Categories for DailyPost

Jul 18

2023

Therapy gives family a second chance

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This story is being co-published with The Imprint, a national nonprofit news outlet covering child welfare and youth justice. On a Tuesday evening in February, the parents of three children are seated with a therapist at their kitchen table in Cheektowaga. They’re sorting out ways to help their oldest, a 15-year-old girl. She loves TikTok and weightlifting and wants to be a counselor for young children when she grows up. But for years, the teen has exhibited harmful behaviors. She has attempted suicide, cut herself, lashed out violently and shrieked at members of her family when they tried to help. [...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jul 16

2023

Monday Morning Read

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WeeklyPost, emailed to subscribers every Sunday morning, includes Jim Heaney’s recommended reading, which we republish the following day in Monday Morning Read. You can subscribe here. The decision by The New York Times to do away with its sports staff was a big deal in journalism circles last week. Many were aghast. As a sports fan, and loyal Times reader, I can see their point. Then again, it’s kind of refreshing to see a newspaper opt to focus on real news. Compare that with The Buffalo News, or shall I say, The Buffalo Sporting News. You don’t learn nearly enough about what’s going on[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jul 13

2023

Company seeking subsidies circulates fake study

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A plastics manufacturer seeking tax breaks to build a plant in Lockport has put its application on hold after being called out Thursday for circulating a summary of a study that was fabricated and produced by artificial intelligence. Prior to a public hearing Thursday, the India-based firm SRI CV Plastics, seeking $312,000 in subsidies from the Lockport Industrial Development Agency, provided the agency’s board a one-page summary of a study that touted the safety of PVC pipes, one of the products the company plans to make at the plant. A University at Buffalo professor, Lourdes Vera, called out the company’s[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 11

2023

Risks vs. benefits of proposed Lockport plant

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An India-based plastics company is seeking to build its first U.S. plant in the Town of Lockport, despite strong objections from environmental groups who argue such a facility could harm human health and the environment. But the plant’s potential ecological impact isn’t the only issue up for debate: The firm wants tax breaks, and could further benefit from a limited environmental review. SRI CV Plastics Inc. is seeking $500,000 in subsidies, including $311,856 from the Lockport Industrial Development Agency, to build a $2.3 million, 14,000-square foot factory in the Lockport Industrial Park. The firm’s CEO, Varunkumar Velumani, said he plans[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 10

2023

Contract extensions for 18 OTB executives

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Days before state lawmakers stripped them of their duties amid concerns about corruption within the organization, the board of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. signed off on multi-year contract extensions for 18 top executives. Among them was CEO and President Henry Wojtaszek, who received a three-and-half year extension that pays him more than the governor of New York.  OTB officials refused to voluntarily provide details of the contract extensions, and instead required the Niagara Gazette to file a request for the documents under the state Freedom of Information Law. Those documents, obtained by the Gazette late Friday, show Wojtaszek[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 9

2023

Monday Morning Read

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Subscribe to WeeklyPost and you’ll get Jim Heaney’s recommended reading – and a summary of Investigative Post’s reporting from the previous week –  in your inbox Sunday mornings. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————- Chris Collins – remember him, the convicted felon who relocated to Florida and was later pardoned by Donald Trump? – is making noise about running for Congress in the Sunshine State. Or perhaps he’s simply making noise. Collins recently went on an anti-gay rant in which he lectured about ethics and morality. This, from a disgraced, and disgraceful, felon. Terry Pegula is looking for more ways to get even richer. (And that’s not counting his[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 5

2023

Federal oversight ends of county jails

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Editor’s note: This is the first story reported by Bruce Rushton for Investigative Post. Bruce joined the staff last week; he covers criminal justice. He can be reached at brushton@investigativepost.com. A federal judge has approved termination of a consent decree designed to improve health care and reduce suicide risk in Erie County jail facilities. At the request of county lawyers and the U.S. Department of Justice, which sued the county in 2009, U.S. District Court Judge William M. Skretny on June 13 approved dismissal of the decree created more than a decade ago to provide oversight of the Erie County[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 3

2023

Monday Morning Read

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Subscribe for free to WeeklyPost and you’ll receive our weekly newsletter in your in-box first thing Sunday. It includes Jim Heaney’s recommended reading, below.  Jim Shultz, writing for the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, rips into Republicans who control the Niagara County Legislature for taking steps to legally challenge reforms at the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. intended to address what state Sen. Tim Kennedy has called a “culture of corruption.” Western Region OTB has been turned into a political fortress manned by one of the region’s most powerful party bosses, its CEO, Henry Wojtaszek. Wojtaszek, who is also the husband[...]

Posted 2 years ago
Investigative Post