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.

May 18

2022

The rise of the radical right in WNY

Some people here are taking solace in the fact that the white supremacist who killed 10 people in Saturday’s supermarket massacre is from out of town. As if Western New York doesn’t have its own growing cadre of right-wing extremists. I’ll start with a reminder of a story we did last June in which Investigative Post reported only one county in the entire country had more of its citizens arrested on charges related to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol than Erie County. Among those charged was an Amherst man who assaulted a Capitol Police officer, stealing his[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 17

2022

Buffalo is Segregation City

Editor’s Note: The story below published May 17. The companion television story, produced wth WGRZ, aired July 7. Buffalo and Western New York need to take a close look in the mirror in light of Saturday’s supermarket massacre. And if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re not going to like what we see. The region has a long history of racism, one that has been compounded in recent years by a growing undercurrent of right-wing extremism. Witness Saturday’s shootings. In this column, I’m going to explore racism and its impact. Tomorrow, I’ll delve into the radical right. Hear me out. Related[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 15

2022

More coverage of the Tops massacre

Investigative Post continues its team coverage with The Daily Beast of Saturday’s killing of 10 people by a white supremacist at the Tops Market on Buffalo’s East Side. Reporter Layne Dowdall contributed to a story that recounts the killer’s reconnaissance that led him to choose the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue to commit his deadly deed. Jim Heaney wrote a story about the losses suffered by the parishioners of one East Side church and the pastor’s call for America to confront the root causes of racism and the violence it has spawned. Our coverage Saturday focused on retired police officer[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 15

2022

Monday Morning Read

Below is the “What I’m Reading” section of Jim Heaney’s WeeklyPost, which is delivered via email each Sunday morning. The newsletter is free; if you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up here. The Buffalo News reported on the cost of personal seat licenses to purchase season tickets to Bills games at the new stadium. A figure of $1,000 a ticket was bandied during negotiations to determine how stadium constriction costs would be divvied up. With that decided, the Bills floated PSL charges through a fan survey, and they’re a lot more than $1,000. PSLs for upper end zones seats can be had for under[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 14

2022

Deadly mass shooting on Jefferson Avenue

Investigative Post occasionally does work for The Daily Beast, a national news site. On Saturday, we teamed up to report on the shooting at Tops Friendly Markets on Jefferson Avenue that left 10 dead, three wounded and an apparent white supremacist in custody. Here’s a link to the story, which identifies and profiles the Tops security guard who died in an exchange of gunfire with the killer. As his son told us, his father died a hero.

Posted 3 years ago

May 8

2022

Monday Morning Read

Why wait until Monday? You can get Jim Heaney’s recommended reading — and a recap of Investigative Post’s reporting the previous week — first thing Sunday by subscribing here. Roswell Park’s favorite Russian oligarch — and business partner — is trying hard to avoid sanctions. The chain that owns The Buffalo News is catching heat for cutting newsroom jobs, although not here. Yet, anyway. Ken Kruly has a smart read on redistricting, which is presently a mess. Yet another study has found New York’s reformed bail laws have little to nothing to do with rising crime rates. There’s a new nonprofit news organization covering New[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 1

2022

Monday Morning Read

Read all about it: Jim Heaney’s recommended reading from the past week. That, and more, is available for free each Sunday morning by subscribing to WeeklyPost. First, what I wasn’t reading: NFL mock draft coverage. Has there ever been a greater waste of journalistic resources than the endless speculation on who might be drafted by what teams that we’ve been subjected to for the past couple of months? Buffalo Rising reported on the prospect of a museum dedicated to the Irish author and poet James Joyce. Why here in Western New York? For whatever reason, the University at Buffalo is home[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 24

2022

Monday Morning Read

Pulled from WeeklyPost, our Sunday newsletter, with additions from stories published yesterday. Want to subscribe? It’s free. It appears police forces around Western New York have more than a few bad apples. Charlie Specht of The Buffalo News reported Sunday that more than 225 police officers have been disciplined for misconduct since 2017. That amounts to 12 percent of officers in the police departments surveyed. Given what we’ve culled from reviewing disciplinary records of Buffalo police, it’s very likely that 12 percent is an undercount. (Let’s just say Internal Affairs in Buffalo isn’t very thorough or aggressive.) Also in yesterday’s[...]

Posted 3 years ago