Categories for Outrages & Insights

Mar 18

2025

Pegula ranked the worst owner in the NHL

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The Buffalo Sabres are in fourth-to-last place in the National Hockey League standings.  They’re doing better than their owner. The Athletic, the sports arm of The New York Times, just released its ranking of NHL owners. Led by the Tampa Bay Lightning, seven earned a grade of A, based on a combination of factors, including their team’s on-ice performance and a survey of fans. Scientific, no. But telling. Fifteen owners graded out at B, including Jeremy Jacobs’s Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs, eight more at C and one at D, the Vancouver Canucks. Terry Pegula ranked dead last[...]

Posted 1 week ago

Mar 10

2025

The scoop on the hacking of The Buffalo News

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Editor’s note: Circulation numbers near the conclusion of this column have been revised from an earlier version. The Buffalo News is among some 75 newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises that got hacked a month ago. The News has informed its readers in general terms, but press reports  and Lee’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal very serious and ongoing problems which have crippled operations. Lee was attacked Feb. 3 by Russian hackers known as Qilin. They made off with 350 gigabytes of data, encrypted other files and demanded a ransom. The purloined data includes “investor records, financial arrangements[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Feb 17

2025

Making the case for IDA reform

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There’s a case to be made for consolidating and reforming Western New York’s myriad of industrial development agencies into a single operation. There’s six alone in Erie County, another three in Niagara. Add the outlying counties and there’s no fewer than 16 of them. There’s too many of them. They compete against each other. They can’t resist the built-in conflict of interest in which they earn a commission if they approve a deal and get zilch if they don’t. Let’s face it, if they were effective, our regional economy would be in better shape. Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First, who, for my[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Jan 31

2025

Calling out Jeremy Zellner

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Updated: 3:57 p.m. I write this post staring at the tweet posted below by Jeremy Zellner, chairman of the Erie County Democratic party. In it, he takes our Geoff Kelly to task for reporting on the forum the party hosted on Saturday where eight mayoral candidates were invited to speak to party committee members from the city. According to Zellner, more than 200 committee members attended. The forum kicked off with a question to the candidates posed by Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz: Would the candidates promise not to seek the endorsement of the local Republican and Conservative parties?  The[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Nov 10

2024

The numbers behind the vote for president

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Let’s unpack the presidential vote. For starters, fewer people voted this year (145 million) than four years ago (158.5 million) despite an estimated growth of 8 million age-eligible citizens. The turnout of registered voters also dropped slightly from four years ago. This helps to explain why Donald Trump won with fewer votes this year (73.6 million) than he garnered in losing (74.2 million) four years ago. He won because Harris received far fewer votes (69.3 million) than Biden (81.3 million) did four years ago. Put another way: Trump did not grow his base. Harris lost a chunk of Biden’s. Closer[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Oct 27

2024

Billionaire wants to buy parent company of Buffalo News

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A Florida billionaire is making noises about buying Lee Enterprises, and with it, The Buffalo News. The New York Times reported last week that David Hoffmann, worth $1.6 billion, has bought 5.2 percent of Lee’s stock and wants to obtain majority interest. Hoffman told The Times that while he recognizes the newspaper industry’s trend to digital, he believes print still has a future. And he believes in local news. As The Times wrote: “He wants to preserve community news — including more local sports coverage.”  The Times provided this background on the 72-year-old investor: Mr. Hoffmann is a relative newcomer to the[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Oct 15

2024

Brown resigns: Addition by subtraction

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I wrote a column in December 2022 that posed the question: Is Byron Brown the worst mayor in America? It was prompted by his mishandling of the Christmas blizzard that year. But, as I noted then, it was but the latest example of his ineptitude. Things have only gotten worse since, in particular city finances. Brown, with the cooperation of an ever-compliant Common Council, first burned through $109 million in reserves the mayor inherited from the city’s state-imposed financial control board. Of late, he has used $150 million — and counting — in federal pandemic aid to cover city operating[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Oct 8

2024

More upheaval at The Buffalo News

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This has been a tough week for The Buffalo News with word that Editor Sheila Rayam has been ousted and former Publisher Warren Colville has died. Margaret Kenny Giancola, the paper’s managing editor, succeeds Rayam. The News story announcing her appointment by Lee Enterprises, the paper’s chain owner, didn’t explain the move. I’m told Lee hasn’t explained its decision to the newsroom staff, either.  Rayam’s departure comes in the wake of Lee’s decision to eliminate 10 of the newsroom’s approximately 55 positions. That suggests her departure is in part a cost-cutting move.  Insiders tell me Rayam, the paper’s first Black[...]

Posted 6 months ago
Investigative Post