Categories for DailyPost

Dec 12

2023

City worker in paid leave limbo

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Two years ago, a dispatcher in the city’s water department complained to his supervisors about work conditions at the pumping station on Porter Avenue. His computer didn’t work properly, often compelling him to do the same data-entry work twice, Rashimee Wilson wrote in an email to his bosses, including then Public Works Commissioner Mike Finn.  Worse, he wrote, he wasn’t allowed to leave his post for meal breaks, not even when he was asked to work two eight-hour shifts in a row.  Further, Wilson claimed, the department’s seniority system granted privileges and accommodations to white employees that were denied to[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 10

2023

Monday Morning Read

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The Guardian published a piece that underscored just how out of step the Bills stadium project in Orchard Park is. Most owners, says Victor Matheson, an economics professor at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, “understand that having an entertainment district that generates money 365 days a year is way better than the model of a walled fortress surrounded by a moat of parking lots” that is used a handful of times a year. “NFL parking lots are about the worst possible use of real estate you can think of,” he adds. “You’d much rather have a stadium in a[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 8

2023

Vote for iPost’s top story of 2023

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What’s your favorite story published this year by Investigative Post? Editor Jim Heaney has selected a baker’s dozen stories for your consideration. We’re asking readers to vote for their top story in an online poll. Investigative Post has produced 201 pieces of news content for the calendar year through Dec. 8. Broadcast versions were produced for more than 50 of them and aired on WGRZ TV News, our longtime partner. Some stories were deep-dive investigations, others follow-up to those reports, still others analyses, spot news stories and podcasts. All five of our reporters produced stories that made our list. Story[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 6

2023

Working to boost homeownership on the East Side

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If anyone knows Buffalo’s real estate market, it’s East Side native Keith Barnes, who has been helping residents find their dream homes for more than three decades.  He’s part of a small demographic: 7.5 percent. That’s the portion of America’s 1.2 million real estate brokers and sales agents who are Black, according to Census estimates. The job gives Barnes, 53, whose Barnes Real Estate Group is located off Genesee Street, a firsthand look at how Buffalo’s housing market has changed, why its Black homeownership rate has stagnated, and what can be done. “Coming from the neighborhood, how can I make[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 6

2023

City employee retires after years on paid suspension

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The Buffalo Fire Department clerk who spent seven and a half years on paid leave — costing taxpayers nearly $600,000 for no work — has retired. Officially, Jill Repman’s last day on the job was Nov. 30, according to the Office of the State Comptroller.  In reality, she hasn’t done a lick of work for the fire department since accused of wrongdoing in January 2016 and suspended with pay. Even after being ordered back to work in September, Repman used vacation days and other paid time off to avoid coming to work before filing for retirement. It’s been nearly eight[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 4

2023

Poloncarz swaps one potential OTB critic for another

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A recently-appointed director of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.— expected to be a watchdog over the embattled gambling agency — has resigned.  State law prohibits public and political party officials from holding a license necessary to serve on the governing board of off-track betting corporations. That’s the law that prompted Jennifer Hibit — secretary of the Erie County Democratic Committee — to resign Monday from her position as Erie County’s representative on the board of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., based in Batavia.  It’s unclear if the law is being applied uniformly.  Former OTB Board Chairman Richard Bianchi,[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Dec 3

2023

Monday Morning Read

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Monday Morning Read is fine. But you’re better off subscribing to WeeklyPost. More news, sooner. Von Miller was charged last week with assaulting the pregnant mother of their children. But the story doesn’t end there. It’s the second time Miller has been  investigated for violence against a woman. Then there was the lawsuit filed against him by another woman alleging revenge porn. The charge: he shared photographs of them having sex with two celebrity friends in a “fit of jealousy, anger and rage.” The Bills signed Miller for $20 million a season to not just sack quarterbacks, but serve as a spokesman, leader and[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Nov 30

2023

Tonawanda Senecas sue to halt pipeline

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The major industrial park under construction in rural Genesee County has hit yet another roadblock. The Tonawanda Seneca Nation has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several officials, including Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, arguing that they violated several environmental laws in issuing a permit to the industrial park’s wastewater pipeline. The pipeline, which is being built by the Genesee County Economic Development Center through the federally managed Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, required a right-of-way permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service. “We’re asking them to revoke that permit,” Chief Roger[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post