Categories for DailyPost

May 15

2024

Who’s responsible for dysfunctional jail oversight board?

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Erie County Bar Association, the sheriff and the Legislature haven’t filled vacancies on a jail advisory board that hasn’t been able to conduct business for lack of a quorum. Meanwhile, prisoners are dying, prompting lawsuits and millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts. Tasked with overseeing the jail and recommending improvements, the Corrections Specialist Advisory Board hasn’t been able to review jail deaths, consider plans for a new jail or even approve a 2023 annual report that remains in draft form. The 11-seat board, which has three vacancies, is supposed[...]

Posted 12 months ago

May 14

2024

Secretive state board gives Amazon another break

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The 3 million-square-foot Amazon distribution center being built in Niagara County will not have to pay construction workers prevailing wages, a state board has ruled, despite the project receiving $137 million in tax breaks and subsidies.  State law says the developer must pay prevailing wages if a private construction project costs more than $5 million and subsidies account for at least 30 percent of costs. The wage rate is set by the state Department of Labor and influenced by union pay.  But the state Public Subsidy Board decided in March those rules won’t apply to the Amazon facility.  Why not?[...]

Posted 12 months ago

May 13

2024

Online news outlets are hot, newspapers are not

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The awarding of Pulitzer Prizes is about celebrating the accomplishments of newspaper journalism. The latest announcements were made last week, and while there was a lot of good work to salute, there were somber undertones. No regional dailies won a Pulitzer. That underscores how most of them have become shells of their former selves.  That doesn’t mean there wasn’t great work being produced on the local level. Four Pulitizers were awarded to online news outlets, three of them based in Chicago and Santa Cruz, California.  In all, eight newspapers were finalists for a Pulitzer, vs. 12 online outlets. (The balance[...]

Posted 12 months ago

May 9

2024

Tom Bauerle’s family feud

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WBEN talk radio host Tom Bauerle’s siblings claim in a lawsuit that the right-wing pundit cheated them out of their share of their late mother’s nearly $1 million estate. 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 influence, fraud, and exploitation of [her] infirmity” — to make himself her principal beneficiary. They claim that prior to their brother’s “fraudulent and wrongful conduct,” their mother intended the three[...]

Posted 12 months ago

May 8

2024

Dismissed Buffalo cop had history of complaints

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A Buffalo cop fired for dousing a woman with pepper spray and falsifying reports to justify his actions was the subject of nine inquiries into allegations ranging from rudeness to excessive force. Seven investigations came during Kevin Murphy’s last two years of active duty. In addition, a city parking enforcement officer whom Murphy threatened and berated complained in 2022, while Murphy was on paid leave pending termination for pepper spraying Lekisha Neal and falsifying reports. Other complaints included an allegation that Murphy had beaten a teenager while arresting him on suspicion of robbery. The department could not determine the truth[...]

Posted 12 months ago

May 7

2024

Yup, there’s plenty of bed bugs at LBJ Apartments

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Sign in community room of LBJ Apartments warns of infestation. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. Days after Investigative Post revealed a bed bug infestation in the LBJ senior citizen apartments, the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority arranged mandatory pest control inspections for each unit.  Twenty-six of the building’s 206 apartments, including some vacant units, were found to have bed bugs, according to BMHA Executive Director Gillian Brown.  He said bed bugs were also found in the community room, where Investigative Post on Monday saw each couch and chair had written signs posted to them advising residents not to sit on them, as[...]

Posted 12 months ago

May 6

2024

An update on the sad condition of Kim Pegula

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Tim Graham, late of The Buffalo News, now reporting for The Athletic, broke a story last week on the latest involving Kim Pegula. She’s been declared incapacitated and husband Terry Pegula is now her guardian. Terry has transferred a small portion of the couple’s ownership of the Bills to his daughter from his first marriage, who is starting to play a role in team affairs. (Here’s a version that’s not behind a paywall.)  ProPublica reports on the IRS investigating billionaires using the sports teams they own to cheat on their taxes. The governor of Illinois is no Kathy Hochul when[...]

Posted 12 months ago

May 3

2024

Buffalo’s precarious budget

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Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown struck a pragmatic tone Wednesday as he introduced his budget proposal for the coming year, which is balanced with a 9 percent hike in property taxes and nearly $15 million in reserve funds. The mayor’s $618 million spending proposal, however, suffers from some of the same unrealistic revenue projections that led to shortfalls in the past, before the city’s treasury was bursting with federal pandemic aid to conceal the difference. Consider just three revenue sources the Brown administration has frequently overestimated in past budget cycles: parking meters, parking tickets, and traffic fines. Parking meters are forecast[...]

Posted 12 months ago
Investigative Post