Mar 5
2012
WFBO interview on Fahey-Kearns race
Jim Heaney discusses dynamics of upcoming special election for 145th District Assembly seat
Posted 13 years ago
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.
Mar 5
2012
Jim Heaney discusses dynamics of upcoming special election for 145th District Assembly seat
Mar 4
2012
To quote Frank Sinatra, Larry Quinn has “been up and down and over and out,” perhaps moreso than any public figure in Buffalo over the past generation. He’s been a boy wonder city development whiz under Jimmy Griffin and a Manhattan developer. Managing partner of the Buffalo Sabres not once but twice and now involved in an effort to build an Irish Olympic hockey program. Hailed for building the downtown arena and later working with Tom Golisano to save the team from bankruptcy. Lambasted for the departures of Pat LaFontaine and Chris Drury. Lauded as a visionary planner and reviled[...]
Mar 1
2012
Our second installment of Joe Friday involves the campaign contributions of Hormoz Mansouri, regarded as one of the largest financial backers of local and state politicians, including those in league with veteran political operative Steve Pigeon. Joe Friday tracked his contributions from 2005 to January of this year. Mansouri made a vast majority of contributions in his name; others were made by his wife and three companies he owns, EI Team, an engineer and architecture firm; HLM Holdings, a development company; and NPTS Inc., an engineering, design and consulting firm providing services to the nuclear power industry and the U.S.[...]
Mar 1
2012
A fair number of elections for state office are stinkers. They’re over before they start because of lopsided party enrollments or one of the candidates, typically the one offered by the minority party as the sacrificial lamb, is clearly not up to the job. That’s not the case in the race between Chris Fahey and Mickey Kearns to succeed Mark Schroeder in the 145th Assembly District. No, folks, we have a real race with real candidates. Kind of a nice change of pace. The seat has longed belong to a Democrat, thanks to a big enrollment edge (43,200 to 20,000[...]
Feb 28
2012
Politics has been a blood sport in South Buffalo for, well, probably forever, certainly as far back as my memory goes. There was Jimmy Griffin, in league with the influential Keane family until hizzoner and Jimmy Keane had a falling out. A Hatfield and McCoy kind of falling out. Later there was Griffin and Dick Keane protege Brian Higgins, although they managed to maintain a detente for the most part, even when they later squared off against each other to serve in the Assembly. Higgins, of course, evolved into not only a South Buffalo political powerhouse, but arguably the most[...]
Feb 27
2012
I couldn’t help but be reminded of Joel Giambra’s relationship with Jim Spano when I got through reading the profile of Adam Perry and his law firm’s dealings with Bryon Brown’s administration in Sunday’s Buffalo News. Spano, if you recall, was Giambra’s chief campaign fund-raiser when the Democrat turned Republican ran successfully for county executive in 2000. Once in office, Giambra’s administration rewarded Spano’s firm with 85 percent of the county’s office furniture business, worth $2.5 million. Spano’s company, not content with the lion’s share of business, overbilled the county by an estimated $550,000 according to an investigation I did[...]
Feb 24
2012
Howard Zemsky is co-chairman of the Regional Economic Development Council for Western New York and will play a significant role in the shaping of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to invest $1 billion of state incentives in the Buffalo-area economy. He’s been hailed for his company’s redevelopment of the former Graphic Controls building on Seneca Street into the Larkin at Exchange Building, which has served as a catalyst for the revitalization of the surrounding neighborhood. He’s active in the civic and preservationist community. Cuomo recently appointed Zemsky chairman of the Buffalo State College Council and is expected to soon elevate him[...]
Feb 24
2012
Our first installment of Joe Friday involves contributions made to political candidates and parties by companies with a vested interest in New York State opening up the Marcellus Shale to drilling for natural gas through a controversial process called hydraulic fracturing. A Common Cause recently released a study that tracked contributions from 2007 to October 2011. While the Buffalo metropolitan area lies just northwest of the Marcellus Shale, the contributions have a Western New York flavor. Here are the facts: Natural gas interests made 2,340 contributions totaling $1.34 million to candidates and political parties in New York State. Four companies[...]