Categories for DailyPost

Jan 7

2025

Geoff Kelly named associate editor

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Geoff Kelly is the new associate editor at Investigative Post. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel Geoff Kelly has been promoted to associate editor of Investigative Post. Kelly has covered government and politics since joining Investigative Post in April 2019.  “Geoff has an encyclopedic knowledge of government and the community at large,” said Jim Heaney, Investigative Post’s editor and executive director. “He’s also got a wealth of editing experience, which will suit him well as he steps into our No. 2 position.” He succeeds Susan Schulman, who shared management of the newsroom until her retirement last month. Heaney and Kelly will share[...]

Posted 2 hours ago

Jan 6

2025

Awaiting an avalanche of activity

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The ICE detention center in Batavia could become a very busy place when Donald Trump acts on his campaign pledge to begin mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.  Dan Herbeck of The Buffalo News recently spent time at the facility and produced an inside look at life inside for its 530 detainees and what the future holds. The story notes that there are serious logistical and procedural issues that will likely preclude Trump from deporting immigrants en masse as quickly as he wants. Herbeck’s account includes statements from ICE officials about how well detainees are treated, a claim that’s been disputed[...]

Posted 1 day ago

Jan 3

2025

Bauerle story voted tops in 2024

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Readers have voted Geoff Kelly’s story on the legal battle involving the family of talk radio host Tom Bauerle as Investigative Post’s top story of 2014. The story, published on May 9, detailed claims by the siblings of the WBEN talk show host that he schemed to defraud them of their share of their late mother’s estate. Kelly wrote: The lawsuit, filed May 3, alleges that Bauerle moved in with his mother, Dorothy, during the last two months of her life. Dorothy Bauerle died March 6.  During that period, his siblings claim, Bauerle convinced their mother — “through duress, undue[...]

Posted 4 days ago

Jan 2

2025

Building off a strong year in 2024

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Investigative Post heads into the new year with a head of steam. Traffic to many news websites has flatlined or even dropped the past several years. That’s not the case with Investigative Post. Our pageviews in 2024 jumped by 62 percent and our traffic is more than double what it was in 2021. There’s a variety of reasons for our growth. We produced more content last year than ever, some 250 pieces for our website and another 50 we co-produced with our television partners. We also worked with AlignSimple and the Google News Initiative to develop and implement strategies to[...]

Posted 5 days ago

Jan 1

2025

Staying with the story

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When last we spoke in December 2023, I touted my reporting on Black homeownership rates as some of my best work of the year and promised some follow-ups to dive deeper into the issue. I’d like to think I delivered on that promise this year through some in-depth pieces I wrote on the region’s mortgage lenders. In March, I produced a two-part package exploring how banks and non-bank lenders in both Erie County and the City of Buffalo were approving mortgage loans. I scoured tens of thousands of records from Census and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data to determine where[...]

Posted 6 days ago

Dec 31

2024

Dabney appointed to Buffalo Housing Court

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Buffalo Housing Court, Part 17 of Buffalo City Court. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel After months of speculation, Buffalo City Court Judge Phillip Dabney Jr. has been named the city’s new Housing Court judge. Dabney, 55, was a fill-in judge for Housing Court several times this year and that experience  prepared him for being appointed to the position for the coming year, said Eighth Judicial Administrative Judge Kevin Carter. “I’ve heard that he’s been doing a really nice job. He seems to be serious about it. He also wants to do it, so that’s an important factor,” Carter told Investigative Post.[...]

Posted 7 days ago

Dec 31

2024

Using public records to unlock stories

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Before he retired to the west coast of Mexico this fall, my Investigative Post colleague Bruce Rushton made a salient observation: New York has a particularly weak open records law because it has no teeth. By teeth, he meant that in New York there are virtually no penalties for bureaucrats if they ignore or delay responding to a records request for information the public has a right to see. In other words, there’s no incentive for the government to be transparent despite our Freedom of Information Law saying it ought to be.  That’s a problem I ran into headfirst this[...]

Posted 1 week ago

Dec 29

2024

April Baskin’s results fall short of her rhetoric

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The Buffalo News sure is fond of April Baskin, the outgoing chair of the Erie County Legislature and incoming state senator. In a profile and subsequent editorial, The News portrayed her as an effective champion of social justice.  I beg to differ. The Legislature under her leadership has been a rubber stamp for County Executive Mark Poloncarz. She seems joined at the hip with Democratic Party HQ, which saw to it that she ascended to Tim Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat without serious opposition.   Baskin and her colleagues somehow decided construction of the new Bills stadium didn’t require an environmental impact[...]

Posted 1 week ago
Investigative Post