Tag: Media

Jun 30

2025

Much ado about the mayoral primary in NYC

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Nationally, Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor was the electoral story of the week. Five takes: The City covers the election results. Politico shares the thoughts of eight political types about what it all means. New York Focus explores whether state government is likely to go for Mamdani’s agenda. The New York Times and The Intercept weigh in on what lessons the Democratic establishment should take from Mamdani’s victory. Writing for The Times, Rebecca Kirszner Katz, a political consultant who worked on Mamdani’s campaign, lamented “the party establishment’s impulse to stifle and ignore[...]

Posted 13 hours ago

Jun 23

2025

Troubling transparency issues with local cops

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Sandy Tan of The Buffalo News produced an excellent piece on the lack of transparency on the part of many local law enforcement agencies. Ignoring or slow-walking requests made under the Freedom of Information Law. Failing to release information about taxpayer-funded settlements involving public employees. Having a seemingly separate set of rules for dealing with reported criminal behavior when it involves a police officer. Not acknowledging property damage incidents. It is all part of a well-worn playbook now being followed in the case of Daniel “D.J.” Granville, the embattled Erie County Sheriff’s Office narcotics chief who has been on sick[...]

Posted 1 week ago

Jun 16

2025

Buffalo’s race for mayor, by the numbers

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Last week, Ken Kruly, author of Politics and Other Stuff, published an insightful analysis of where the votes for mayor are likely to come from in the upcoming primary election for Buffalo mayor. Total turnout will likely be in the range of 30,000 – the average of previous elections.  Dividing up the vote five ways may mean that the winning candidate will need 12,000 to 15,000 votes … A solid base of support, buttressed by the financial resources available to get their messages across to the largest number of potential voters, moves both [Chris] Scanlon and [Sean] Ryan to the[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Jun 9

2025

Another alt-weekly is not in Buffalo’s future

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Alternative weekly newspapers are “alive and well,” according to the Columbia Journalism Review.  I asked Geoff Kelly, my deputy editor, to read over the story and tell me what he thinks, as he edited Buffalo’s last two alt-weeklies before joining Investigative Post. Here’s what he had to say: We should be so fortunate as those cities where alt-weeklies persist. I’ve been editor of three alt-weeklies, one in Pittsburgh and two in Buffalo. Two are long dead, and the one where I started in this business, Artvoice — which used to be a force in this town — is an online[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Jun 2

2025

Incompetency and arrogance in service to cruelty

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Below is the complete verion of WeeklyPost, the newsletter we send via email on Sunday mornings. Our Monday Morning Read typically includes a portion of that newsletter; today, we’re publishing it in its entirety. If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so here. ICE did it again. Back in March it deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in defiance of a court order, an action that generated international attention and condemnation. ICE officials said the deportation was the result of an “administrative error.” Not that they’ve attempted to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Well, ICE[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

May 26

2025

The right’s double standard on free speech

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Today’s topic: free speech. It’s under siege. The right to protest. The right to publish. The right to speak your mind. Donald Trump is leading the charge, supported by his army of MAGA quislings.  Let me put the hypocrisy in context.  American Nazis and their ilk have long exercised their First Amendment rights.  Remember when the ACLU went to court to defend the rights of neo-Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois, back in 1977. Or, more recently, the “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. You know, the one where marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us!” Few[...]

Posted 1 month ago

May 18

2025

Sheriff John Garcia’s disdain for the law

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia has gotten himself sued by The New York Times for stonewalling a Freedom of Information request from the newspaper. The Times filed an FOI request last August 12 seeking assorted police disciplinary records. For example, the Times asked for what are called “Brady-Giglio” lists, named for court decisions that require prosecutors to provide defense attorneys with information about officers that might impugn their credibility with judges and jurors.  By law, the sheriff’s office had five business days to acknowledge receipt of the request. It failed to do so until Jan. 23 of this year, when[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Mar 24

2025

Sheriff John Garcia goes Sergeant Schultz

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia pulled a Sergeant Schultz the other day, saying, with a straight face that he knows nothing about the hit-and-run antics of Daniel “D.J.” Granville that Geoff Kelly reported on two weeks ago. And, get this, he proclaimed he will “do the right thing” if ongoing investigations turn up evidence of wrongdoing on Granville’s part. What a bunch of, ah, hooey.  Granville is a ranking member of Gracia’s command staff and it’s inconceivable that he was not aware of his narcotics chief’s conduct last April when he smashed into seven parked cars.  Sorry, but the time[...]

Posted 3 months ago
Investigative Post