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.

Jan 5

2023

Putting legislative pay raises in perspective

Updated: 11:18 a.m. State legislators were generous with themselves beyond the $32,000 a year raise they approved last month. The legislation also included loopholes that good government groups are characterizing as weak on ethics and conflicts of interest. What’s more, the raises, justified by supporters as compensation for inflation, far exceed increases in the cost of living. Reinvent Albany compared the provisions of the legislation with recommendations made in 2018 by a state compensation commission that considered pay raises for legislators, among other state elected officials. “The bottom line is that the law giving the Legislature a huge pay raise[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 29

2022

Is Byron Brown the worst mayor in America?

Byron Brown’s incompetency as mayor has been on full display since the blizzard hit last Friday. The city was unprepared to handle what was coming or clean up when the snow and wind finally relented. No snow removal plan that contemplated a blizzard. Not enough plows and drivers. Too few warming centers — two of which had to close because when their power failed they lacked backup generators. No plan to police vulnerable commercial districts. The list goes on. Lots of common folks have been grumbling about the city’s ineptitude and the mayor’s insensitive, self-serving “I told you so” remarks. Erie[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 28

2022

Podcast: Reflecting on 10 years of iPost

Investigative Post is wrapping up its tenth year in business. Founder and editor Jim Heaney and Geoff Kelly, our senior reporter, look back on the decade and what it’s meant for Investigative Post and local news outlets. This is a companion to Heaney’s post of earlier this week, a Report to Readers. Watch or listen to the podcast here, or check it out — along with dozens of other stories and interviews — on our YouTube channel.

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 27

2022

A report to iPost readers

Investigative Post celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2022. I anticipated the year would include a fair amount of introspection, but aside from a column I wrote in February and a podcast we posted earlier this week, we were too busy with the present to reflect much on the past. That’s a good thing, because 2022 was our busiest year yet. Head-spinning at times, but all good. We turned over three-quarters of our reporting staff and this summer brought on board J. Dale Shoemaker, I’Jaz Ja’ciel and Garrett Looker. In doing so we improved our staff diversity and bolstered our capacity for data-based reporting and video and[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 26

2022

Tracking the plows in Buffalo

Updated: Wednesday, 1:15 p.m. This post has received a lot of traffic over the past couple of days, primarily, I suspect, because of the link to the city-affiliated map showing what streets in Buffalo have been plowed. The map might have been useful at some point, but no longer. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz disclosed at a press conference earlier Wednesday that county and state crews have taken on responsibility for plowing streets. Poloncarz termed the city’s effort “embarrassing .” The Buffalo Police Department tweeted that there are more than 450 pieces of snow fighting equipment clearing city streets,[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 19

2022

Monday Morning Read

Sign up for a free subscription to WeeklyPost, from which this post is extracted from. I cringed while watching the Bills game a week ago Sunday after Jets quarterback Mike White was returned to the game after suffering an injury that sent him to the hospital that night and is keeping him sidelined this week. It was the latest example of the NFL treating its players like disposable commodities. Other examples this season include the concussion fiasco involving Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and the Bills and Dolphins playing in a brutal heat and humidity that sent many players to the sidelines with cramps. I[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 12

2022

Monday Morning Read

Treat yourself this holiday season to a free subscription to WeeklyPost, our email newsletter sent Sunday mornings. Below is the “What I’m Reading” portion of the newsletter. Buffalo schools don’t enjoy a good reputation. Many teachers in the trenches resent the tag. Yet they acted last week to further tarnish the district by taking a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Tonja Williams. Not because she’s doing a bad job, mind you. But rather, she won’t settle contract negotiations on their union’s terms. Bad form, people. As former School Board Member Larry Quinn noted in a guest column in The Buffalo News, there’s[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 5

2022

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe for free to WeeklyPost, our email newsletter delivered Sunday mornings to your inbox. Matt Spina and Charlie Specht followed up on our reporting, and theirs, with a story Sunday that delved into the testimony given by retired police supervisors who were deposed in a federal lawsuit against the city and Buffalo Police Department. It turns out the department improperly destroys records and then Commissioner Dan Derenda set an informal quota for arrests by the Strike Force unit. Ken Kruly’s most recent column on his Politics and Other Stuff website included some startling numbers on gambling in New York State.[...]

Posted 2 years ago