Categories for DailyPost

Jan 15

2024

Monday Morning Read

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Subscribe to our email newsletters, WeeklyPost, delivered on Sundays, and PoliticalPost, sent on Wednesdays. You’d think with climate change wreaking havoc on the planet our state lawmakers would be doing their bit to help. Yes and no. The New York State League of Conservation Voters has released its annual environmental scorecard and the results are mixed concerning members of the Western New York delegation.  Some scored well, starting with Senators Tim Kennedy and Sean Ryan and Assembly Members Pat Burke and Monica Wallace.  At the other extreme were Assembly Members David DiPietro and Michael Norris, who voted in favor of[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 12

2024

What’s included, and missing, in Hochul agenda

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This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here. IT WAS THE FIRST in a series of big days in Albany. At 1 pm Tuesday, Governor Kathy Hochul gave her 2024 State of the State address, outlining the past year’s achievements and the coming year’s priorities. The speech kicked off what’s sure to be a tense legislative session, as November’s elections loom and the governor and legislature work through their frosty relationship. We looked out for the year’s big political fights. New York Focus had five[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 11

2024

No follow up to OTB ticket scandal

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In the fall of 2021, state auditors criticized representatives of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. for improperly helping themselves to an estimated $121,000 in tickets for professional sports games, concerts and other shows, as well as thousands of dollars in food and drinks they consumed while taking in the action.   More than two years later, a spokesperson for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli concedes their office doesn’t know whether OTB officials have taken any action on one of the audit’s main recommendations: identify individuals who improperly received tickets and seek reimbursement.  “We were not informed if WROTB sought and received reimbursements,”[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 10

2024

Almost fired, then promoted

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A Buffalo police officer once charged with assault, tagged for termination and barred from the witness stand has been promoted to detective and is again allowed to testify. “Irremediable problems of credibility” prompted a ban on Joseph Hassett taking the stand, District Attorney John Flynn wrote in a 2019 letter to police. The department then put Hassett on desk duty and sought termination. After an arbitrator overruled the department in 2020, Hassett returned to street duty. He’s now a detective. “Oh my god,” attorney Richard Weisbeck responded during a recent deposition when Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia revealed that Hassett had[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 9

2024

How the Council presidency was won

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Last Tuesday South District Council Member Chris Scanlon won the Council presidency in an 8-to-1 vote. But if the Council’s reorganization meeting had taken place two weeks earlier, it might have been Niagara District Council Member David Rivera instead. The Council presidency is a powerful role — appointing committees, overseeing Council operations, signing off on nearly all the legislative body’s actions. The post was held since 2014 by former Ellicott District Council Member Darius Pridgen, who announced a year ago he would not seek a fourth term in office.  The race to succeed him has raised particular intrigue because Mayor[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 8

2024

Monday Morning Read

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WeeklyPost has a new look, but the some old price: free. Subscribe today. And coming Wednesday, another email newsletter, PoliticalPost, written by Geoff Kelly. Mark Sommer of The Buffalo News has been doing a really good job of bird-dogging developments involving the Kensington Expressway.  At the behest of Gov. Kathy Hochul, the state Department of Transportation is pushing a project to cover a portion of the Kensington Expressway. Last week, Mark reported someone with ties to the DOT and the engineering firm in line for business if the project proceeds  distributed prewritten letters of support for the work at a[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 4

2024

Poor attendance fuels low reading scores

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There’s a reason most younger pupils in Buffalo schools can’t read very well. They aren’t showing up for class. Only 18 percent of all students last school year had what the district considers a satisfactory attendance rate. That is, they miss school less than roughly one day a month. More than three times as many students – 61 percent – missed school at least once every other week, according to Buffalo Public Schools attendance data. The district considers that degree of absenteeism chronic or severe. Educators say absenteeism is taking a toll on the district’s youngest learners, who are struggling[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 3

2024

Deadline looming for alleged rock thrower

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A federal judge in Buffalo says he’ll dismiss charges against an accused vandal if the Department of Justice doesn’t get him into a psychiatric facility by the end of January. The ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Roemer is the latest in a series of decisions from federal judges nationwide who’ve grown impatient with ballooning wait times for defendants deemed mentally incompetent. Instead of receiving treatment in psychiatric hospitals, mentally ill inmates presumed innocent are languishing in jails. Prosecutors have said there isn’t a bed available for Jones Woods, who’s been jailed for nearly a year after being arrested for[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post