Tag: Politics

Jan 27

2025

Trump sets the table for lawlessness

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I expected Trump’s first week in office to be terrible. It was worse than terrible, in so many ways.  I want to focus on Trump’s use of pardons. It wasn’t just those given to the January 6 insurrectionists.  Consider: Trump also pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for running a website used to sell drugs in what the FBI called “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet.” Trump called the prosecutors who put Ulbricht in jail “scum.” The president also gave pardons to two white Washington, D.C., cops responsible for the death of a[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 22

2025

Vetting wannabe mayors from an East Side perspective

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Last week a group of East Side leaders met with declared candidates for Buffalo mayor to quiz them on issues ranging from city finances to investment in the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods. The Urban Think Tank comprises prominent Black religious leaders, such as Bishops Darius Pridgen and Michael Badger, as well as business people, lawyers, elected officials and community activists.  City voters will choose Buffalo’s first new mayor since 2006 in this year’s primary and general elections. Samuel Radford III, an Urban Think Tank member, told Investigative Post the group wanted to see where the list of candidates — the[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 20

2025

Welcome to 1933

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Donald Trump is sworn in as president today. Welcome to 1933. That’s the year Adolf Hitler came to power. I’m not saying Trump will be another Hitler, but there are eerie parallels to their respective routes to power that should not be ignored. Trump’s more contemporary prototype is Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, termed “the ultimate twenty-first-century dictator.”    An op-ed in last week’s New York Times described Orbán’s playbook: In a second term, Mr. Trump’s actions may be even more dangerous because he is now following the playbook created by Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, who after losing and then[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 16

2025

Scanlon’s police/fire dilemma

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Scanlon as a South District Council member before he became acting mayor in October. Editor’s note: This is the final segment of a three-part series on Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon. Previous stories included a political profile and his approach to dealing with the city’s fiscal problems. Today’s report focuses on on his tight relations with the police and fire departments, whose costs he needs to rein in if the city is to balance its books.  Buffalo’s police and fire departments account for half the city’s workforce and nearly three-quarters of payroll expenses. Reining in their costs — by reducing overtime,[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 14

2025

Buffalo Mayor Chris Scanlon: A political profile

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Editor’s note: This is the first of three stories on Buffalo’s acting mayor, Chris Scanlon. Today’s political profile will be followed by a story Wednesday on his intentions dealing with the city’s fiscal woes and a piece Thursday on the dilemma he faces with the police and fire departments. Chris Scanlon’s public service career — from winning the Common Council’s South District seat in 2012 to his ascension to the mayor’s office in October — is a history of political dealmaking. Little wonder. Public service and political dealmaking have been a family specialty for 50 years. Buffalo’s acting mayor is[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 31

2024

Dabney appointed to Buffalo Housing Court

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Buffalo Housing Court, Part 17 of Buffalo City Court. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel After months of speculation, Buffalo City Court Judge Phillip Dabney Jr. has been named the city’s new Housing Court judge. Dabney, 55, was a fill-in judge for Housing Court several times this year and that experience  prepared him for being appointed to the position for the coming year, said Eighth Judicial Administrative Judge Kevin Carter. “I’ve heard that he’s been doing a really nice job. He seems to be serious about it. He also wants to do it, so that’s an important factor,” Carter told Investigative Post.[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 29

2024

April Baskin’s results fall short of her rhetoric

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The Buffalo News sure is fond of April Baskin, the outgoing chair of the Erie County Legislature and incoming state senator. In a profile and subsequent editorial, The News portrayed her as an effective champion of social justice.  I beg to differ. The Legislature under her leadership has been a rubber stamp for County Executive Mark Poloncarz. She seems joined at the hip with Democratic Party HQ, which saw to it that she ascended to Tim Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat without serious opposition.   Baskin and her colleagues somehow decided construction of the new Bills stadium didn’t require an environmental impact[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 23

2024

Scanlon campaign violated ethics laws

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Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon. Chris Scanlon, Buffalo’s acting mayor, hasn’t yet formally declared his candidacy for a full four-year term, but already he’s stumbled over laws prohibiting incumbents from using their offices to promote their campaigns. Scanlon last Thursday held a fundraiser — checks payable to his campaign committee — at developer Doug Jemal’s Seneca One building in downtown Buffalo. Invitations to the fundraiser were mailed in envelopes that used the mayor’s second-floor office for a return address. That’s a violation of local, state and federal laws that prohibit public employees from using their offices for political purposes. Investigative Post[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post