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.

Dec 3

2018

Ciminelli sentenced for corruption conviction

Buffalo developer Louis Ciminelli was sentenced to 28 months in prison and fined $500,000 by a federal judge in Manhattan Monday. Ciminelli was convicted in July for his role in a bid rigging scheme that landed his company, LPCiminelli, a contract worth $26.25 million to build a 1.2 million square foot factory for SolarCity, now Tesla. Alain Kaloyeros, the state official who oversaw the project, was also convicted, along with two developers from Syracuse. Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney, whose reporting in 2014 first exposed the scheme, told WGRZ’s Steve Brown on Monday that he considered the sentence “a[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Nov 28

2018

Double your money with iPost donation

To quote Ringo Star, “It don’t come easy.” To which we’ll add, “Or cheap.” Investigative reporting, that is. Investigative Post does the costly, time-consuming reporting that most local news outlets shy away from because, well, it’s difficult and expensive. The payoff is when we first break major stories and later see change come as a result. The power of our reporting was on full display this summer when a Manhattan jury convicted Alain Kaloyeros, Louis Ciminelli and two Syracuse-based developers on corruption charges. The federal probe that lead to the filing of charges was triggered by reporting done by Investigative[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Nov 17

2018

Tesla opens the door – a crack

The building was completed two years ago and Tesla and its partners at Panasonic have been producing solar roofing materials since last year, but only this week did the company allow the press in for a peek. And only a bit of one. Jim Heaney told Scott Levin of WGRZ that the blatant attempt to spin is the way Tesla has dealt with the press and public since Gov. Andrew Cuomo invested $750 million in state tax dollars to build and equip the plant. Left unanswered by the dog-and-pony show: the quality of jobs being created, how much space is[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Nov 9

2018

Heaney talks “big lie” strategy on ‘Pressroom

What to make President Donald Trump’s banishment of CNN reporter Jim Acosta? Jim Heaney tells Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom that Trump’s continued assault on journalists is part of a “big lie” strategy intended in part to destabilize democratic institutions. Heaney also discusses a recent Investigative Post story on two economic development programs in Western New York that go begging for takers. Arbetter will discuss state and national politics this coming Tuesday at an Investigative Post event at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Details and tickets can be found here.

Posted 6 years ago

Nov 2

2018

Missing Maziarz funds remain a mystery

The office of Sen. George Maziarz did such a poor job tracking spending from his campaign account that it’s impossible to know exactly what became of up to $350,000, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said Thursday in explaining why he isn’t pressing charges against anyone who handled the money. Maziarz, who did not seek re-election in 2014 after being charged with unrelated campaign finance law violations, had accused his campaign treasurer, chief of staff and office manager of stealing the funds for their personal use. The state Board of Elections first looked into the matter and found the campaign’s[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Oct 9

2018

State finds police fault in Lehner drowning

A state investigation into the drowning of Buffalo police diver Craig Lehner identified numerous problems with the policies and procedures of the city’s Underwater Recovery Unit. The report by the Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau of the state Labor Department concluded that Lehner drowned last October after his tether line became snagged on a boulder about 25 feet under water. The safety bureau faulted the police department on a number of fronts, including the inadequate training and equipping of Lehner. The findings mirror previous reporting by Investigative Post, which determined Lehner was not sufficiently trained or equipped to drive in the rapid[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Oct 5

2018

Heaney discusses fatal police shooting

Jim Heaney discusses his coverage of the fatal police shooting of Rafael “Pito” Rivera with Susan Arbetter on The Capitol Pressroom. Heaney also noted the absence of concern, much less criticism, from elected officials or most activist organizations in the city in the face of the death of three men of color in encounters with Buffalo police since March 2017.

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 15

2018

Video shows deadly police shooting

A video of the shooting of Rafael “Pito” Rivera shows he was running from police when an officer shot him twice at close range, according to an Investigative Post review of the footage. The video shows Rivera falling as he turns off Plymouth Avenue into the parking lot of the former School 77 about 3:15 a.m. Wednesday. He crawls several feet, gets up and runs several steps until a police officer about 10 to 15 feet away fires two shots. Rivera falls to the ground, motionless. Rivera does not point a weapon at officers in the video, which shows[...]

Posted 7 years ago