Categories for DailyPost

Jul 22

2024

Joe Biden: American Patriot

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Politicians tend to be egotistical, me-first creatures. That’s what makes President Biden’s decision to withdraw as a candidate that much more remarkable. He faced facts and put his country ahead of his ego.  Good for him, and good for us. Lindsey Graham, before he went to the dark side, described Biden as “as good a man as God ever created.” I wouldn’t go that far, but he’s been a good president who struck me as a decent human being – Gaza notwithstanding. While his legacy is yet to be written, it will no doubt include him saving us from another[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 18

2024

Mayor’s staff growing in numbers and cost

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When Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown prepared his first city budget, he allowed for eight employees in his office, including himself. He had a communications staff of one.  Those jobs were scheduled to cost taxpayers $571,806, not including healthcare and retirement benefits. The actual cost was less — just under $500,000 — because he didn’t fill all the positions. This budget year, which began July 1, the mayor’s budget allows for 19 staffers. The Office of Communications and Intergovernmental Affairs has grown to seven budgeted positions.  Combined, the salaries for those 26 jobs add up to $2,453,665. That’s nearly three times[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 17

2024

Brown’s raising money as if he’s running for office

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Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown has a fundraiser today at the Diamond Hawk golf course in Cheektowaga, with tickets starting at $100 and sponsorship packages ranging up to $5,000.  Brown also held a fundraiser earlier this month at a Bisons game and another in April at The Atrium @ Rich’s. His Brown for Buffalo campaign committee has raised $58,500 since January, according to campaign finance disclosures filed on Monday.  That’s $22,000 more than Brown raised in the first six months of 2020, as he prepared to run for a fifth term. The mayor’s committee had $192,545 in the bank as of[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 16

2024

New York’s generous subsidies to Amazon

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The future site of an Amazon distribution center in Niagara County. Photo by Garrett Looker. New York in recent years has awarded so many tax breaks and subsidies to Amazon that it now ranks as one of the top states in the nation for doling out assistance to the $2 trillion company. The state’s more than $700 million in total subsidies to Amazon ranks it fourth in the country, according to a new data analysis by SwitchOnBusiness, a consulting firm. Only Oregon, Virginia and Illinois have given the e-commerce giant more. The consulting firm gathered its information from Good Jobs[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 15

2024

Buffalo’s ever-present hole in the ground

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You could have read this, and more, yesterday if you subscribed to our newsletters. Doing so is just a click away. Perhaps nothing symbolizes the inertia that holds Buffalo back more than the site of the now demolished Memorial Auditorium. Portions have been redeveloped, most notably Explore & More, but much of the property remains a hole in the ground – literally – 15 years after the Aud was demolished. The inaction has been under the watch of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., a state agency, and Mayor Byron Brown. The lack of action was in the news last[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 12

2024

Harsh words for costly OTB buyouts

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State Sen. Sean Ryan, left,  Assemblywoman Monica Wallace and Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. “Egregious.”  “Self-dealing.”  “Corrupt.”  A trio of local Democratic officials used those terms and a few other choice words on Friday to describe contractual buyouts for three outgoing executives that will come at a combined cost to Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. of more than $500,000.  During a press conference outside the OTB branch on Clinton Street in Cheektowaga, State Assemblywoman Monica Wallace, D-Lancaster, assailed the six-figure buyouts as “sweetheart” deals that are “wholly unnecessary.” Joining her in criticizing the deals were[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 12

2024

What about a branch library at the Broadway Market?

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After years of inaction, progress is being made toward bringing library books to the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood – with a branch library in the Broadway Market suggested as one possibility. John Spears, director of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, and Chris Hawley, a community advocate, met last week to discuss ways to address the book desert that exists in a large swath of the city’s East side. As a short-term solution, they discussed the possibility of expanding the library’s bookmobile in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood. As a longer-term goal, they talked about establishing a “physical presence” in the community, Spears[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 11

2024

Buffalo sued over inner-city lead poisoning

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Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, head of the Partnership for the Public Good. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel.   This story was updated at 2:11 pm on July 11, 2024 to include comments from the City of Buffalo. Tenants and community organizations are taking the City of Buffalo to court, contending it is failing to enforce rental inspection laws aimed at reducing lead paint in the city’s aging housing stock. The inspection law, enacted in 2020, was in response to the large number of children testing with high levels of lead in their blood. City inspectors have conducted relatively few inspections since then,[...]

Posted 7 months ago
Investigative Post