Categories for DailyPost

Jul 9

2024

Buffalo Bills begin spending on community projects

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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 10 months ago

Jul 8

2024

Our entitled elected officials

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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 10 months ago

Jul 5

2024

Political gains for foes of Kensington Expressway project

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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 10 months ago

Jul 3

2024

State lawmaker calls OTB buyouts illegal

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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 10 months ago

Jul 2

2024

Buffalo daycare center has history of complaints

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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 10 months ago

Jul 1

2024

A lot of people are cutting the cable chord

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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 10 months ago

Jul 1

2024

Investigative Post teaming up with Channel 7

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Investigative Post has had a very good 12-year run with Channel 2. It’s over. Starting this week, you’ll find us on 7 News. Our reporters will periodically discuss their work with Michael Wooten on his Voices newscast at 5:30 p.m. WKBW will also incorporate our reporters into stories they produce for which we have subject matter expertise. I have a deep appreciation for how the previous management at Channel 2 helped put Investigative Post on the map when we launched in 2012. We forged a strong working relationship based on our shared commitment to investigative reporting. All that  changed the[...]

Posted 10 months ago

Jun 28

2024

STAMP is but the latest offense

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Scott Logan, a member of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, stands at the edge of the Big Woods. Photo by Garrett Looker. This is the second of a tw0-part series. The first story is here. Standing at the edge of the Big Woods, an old-growth forest that researchers say contains one of the most unique ecosystems in New York, Scott Logan feels he can see history repeating itself. What he’s looking at are Plug Power’s hydrogen-producing electrolyzers, two massive spheres towering over land that once belonged to Logan’s Tonawanda Seneca Nation. The Nation has new neighbors: The Science, Technology and Advanced[...]

Posted 10 months ago
Investigative Post