Categories for DailyPost

Dec 16

2024

Judge Carney exits soon-to-be-changed Housing Court

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Buffalo City Court. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel After 30 years on the bench, the last 14 presiding over Buffalo’s Housing Court, Judge Patrick Carney has hung up his robes, making way for what could be significant changes in the way Housing Court operates. While Carney’s current term runs through the end of December, the retiring judge said last Friday was his final day in the courtroom. Although Carney’s successor has not been officially named, City Court Judge Phillip Dabney will fill in for Carney through the end of the year, according to Eighth District Administrative Judge Kevin Carter. Carter declined[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 11

2024

Prospect of more scrutiny for OTB

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Batavia Downs, the flagship of Western Regional OTB. Photo by Garrett Looker. Two state authorities appear to be eyeing probes into the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., Investigative Post has learned. The Inspector General, responding to a request from two state lawmakers, has obtained documents including buyout deals for Henry Wojtaszek, OTB’s outgoing  president and CEO, and two of his top lieutenants. The Inspector General’s office would neither confirm nor deny whether the records request has progressed into a formal investigation. In addition, the state comptroller is considering a request from Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick for a “performance and[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 11

2024

Council: Not so fast on forgiving Braymiller loan

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  Braymiller Market. Photo by Garrett Looker The City of Buffalo could call in the $561,000 it loaned to Braymiller Market and reallocate the money for a different use, according to city officials and an Investigative Post review of records. Some lawmakers want to know why the acting mayor, facing a financial crisis that threatens to starve city departments and initiatives of funding, seems reluctant to do that. “I want to know why we wouldn’t require somebody who didn’t honor their commitment, who took money from the city, to at least pay it back,” Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 10

2024

Buffalo schools replacing lead poisoning risks

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Buffalo’s challenge to address lead poisoning of children includes cleaning up contaminated water sources in city schools. Lead in school water isn’t a result of lead pipes leading from streets or in the buildings, but plumbing fixtures, school officials said. Testing conducted in 2022 and 2023 revealed 237 fixtures, including water fountains, with lead levels above current state limits, Investigative Post found. Lead-contaminated water fountains and cafeteria fixtures — 34 fountains and 19 kitchen/cafeteria faucets and kettles, according to an Investigative Post count — have been replaced districtwide over the past few years, school officials said. “Fixtures that are used[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 8

2024

Our neighbors to the north are not a problem

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Donald Trump has lumped Canada in with Mexico as a source of drugs and undocumented immigration and threatened to impose tariffs as a consequence.  Jerry Zremski of The Buffalo News debunks the claim. Twenty-four times more drugs have been seized at the southern border than the northern one. Undocumented immigrants: 11 times greater crossing from Mexico than Canada so far this year. Buffalo police want to use artificial intelligence as a crime fighting tool. The ACLU cautions of the potential for abuse when police are given AI tools without proper guardrails. Niagara Falls is starting to smarten up when it[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 6

2024

Braymiller Market closing, but bailouts continue

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Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, forward, and Braymiller Market owner Stuart Green, to his left. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker Braymiller Market, the struggling downtown grocery, is closing its doors, but City Hall will continue to financially assist owner Stuart Green. Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon said Friday the city will not require Green to repay the $561,000 it loaned to the store last year, a requirement if he failed to keep the store open through the end of 2025. What’s more, Scanlon said the city will lease the grocery store’s building, paying an unspecified amount to use the 21,600-square-foot space for[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 6

2024

State board doubles down on secrecy

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Union protestors look on at the former Wood & Brooks piano factory in Tonawanda. Photo by Garrett Looker. For more than a year, a state board created to determine whether highly subsidized development projects must pay prevailing wages has operated in secrecy. Since May, Investigative Post has pressed the Public Subsidy Board for records detailing its decisions, including on two Western New York projects. In response, the board has dug in its heels. A hearing officer for the state Department of Labor, under whose umbrella the subsidy board operates, issued a ruling last month upholding the agency’s denial of records[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 5

2024

Report: Jail death “may have been preventable”

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Story updated Dec. 8. Sean Riordan’s death might have been prevented if he was given proper medical care while an inmate at the Erie County Holding Center in 2022, a state oversight commission has concluded. Instead, the holding center staff failed to transfer Riordan to a hospital for alcohol withdrawal treatment, and failed to provide adequate care while he was in the jail, the state Commission of Correction concluded in a newly released report. There were “serious deficiencies” in Riordan’s medical care during his incarceration that might have contributed to his death, according to the report. “Had established medical policy[...]

Posted 2 months ago
Investigative Post