Categories for DailyPost

Nov 18

2025

Deportee: “I shouldn’t have lost my fingers”

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The federal ICE detention center in Batavia. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. Military-style raids by U.S. immigration agents — many of them filmed and glossily produced for television and social media — have become a hallmark of President Donald Trump’s second term. Early raids involved the capture of nearly 600 migrants in New York, New Jersey and other states. The government released images of migrants in shackles, marching toward a military plane that would deport them. Chidi Nwagbo, 58, a Nigerian man who’d lived in the United States since 1988, saw those raids unfold in real time from his home[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 17

2025

A MAGA dream team or nightmare?

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WKBW’s Michael Wooten reports that Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has recruited what I consider a “rogues’ gallery” of Western New York Republican operatives to help run her campaign for governor next year.  Michael Kracker is chair of the Erie County GOP and a top aide to state Sen. Rob Ortt of Niagara County. He’s been named chairman of Stefanik’s campaign. Kracker most recently ran James Gardner’s bid for Buffalo mayor — a schizophrenic effort in which Gardner’s often intelligent discussions of policy were undermined by dark warnings against creeping socialism and rampant crime should Democrat Sean Ryan prevail. Ryan won[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 14

2025

Investigative Post launches annual fundraising drive

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Good journalism doesn’t come cheap. Here at Investigative Post, the stories we publish are often weeks, sometimes months, in the making. That’s because we’re doing original reporting that involves complicated issues or topics that people in power want to hide from public view. Our work requires patience and persistence, and the financial support of the Western New York community. We don’t sell advertising or charge for access to our website or newsletters. Instead, as a nonprofit, we rely on donations from our readers who value our work and believe in the importance of independent reporting. We’re in the midst of[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 13

2025

Bills custodian, a migrant, jailed by ICE

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For two months, a young Venezuelan woman who had been hired to clean the Buffalo Bills’ Highmark Stadium has been detained by ICE. The woman, Yusgleidy Villa Alvarez, 18, has no criminal history. Until September, she’d been a legal resident of the United States, was on the path to obtaining a green card and had been granted a work permit. Yet without warning, a federal lawsuit alleges, ICE agents arrested her after a shift Sept. 19, the day after the Bills beat the Miami Dolphins at Highmark Stadium. For more than a month, she was held at the Niagara County[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 12

2025

Real estate firm settles housing discrimination lawsuit

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The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has settled a lawsuit filed earlier this year against a Western New York real estate agent accused of racial steering, a practice that violates local and federal fair housing laws. The organization accused Avant Realty founder Charles Glander of directing white homebuyers away from “unsafe” neighborhoods on Buffalo’s predominantly Black East Side, “a practice he did not apply for Black homebuyers,” according to a statement the Legal Defense Fund issued in January. The Legal Defense Fund — representing Housing Opportunities Made Equal, a nonprofit watchdog organization  — in April reached a settlement with Glander that[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 11

2025

“TreeGate” involving Niagara Falls mayor, engineer

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Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino at a recent press conference. Photo via the Niagara-Gazette. The City of Niagara Falls paid a private contractor to remove trees in front of houses owned by the city’s mayor, his neighbor, and the city’s lead engineer, according to city documents obtained by the Niagara Gazette. City Engineer Robert Buzzelli included his own property and the home of Mayor Robert Restaino on a list of four addresses where trees were targeted for removal under a $20,000 contract change order authorized by city lawmakers in July, according to the documents. The documents, obtained through a pair[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 10

2025

Book club event postponed

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Our inaugural book club discussion scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 18, at Fitz Books, 1462 Main St., has been postponed until after the first of the year. The book, The Death of Truth, by Steven Brill, will remain the basis of our discussion, at a date to be determined. The book is on sale at Fitz’s. Our next event will feature Geoff Kelly and Jim Heaney interviewing mayor-elect Sean Ryan on Friday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. the Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave. Admission is free and requires no pre-registration.

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 10

2025

Creeping autocracy under Trump

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The New York Times, in consultation with scholars, came up with a dozen indicators of creeping autocracy to gauge Donald Trump’s impact on our democracy. “The sobering reality,” The Times wrote, “is that the United States has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12.” Here are the benchmarks: Stifling dissent and speech. Persecuting political opponents. Bypassing the legislature. Using the military for domestic control. Defying the courts. Declaring national emergencies on false pretenses. Vilifying marginalized groups. Controlling information and the media. Attempting to take over universities. Creating a cult of personality. Using power for personal profit. Manipulating the law to[...]

Posted 3 months ago
Investigative Post