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May 13

2020

$1B to Buffalo under House stimulus bill

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 The disaster relief package House Democrats expect to pass on Friday includes $375 billion in aid for local governments across the country.  About $1 billion of that would be earmarked for the City of Buffalo over two years, according to a breakdown provided to Investigative Post by U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins. If the House bill were adopted as is by the Senate — a nearly insurmountable if, according to Higgins — Buffalo would receive $671.6 million in 2020, within 30 days of the HEROES Act being adopted. The city would receive an additional $335.8 million in 2021. That’s nearly[...]

Posted 5 years ago

May 9

2020

Faulty logic behind refusal to release inmates

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Updated at 10:40 a.m. The argument prosecutors, and sometimes judges, make is that few inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, so it’s safe to keep them incarcerated. Authorities, however, are not testing many inmates, so they don’t know how healthy they really are. As a result, relatively few prisoners held in Erie County jails or the state’s 53 prisons who are deemed as infectious risks are being released. Only five of Erie County’s 528 inmates have been tested, and only 52 have been released due to COVID-19 concerns.  “The standard line from the DA’s office is that ‘We don’t have[...]

Posted 5 years ago

May 6

2020

OTB lands $3.2M intended for small business

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The Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. is not to be mistaken for a small business. It’s a state-created public benefit corporation, owned by 15 counties and two cities, and charged with running legalized betting operations in western and central New York. It shares its profits with those local governments and the State of New York. Its employees, starting with its well compensated CEO, Henry Wojtaszek, are treated as public-sector employees, drawing, for example, a pension from the state.  And OTB reported some $3.1 million in cash reserves in its last audited financial statements. Nevertheless, OTB has managed to obtain[...]

Posted 5 years ago

May 5

2020

Gillibrand, Higgins call out ICE

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U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins want federal scrutiny of the way Immigrations and Customs Enforcement treats immigrants held at its detention center in Batavia. Investigative Post reported last week that ICE routinely released detainees without regard for their well-being, dropping them off at a local gas station and bus stop without sufficient notice to family or lawyers or means to reach safe quarters. Investigative Post previously reported on what detainees described as unhealthy conditions inside the facility that have contributed to the infection of 49 detainees with COVID-19. “I’m deeply concerned by the reports of ICE’s[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Apr 28

2020

ICE’s ill treatment of released detainees

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Updated: 8:10 p.m. The Citgo off the Batavia exit of the Thruway is a typical gas station: a convenience store with 10 gas pumps. It doubles as a Greyhound bus stop. It’s also the drop-off point for people just released from the nearby detention center managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Matt Thompson has seen it happen over and over since he started working at the station four months ago. “The way they treat them, I don’t agree with,” the 20-year Army veteran told Investigative Post. “They drop them off and they treat them like animals. They kick[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Apr 28

2020

Buffalo facing big budget deficit

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 City Hall is facing the prospect of a COVID-19-induced budget deficit of $20 million to $31 million, with limited reserves to close the gap. A combination of increased expenses and lost revenues will cost city government an estimated $20 million, according to a report filed by Finance Commissioner Donna Estrich.  An additional $11 million in anticipated casino revenues is also at risk, given the closure of casinos during the pandemic and continued legal stalemate between the state and Seneca Nation. Meanwhile, Mayor Byron Brown’s administration is preparing a budget for the new fiscal year that begins July 1, knowing[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Apr 24

2020

Hospital workers cope with virus, furloughs

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Nurses and other employees at local hospitals are facing a double whammy these days: furloughs and increasing COVID-19 infections. An investigative Post survey of a dozen hospitals, including those run by Kaleida Health and Catholic Health, finds that infections among their staffs have doubled in the past two weeks. The count also includes Erie County Medical Center and Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center.  The updated total stands at 356, double that of two weeks ago. About a dozen employees a day are testing positive, a number that hasn’t fluctuated much in recent weeks. The good news: nearly two-thirds of those[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Apr 22

2020

Kaleida, losing big money, seeks furloughs

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Kaleida Health, the region’s largest health-care system, is asking hundreds of employees to take voluntary, month-long furloughs beginning April 26. Exempt are doctors, nurses and other employees who are treating patients infected with COVID-19. Kaleida, like other hospital and health-care providers, has been hammered by the material costs of fighting the COVID-19 epidemic. And it has been deprived of its most lucrative revenue streams while doing so. Three weeks ago, Kaleida spokesman Michael Hughes told Investigative Post that the impact of the coronavirus on the system’s finances was “going to be ugly.” In a press release announcing the furlough program,[...]

Posted 5 years ago
Investigative Post