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.

Sep 17

2015

Heaney talks SolarCity on Capitol Pressroom

The state’s investment of $750 million to build and equip a solar panel manufacturing plant for SolarCity is a high-risk, high-reward proposition, Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney told Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom on Thursday. Heaney noted the company’s sagging financial fortunes and continuing concerns in the investment community over SolarCity’s long-term prospects. He noted a recent story in an investment trade journal that concluded the plant is shaping up as a “white elephant.” Heaney also pointed out that SolarCity is on track to post record losses this year; the company finished the first half of this year $303 million[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Sep 10

2015

Help wanted: Reporter to cover iPost events

Investigative Post is seeking a free-lance correspondent who can cover our event series that kicks off later this month. Work involves a handful of assignments a month. We’re looking for someone with a journalism background who can write, use social media and shoot and edit video and still photos. (In short, a backpack journalist.) Note: This is not an invitation to apply for a full-time reporting position. Send cover letter, resume and three work samples by Sept. 18 to Jim Heaney, editor of Investigative Post, at jheaney@investigativepost.org.

Posted 9 years ago

Aug 31

2015

Heaney talks ‘Billion with Capitol Pressroom

Susan Arbetter of Capitol Pressroom interviewed Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney on Monday regarding transparency and the Buffalo Billion. The 9 minute, 19 second interview runs from 13:10 to 22:29. The Capitol Pressroom broadcasts on National Public Radio affiliates as well as non-profit community stations across New York State and is produced in association with WCNY, which is based in Syracuse.

Posted 9 years ago

Aug 20

2015

Heaney talks SolarCity with WBEN

Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney fields questions from WBEN News Radio regarding SolarCity and plans to open a large solar panel manufacturing plant at Riverbend in South Buffalo. Heaney discussed SolarCity’s mounting financial losses and described the project as “high risk, high reward.”

Posted 9 years ago

Jul 28

2015

State relents on Buffalo Billion records

I interrupt the state’s incessant stonewalling of my efforts to use public records to track the Buffalo Billion program to report some progress. Cuomo administration officials, for more than a year, refused to release documents related to the selection of LPCiminelli to develop SolarCity’s sprawling plant in South Buffalo. The SUNY Research Foundation and the Fort Schuyler Management Corp. went to great lengths to thwart my efforts to obtain records under the state Freedom of Information Law, as I documented in December. Alain Kaloyeros and his associates at Fort Schuyler wouldn’t budge when the state Committee on Open Government issued[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jun 24

2015

Demone Smith promoted despite violations

Demone Smith’s long history of violating the state elections law hasn’t stopped Mayor Byron Brown from appointing him to a key position in his cabinet. Smith, majority leader of the Common Council and a political ally of the mayor, starts next week as executive director of the Buffalo Employment and Training Center. The center matches employers with city and county residents seeking jobs. Over the past decade, Smith has failed to file campaign disclosure reports on time 28 times. That’s prompted the state Board of Elections to impose seven penalties, five of which remain unpaid. Smith owes $3,382 in penalties.[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jun 22

2015

Shenanigans beset Buffalo Billion

Editors note: A version of the following story published this past weekend in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Albany Times Union, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, and Poughkeepsie Journal. The accompanying video was co-produced with WGRZ. Editorials calling for greater transparency in the program were subsequently published by the Democrat & Chronicle and Times Union. The Buffalo Billion program championed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a bold and costly experiment in economic development that is beset by secrecy and politics, and banking on a company with a history of losing money. The program — hailed in Buffalo but resented across much of the rest of New[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jun 17

2015

SolarCity update: Progress and problems

Construction of the massive $750 million solar panel manufacturing plant is approaching the half-way point and SolarCity is starting to hire in anticipation of a phase in of operations early next year. Meanwhile, the company is losing record amounts of money, its stock price is languishing and federal investigators continue to look at some of its past dealings out of state. New York officials, for their part, continue to thwart efforts to open the SolarCity project to public scrutiny.

Posted 9 years ago