Tag: Gov. Andrew Cuomo

Apr 29

2016

Buffalo Billion probe targets Cuomo insiders

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U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s investigation into the Buffalo Billion, triggered by Investigative Post’s relentless reporting, appears to have targeted members of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s inner-circle. The feds issued subpoenas to the governor’s office Friday, and, in turn, the Cuomo administration announced its own investigation and issued a press release that appeared to throw one or more close associates under the bus. Folks, this could get real ugly real quick. Those under scrutiny include Joseph Percoco, a top Cuomo aid and political enforcer who recently left the administration; longtime associate and lobbyist Todd Howe; and Alain Kaloyeros, the so-called nanotech guru who the[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 14

2016

Buffalo: Real State of the City

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Buffalo is doing better, but is it doing as well as the politicians and much of the local press would have us believe? The answer, in a word, is “no.” That was the bottom line to my address Feb. 24 at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Progress has been overstated. There’s a lot of racial inequality. We’re a high-crime city where few criminals get caught. And Buffalo is a ward of the state. Charlotte Keith and I dug deep into the data to provide a factual, statistical framework on which I based my conclusions. Here they are, in a nutshell:[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Feb 17

2016

Cuomo: State can help on lead problem

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While noting the problem of lead poisoning is primarily a local responsibility, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told Investigative Post on Wednesday that the state is prepared to act “right away” to help deal with the problem. “Well, if there are children who are in homes with lead paint and the lead is friable or lead is peeling, then that should be remediated, and if it’s not being enforced by the local government then the state should, and if you tell me where they are we will have the state on it right away,” Cuomo said during a visit to Buffalo. The[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Oct 30

2015

SolarCity: Mayday! Mayday!

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I have called Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s investment in SolarCity a high-risk, high-reward undertaking. The project took on an added air of risk Thursday, in light of not one, not two, but three pieces of bad news. For starters, the company disclosed it posted a net loss of $234 million in the third quarter. That’s the biggest quarterly loss in the history of the company and brings the year-to-date losses to a staggering $537 million. That puts SolarCity on track to lose more than $700 million for 2015, compared with net losses of $375 million in 2014, $152 million in 2013[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Oct 1

2015

Cuomo stonewalling goes from bad to worse

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I’ve documented – more than once – efforts by the Cuomo administration to obstruct our reporting of the Buffalo Billion. But the tactics employed by the Cuomo crowd during the course of Charlotte Keith’s reporting of her story on the lack of diversity at the SolarCity construction site represent a new low. Once again, state officials refused to grant interviews, but this time they came up with a novel reason. Peter Cutler, the temperamental spokesman for the Buffalo office of the Empire State Development Corp., objected to who Charlotte was interviewing for her story. She had the audacity to talk[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Sep 30

2015

Minority workers get short shrift at Riverbend

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Buffalo’s African-American community is starving for jobs, while the ongoing construction of the SolarCity plant in South Buffalo is employing hundreds upon hundreds of construction workers. Yet state officials agreed to cut the project’s diversity hiring goal – included on state contracts to ensure minorities get a fair share of work – from 25 to 15 percent. [continuing-coverage]That’s lower than on other high-profile publicly funded projects, such as the Buffalo schools reconstruction program and the University at Buffalo Medical School. It’s also significantly lower than the 25 percent minority workforce goal that was stipulated in the sales agreement that transferred[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Sep 21

2015

New York’s sleeping watchdogs

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U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara took on the role of investigating the Buffalo Billion after none of the watchdogs in state government would. I did a story last December that detailed the questionable circumstances surrounding the awarding of development contracts to LPCiminelli and McGuire Development and the lack of transparency involving the Buffalo Billion program. I made inquiries in January with the offices of both Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to ask if either of them intended to follow up. I found no takers. Bharara’s office, meanwhile, took note and began issuing subpoenas over the summer, as detailed Friday[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Sep 18

2015

Feds probing Buffalo Billion contracts

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(Updated Saturday at 3:05 p.m.) This is big. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who has tackled corruption in state government, is investigating the awarding of contracts under the Buffalo Billion program, The New York Post reports. “It’s a comprehensive look at the bidding process,” said one source, who also told The Post that several companies have been issued subpoenas. Meanwhile, The New York Daily News is reporting that the feds have subpoened records of the SUNY Polytechnic Institute, headed by Alain Kaloyeros, who is managing the Buffalo Billion program. The Daily News also reported SUNY has hired a criminal defense lawyer to represent[...]

Posted 9 years ago
Investigative Post

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