Jim Heaney

Jim Heaney is editor and executive director of Investigative Post. He was an investigative reporter with The Buffalo News from 1986 to 2011 and a reporter and editor with The Orlando Sentinel from 1980-86. His coverage over the years has focused on economic development, local and state government, politics, education, housing and transportation, and he was an early practitioner of computer-assisted reporting. Heaney has won more than 20 journalism awards and was a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

Jun 5

2023

OTB board extends embattled executives

Editor’s note: Investigative Post and the Niagara Gazette share selected stories, including the following report from Mark Scheer, who previously worked for Investigative Post. Days before state lawmakers agreed to abolish their positions, the board of directors for Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. approved new employee contracts for several members of its management team, including CEO and President Henry Wojtaszek. Documents available on OTB’s website show the board approved contracts during its April 27 meeting after exiting an executive session where directors discussed personnel matters behind closed doors. The minutes reflect only that the board approved the employee contracts. They[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jun 4

2023

Monday Morning Read

WeeklyPost is a free email newsletter delivered Sunday mornings. You can subscribe here. The Buffalo News published a good analysis Sunday on the dynamics that doomed Medaille University and how they threaten other private colleges, as well. I graduated from Medaille in 1977, after first attending St. Bonaventure University, and it’s weird to see your alma mater go out of business. I got a good education at Medaille; three professors stick out, Kevin Ransom, Ross Runfola and Roger Bonenfant. I also had a good adjunct you might have heard of: Irv Weinstein. He got me my first serious taste of[...]

Posted 1 year ago

May 28

2023

Monday Morning Read

Below is half of what you’ll get in your inbox Sunday mornings if you subscribe to WeeklyPost. Mike Desmond might be the longest tenured reporter in Buffalo. At least he was until WBFO fired him without notice, in the process stripping him of health insurance while he was recovering from a broken back. His dismissal prompted Mark Scott, who was synonymous with the station for four decades, to lambaste the station Friday in a Facebook post. He derided station management for not only firing Desmond, which he termed “unconscionable,” but for what he said was a move a year ago to “severely[...]

Posted 1 year ago

May 21

2023

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe to WeeklyPost and you’ll receive it, free, in your inbox Sunday mornings, including a summary of Investigative Post’s reporting of the previous week. The Trace, a nonprofit news organization that reports on gun violence, marked the one-year anniversary of the Tops Massacre with a story that notes the lack of progress addressing systemic problems on the city’s East Side. Local foundations have directed some money east of Main Street. The state, too. City Hall? Not really. In fact, the response from Mayor Byron Brown and the Common Council has been tepid. Geoff Kelly is looking over the mayor’s proposed budget[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 15

2023

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe to WeeklyPost and you’ll Jim Heaney’s recommended reading for the week. As in below. Michael Joseph and his Clover Group have been in the news of late — that’s an understatement — as they were in 2021 when they bought a mansion that shares a waterfront with Mar-a-Lago, home to you-know-who. Here are snippets published in September 2021 by The Real Deal, a real estate website, regarding Joseph’s purchase of a West Palm Beach mansion for $15.9 million. The two-story home in the Prospect Park neighborhood has six bedrooms and nine and a half bathrooms, according to Realtor.com. Completed[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 11

2023

Calls for consequences for Clover and its CEO

Pressure is growing on the Clover Group and its CEO, Michael Joseph, in the wake of a federal lawsuit accusing the company of “racist and illegal housing discrimination practices.” On Thursday, the Erie County Legislature unanimously passed a non-binding resolution calling for the dismissal of several Clover executives surreptitiously recorded discussing the company’s practice of avoiding areas with significant Black populations when choosing sites for senior apartment complexes. Joseph was not among those recorded in the conversations. The resolution declares: “The allegations against the Clover Group and the corresponding evidence are clear and disturbing enough that immediate action needs to occur,[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 7

2023

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe, for free, to WeeklyPost and you’ll not only get Jim Heaney’s recommended reading (below), but his summary of Investigative Post’s reporting for the previous week. For starters, here’s a thoughtful piece by Dick Tofel, a retired ProPublica executive, on what NPR and commercial television newsrooms are doing to fill some of the void being created by the demise of local daily newspapers. Tofel cites research that concluded neither are rising to the occasion. In other media news, Vice News appears headed for bankruptcy and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times laments the disappearance of traditional newspaper newsrooms. I’ve worked in two[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 3

2023

Big shakeup at the besieged OTB

The embattled Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. is finally getting reformed. In a big way. The state public benefit corporation — mired in allegations of malfeasance and subject to multiple critical audits and investigations — saw its entire 17-member board of commissioners terminated Tuesday night, thanks to a budget provision sponsored by Sen. Tim Kennedy of Buffalo and Assembly Member Monica Wallace of Lancaster, both Democrats. New board members will be appointed and weighted voting instituted to reflect the population of the 15 counties and two cities that in-effect own OTB. That will shift control from mostly rural counties controlled[...]

Posted 2 years ago