Categories for DailyPost

Jan 29

2024

Policing Buffalo’s police

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Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia and Mayor Byron Brown testified last fall that the city’s contract with its police union and the power it bestows on an arbitrator make it too difficult to discipline cops accused of misconduct. “I think any chief executive that’s running the department would like to have the managerial ability to run a department, but that’s not the contractual language that was laid out well before my time,” Gramaglia testified during a recent deposition in a police brutality lawsuit. “The arbitrator’s decision, the independent arbitrator’s decision and finding, is final in a disciplinary matter.” Gramaglia and[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 29

2024

Monday Morning Read

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The bad news keeps coming for legacy media. A growing number of newspapers are shuttering their Washington bureaus. (Jerry Zremsky of The Buffalo News is only part-time.) Industry layoffs have reached “bloodbath” levels. And disgruntled newsroom staffs are staging walkouts left and right. Things aren’t so hot at Lee Enterprises either. You know, the chain overseeing the dismantling of The Buffalo News. The latest exhibit came in Sunday’s paper. The Gusto section included 13 stories and other blocks of content. The only one dealing with Buffalo was a TV column by Alan Pergament. The rest was all canned wire copy,[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 26

2024

Accused vandal sent for psychiatric help

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  With a deadline looming, a mentally ill man accused of breaking windows at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Buffalo nearly a year ago has been sent to a psychiatric hospital. Jones Woods, 61, arrived at a federal prison psychiatric facility in Massachusetts from a private prison in Ohio on Jan. 16, according to court documents. The transfer came after U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Roemer in December gave prosecutors an ultimatum: Get Woods out of jail and into psychiatric care by Jan. 31 or I’ll dismiss the charges against him. Roemer found Woods incompetent to stand trial last June and[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 25

2024

All Tim Kennedy’s money

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State Sen. Tim Kennedy State Sen. Tim Kennedy’s campaign committee spent nearly $1.5 million in 2023, a year in which the Buffalo Democrat wasn’t up for re-election. He spent more last year than he did on his two previous re-election campaigns combined.  He spent nearly four times as much as he did in 2021, the last off-year for state legislators. And he spent two-thirds of that money — more than $1 million — after word began circulating in July that Kennedy’s political mentor, U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, would step down mid-term, opening up a seat that Kennedy would like to[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 24

2024

Lawsuit accuses OTB of sexual harassment, wage theft

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The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. was sued Wednesday on claims two executives sexually harassed a female employee and managers at Batavia Downs stole tips from her and other bartenders. Among the allegations lodged against Chief Operating Officer Scott Kiedrowski and Director of Security Daniel Wood: a pattern of sexual harassment that extended over several years. Kiedrowski invited female employees to attend Bills and Sabres games at OTB’s suites, which one plaintiff contends was an effort to seduce her.   The lawsuit contends the alleged wage theft was brought to the attention of OTB management but, after correcting the problem, President[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 22

2024

Monday Morning Read

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Nikki Haley, who a couple of weeks ago, failed to mention slavery as a cause of the Civil War, put her foot in her mouth again last week, declaring “America has never been a racist country.” I guess forcing four million people live in slavery doesn’t constitute as racist. The Washington Post tore her argument to shreds by citing public opinion polls from the 1940s and 1960s. A majority of whites said they should get preference for jobs over Blacks and should have a right to keep them from living in their neighborhoods. A Black man dating their daughter? No way. Some[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 18

2024

Wojtaszek, OTB leadership get 2nd raise in a year

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Dennis Bassett, chair of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. board of directors, left, and President and CEO Henry Wojtaszek. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. gave its president and CEO Henry Wojtaszek a $15,000 raise Thursday, cementing him among the highest paid public employees in New York.   Wojtaszek, 61, now earns an annual paycheck of $287,000. That’s more than New York City Mayor Eric Adams ($258,000); Gov. Kathy Hochul ($250,000); Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ($193,400); Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown ($178,500); U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins ($174,000); and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz ($140,000).  Wojtaszek is[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 17

2024

Weather for Bills home games: Meh

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 Editor’s note on Jan. 17, 2024: Investigative Post published the following story on Feb. 17, 2022. Given the wintry conditions at Highmark Stadium last Sunday and the likelihood of similar challenges this coming week when the Bills host the Kansas City Chiefs, we’re republishing the story. The last game the Buffalo Bills played at Highmark Stadium a month ago was the coldest in more than two decades. By itself, it could have made a case for putting a dome over the new stadium being discussed for the team. But that frigid day — the low was 4 degrees, with[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post