Tag: Politics

Jun 8

2022

Paladino does it again

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Carl Paladino is running for Congress, and his opponents, Democrat and Republican alike, are rushing to remind voters of the real estate developer’s history of making racist remarks and sharing pornographic emails with friends. They need not delve so deeply into the past. Just last Wednesday, Paladino shared a Facebook post suggesting mass shootings such as those in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, might be “false flag” operations, orchestrated by government agencies like the FBI and CIA, using “hypnosis training,” as justification “to revoke the 2nd amendment and take away our guns.” Paladino initially told Buffalo News political reporter Bob McCarthy[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jun 6

2022

Monday Morning Read

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Jim Heaney shares his recommended reading from the previous week, which is also delivered Sunday mornings via his WeeklyPost newsletter. You can subscribe for free here. That didn’t take long. Just days after Congressman Chris Jacobs announced he would support gun control measures in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo and Texas, he withdrew as a candidate for re-election. The GOP just wouldn’t have it. Analysis here from The Buffalo News and The New York Times. The Washington Post reported a few days ago there have been 232 mass shootings in the United State so far this year. And[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Apr 18

2022

Q&A: Critiquing the state budget

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John Kaehny is executive director of the good-government group Reinvent Albany and a leading experts on state government. He and his team have been poring over the state budget, which as adopted April 6.  He offered this take in an interview last week with Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney. Heaney: Before we get into dollars and cents, let’s talk about the process the governor and state Legislature used to determine how to spend $220 billion this coming year. Is it anyway to run a railroad? Kaehny: New York needs a better name than “budget process.” The governor and legislature have[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Apr 17

2022

Monday Morning Read

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Below is an updated version of the “What I’m Reading” section of the WeeklyPost newsletter that is emailed to subscribers each Sunday morning. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here. There’s a lot for Kathy Hochul to fix as governor, including corruption and a lack of transparency in state government. (I think she’s off to a lousy start on both fronts.) But there’s also the issue of toxic masculinity in Albany, a topic The New York Times explored in a story Sunday. An interesting read. Two Buffalo News stories caught my eye last week: The Western New York economy is not recovering from[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Apr 12

2022

Progressives take a pass

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When India Walton beat Mayor Byron Brown in last June’s Democratic primary, it seemed like progressive activists might be ready to wield greater influence in the party, which monopolizes city politics and governmental institutions. Brown, after all, lost the primary despite carrying the Democratic Party’s endorsement. Furthermore, Kim Beatty — a city Democrat — beat the party’s endorsed candidate in the primary for Erie County Sheriff. Change was in the air. But then Brown beat Walton in November’s general election. And Beatty lost to Republican John Garcia. And now, it seems, city progressives have chosen not to mount an effort[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Mar 23

2022

Ex-con councilman turned pot lobbyist

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A decade ago, former Ellicott District Common Council Member Brian C. Davis pled guilty to stealing $48,237 in anti-poverty funds from the city. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay restitution.   Davis served his time. But he hasn’t finished paying back what he stole, according to a March 2021 court filing. Happily, at least for the taxpayers he still owes, Davis has a new gig that might help him settle the bill: as a lobbyist for a proposed South Buffalo marijuana farm run by the southern California-based son of a politically wired[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Mar 8

2022

Who is Congresswoman Claudia Tenney?

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Redistricting will make U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney’s 22nd District more friendly to a Democratic Party challenger. So the Utica native — who won squeakers in 2016 and 2020, and lost to Democrat Anthony Brindisi in 2018 — is looking west. Tenney, 61, will run this year in the 23rd District, currently represented by Republican Tom Reed, who is retiring after being accused of sexual misconduct. The 22nd District Tenney represents now runs through the middle of the state, from the eastern end of Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania border, including Utica, Rome, Cortland and Binghamton. The new 23rd District, like[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Feb 12

2022

Giambra tests run for State Senate

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It looks like Joel Giambra, the former Erie County executive, is once again kicking the tires on a run for elected office. This time the Democrat-turned-Republican seems to have his eyes on the 60th District State Senate seat, currently occupied by Democrat Sean Ryan. Last week a poll began popping up on the cell phones of likely voters in the district, one of whom shared the link with Investigative Post. The poll begins with a handful of questions meant to determine where on the political spectrum the respondent resides: Is New York State headed in the right or wrong direction?[...]

Posted 8 months ago