Categories for DailyPost

Jul 10

2024

More drama with jail advisory board

Published by

Erie County Sheriff John Garcia. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Erie County Sheriff’s Department has pulled staff from meetings of a jail advisory board, citing the body’s inability to raise quorums and an adversarial tone from some members. The withdrawal came after Jerome Wright, a former inmate who’s been critical of the sheriff’s office, was elected chairman to the board that’s been tasked with reviewing jail deaths and operations. “This is a disingenuous attempt to go out like a punk instead of standing your ground,” said Wright, who has opposed the sheriff’s push for a new jail and says he[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 9

2024

OTB lawyer says buyouts A-OK

Published by

Henry Wojtaszek at a January OTB meeting. Photo by Garrett Looker. An outside attorney representing Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. says the agency is not covered by a state law designed to prevent public authorities from offering so-called “golden parachutes” to outgoing executives.   In a written opinion provided to members of OTB’s board on Friday, attorney Terry Connors argues that the state’s Severance Pay Limitation Act has no bearing on a June 27 decision by the agency’s board to authorize lucrative buyouts for three departing executives, including CEO and President Henry Wojtaszek.  In his opinion, Connors argues that the act,[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 9

2024

Buffalo Bills begin spending on community projects

Published by

The Buffalo Bills stadium under construction in Orchard Park. Photo by Garrett Looker. The good news: The Buffalo Bills have already begun spending millions of dollars on community groups and projects in accordance with the community benefits agreement attached to the team’s new stadium. There’s more: The team has extended the CBA, agreeing to make the annual allocations for three additional years. That means the Bills will spend an additional $9 million on the CBA, for a total of $99 million over 33 years. It also means the money is flowing now, instead of starting in 2026 when the new[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 8

2024

Our entitled elected officials

Published by

Erie County Legislator John Bargnesi recently proposed term limits for Erie County elected officials. Most legislators were cool to the idea and County Executive Mark Poloncarz said last week he’d veto term limits if they landed on his desk. Poloncarz used the tired excuse that elections serve the same purpose. But they don’t. Paul Wolf of the New York Coalition for Open Government did a tally of county election results from 2001 to 2023. Incumbents won 145 of 154 elections. “We don’t have competitive elections for Erie County offices and we should,” Wolf wrote county legislators last week. “ What[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 5

2024

Political gains for foes of Kensington Expressway project

Published by

Nine newcomers won Democratic Party committee seats in Buffalo in the June 25 primary elections.  A few of them beat big names in local politics, including former Common Council President Darius Pridgen, Assemblyman Jon Rivera and former state Sen. Marc Panepinto. All of them beat party insiders. That’s not all they have in common.  Six of the winners in those races are united by their opposition to the state Department of Transportation’s $1 billion plan to tunnelize a stretch of the Kensington Expressway. Matt Dearing, Jeff Carballada, Michael Gainer, Taj Richardson, Chris Hawley and Greg Olma — all winners of[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 3

2024

State lawmaker calls OTB buyouts illegal

Published by

OTB Chairman Dennis Bassett, left, and Henry Wojtaszek, president and CEO. Photo by Garrett Looker. State Assemblywoman Monica Wallace is calling the six-figure buyout for the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. president and CEO, Henry Wojtaszek, “blatantly illegal” and said she will ask state Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the “golden parachutes” going to three top OTB leaders. “There is no question that I will be asking the AG’s office, the comptroller’s office, and perhaps even the inspector general, to look into this,” Wallace, a Lancaster Democrat, told Investigative Post. The OTB board of directors voted last week to[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 2

2024

Buffalo daycare center has history of complaints

Published by

Mary’s Little Lambs Child Care Center. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel.  This story was updated July 2t 12:53 pm. An East Side daycare center whose owner was recently arrested and charged with shoving an employee has been cited for 20 violations in the past 2-1/2 years, a few referencing allegations of possible maltreatment or inadequate supervision of children. State inspectors since 2022 were called to investigate complaints at Mary’s Little Lambs Child Care Center eight times prior to the June 11 incident, when owner Mary Goodwill was charged after allegations she used physical force against a teenage staff member. Another employee[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Jul 1

2024

A lot of people are cutting the cable chord

Published by

The cable TV business is starting to implode. The decline started in 2014 and is gaining speed. This chart tells it all.  Cable’s decline has implications for local TV news, as retransmission fees paid by cable providers are a major source of revenue for stations.  Newscasts here in Buffalo have lost one-third of their audience since 2019. It’s part of a national trend. In 2018, 41 percent of Americans surveyed by Pew Research said they preferred television news over other sources. That number today is 32 percent. People prefer online sources, 48 percent. Printed newspapers and radio trail badly, with[...]

Posted 8 months ago
Investigative Post