that could add up to more than $2 billion. The full value of the incentives Amazon stands to receive is unclear, but it […]

 As the 43North startup competition, funded by the Buffalo Billion, enters its fifth year, organizers have made progress in addressing the program’s weak link: winning companies leaving Western New York after their mandatory year here is up. But, in a notable stumble, one company singled out to receive extra funding slipped through organizers’ fingers, […]

Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney discusses the effort by Assembly Member Crystal Peoples-Stokes to stymie an anti-corruption bill that has languished in a committee she chairs. Heaney spoke with WBFO’s Jay Moran on Press Pass.  

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 […]