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Mar 3

2022

City Hall light on lawyers

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Newly appointed Corporation Counsel Cavette Chambers began her tenure as the city’s chief lawyer by asking for more money to pay outside firms to represent the city in court. On Feb. 17, Chambers emailed a formal request for the law department’s $3.2 million budget to be topped up with an extra $300,000 for “outside counsel, court-ordered judgments, transcripts and other legal costs.”  The money was necessary, she wrote, for the department to handle its bills and its caseload “through the remainder of the fiscal year,” which ends June 30. The budget line Chambers names is for “Legal Services.” In the[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Mar 2

2022

Cash calls it quits

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Kriner Cash has officially cashed out as Buffalo schools’ superintendent. He’s resigned after leading the district for five and a half years. The district’s Board of Education unanimously accepted his resignation at a special work session tonight. “Both the Board and the superintendent came to an agreement that we were going to part ways,” Board of Education President Louis Petrucci said. The full terms of the agreement aren’t clear — “You can FOIL for it,” several members told Investigative Post — but it is effective immediately. Tonja Williams, who served as associate superintendent of student support services under Cash, will[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Mar 1

2022

Superintendent about to Cash out?

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Signs are pointing to Kriner Cash’s resignation or removal, as soon as today, as superintendent of Buffalo schools. Multiple sources told Investigative Post that Cash was out of the district last week, when schools were on break, and has not returned to Buffalo this week.  It’s not unusual for Cash to spend time away, as Investigative Post reported last August. What is unusual, however, is that the district is still reeling from the shooting of a security guard and the stabbing of a student at McKinley High School on Feb. 9. The school began phasing in classroom instruction Tuesday amid[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 28

2022

State historically not a big funder of stadiums

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Many fans and politicians are expecting, even counting on, the state to put up most of the money the Buffalo Bills want from the public to help finance construction of a new stadium.   The state has played no such role, however, in the construction or renovation of major league stadiums and arenas in the recent past.  The Bills have proposed a $1.4 billion, 60,000 seat stadium in Orchard Park and published reports have suggested the team’s owners want public financing to cover the “vast majority” of the cost.  “That’s certainly a step beyond anything else that’s been going on in[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 27

2022

Monday Morning Reads

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Editor’s note: WeeklyPost is an email newsletter written by Jim Heaney and published Sunday mornings. It recaps our coverage of the previous week and highlights other local, state and national stories that Heaney finds of interest, along with a bit of commentary. If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so at this link. Here’s a sampling of the “What I’m Reading” section of yesterday’s newsletter. It’s been a long time coming, but Louis Ciminelli is finally behind bars for his involvement in the Buffalo Billion bid rigging and Alain Kaloyeros is headed there next month. They were convicted on[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 24

2022

Study links Tonawanda Coke to toxins

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Soil contamination near Tonawanda Coke most likely comes from the now-shuttered plant, a just-released study has found. A previous phase of the study of soil samples taken from the town and city of Tonawanda, Grand Island and Buffalo found elevated levels of toxins. The second phase of the study, released Thursday at a virtual meeting, evaluated 95 soil samples.  An unspecified, but small number of those samples contained elevated levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which are carcinogenic chemical compounds produced as a byproduct of burning coal and other fossil fuels.  Researchers determined with 85 percent confidence that Tonawanda[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 23

2022

Changes afoot at WGRZ

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Big doings this week at WGRZ. Tuesday came the announcement that the station’s parent company, TEGNA, has been sold, pending approval by shareholders and the FCC. The buyer, Standard General, a hedge fund, presently owns just a handful of television stations; TEGNA consists of 64 stations, three of which will be sold as part of the transaction. TEGNA, NextStar and Sinclair, are considered the “Big Three” of television chains.  Standard General is presently TEGNA’s largest shareholder. Ownership of the stations will go private when the transaction is finalized, which is expected in the second half of this year. The Manhattan-based[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 22

2022

Scott Levin interview with Jim Heaney

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Editor Jim Heaney discussed the past, present and future of Investigative Post in an interview earlier this week with WGRZ news anchor Scott Levin. Investigative Post marked its 10 year anniversary Tuesday. Heaney, in his seven-minute interview with Levin, described Investigative Post’s place in the local media landscape, outlined his plans to continue to grow his nonprofit news organization, and noted the challenges reporters face these days – namely, stonewalling politicians and bureaucrats contemptuous of the public’s right to know. In addition to watching the interview above, you can read Heaney’s history of Investigative Post at this link.

Posted 3 years ago
Investigative Post