Categories for DailyPost

Oct 27

2025

The sorry state of local news

Published by

Nationally, the state of local news is pretty depressing according to the just-released study produced by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. As summarized by Poynter, the respected journalism think tank:  The country has lost nearly 3,500 newspapers and more than 270,000 newspaper jobs over the past two decades, leaving 50 million people in “news deserts,” areas where people have limited or no access to reliable local news sources.  The closures this year primarily affected papers belonging to smaller, independent owners. Most of the papers that have closed were weeklies, which the report defines as papers printed fewer than three[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Oct 24

2025

Panelists confirmed for community discussion on ICE

Published by

Investigative Post has finalized its lineup of speakers at our Nov. 5 event focused on ICE and immigration. The event will be held at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo, 695 Elmwood Ave. It is free and open to the public.  The event will feature a panel of speakers who work daily with immigrants and refugees, followed by a question-and-answer session. The program will begin with a presentation by J. Dale Shoemaker of his reporting on ICE raids, arrests and detentions of migrants in the region and the detention center in Batavia. Confirmed panelists include: Jennifer Connor,[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Oct 23

2025

From conservative to kinda crazy

Published by

Back in the day, Republican leaders in Western New York were conservatives. Congressmen like Jack Kemp and Jack Quinn. Erie County Executive Ed Rutkowski. State Senator George Maziarz. Party chairmen like Bob Davis and Jim Domagalski. Party leadership started down a slippery slope a couple of decades ago. Carl Paladino switched party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in 2005 after his friend Tony Masiello, a Democrat, retired from public office. Mike Caputo, an operative who learned at the feet of Roger Stone, became a player locally when he ran Paladino’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign and his influence grew from there. Nick[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Oct 22

2025

Migrant family flees after pursuit by ICE

Published by

Anderson Contreras-Hernandez leaves Cheektowaga Town Court. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. After months of uncertainty — and detention for a father and son — a family of asylum seekers that briefly called Buffalo home has resettled in their native Venezuela. The Contreras-Hernandez family spent just 18 months as U.S. residents before finding themselves caught in the maw of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants. Over the summer, as arrests and detentions spiked across Western New York, both 20-year-old Anderson Contreras-Hernandez and his father ended up in ICE detention, facing the prospect of deportation.  His mother subsequently elected to self-deport with[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Oct 21

2025

ICE: Unfettered and unaccountable

Published by

Federal agents stand guard outside an ICE detention facility in Newark, N.J. Photo credit: Victor J. Blue/The New York Times/Redux This story is republished from ProPublica, a nonprofit, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.  When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stormed through Santa Ana, California, in June, panicked calls flooded into the city’s emergency response system. Recordings of those calls, obtained by ProPublica, captured some of the terror residents felt as they watched masked men ambush people and force them into unmarked cars. In some cases, the men wore plain clothes and refused to identify themselves. There was no way to confirm[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 20

2025

The Niagara County angle to national scandal

Published by

You may have read about the private chats among Young Republican operatives in four states, including New York, that went public via a report by Politico, which summarized the content as follows: They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery. Then there was the quote “I love Hitler.” The response from MAGA types varied. The New York Republican Party disbanded the state chapter of the Young Republicans. Vice[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 16

2025

The Central Terminal’s costly redevelopment plan

Published by

The nonprofit charged with redeveloping Buffalo’s landmark New York Central Terminal, situated in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, has proposed converting two buildings on the sprawling campus into apartments that could cost as much as $900,000 per unit to build. Critics tell Investigative Post the cost is astronomical and a poor use of taxpayer dollars.  In June, the developer and nonprofit announced plans to spend $80 million to develop 90 to 110 affordable apartments, plus potential commercial space, in a former mail sorting and storage facility adjacent to the Central Terminal’s iconic tower and a city-owned structure that housed[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 15

2025

James Gardner: A political profile

Published by

James Gardner, the Republican and Conservative party candidate for Buffalo mayor, knows he’s fighting an uphill battle. Nearly two-thirds of the city’s registered voters are Democrats. They outnumber Republicans and Conservatives by a 6-to-1 margin. Voters haven’t installed a Republican in the mayor’s office in over 60 years. Still, Gardner believes the city’s many woes — dire finances, crumbling infrastructure, diminished services — present an opportunity for change. “My message is a simple one,” Gardner told Investigative Post in an interview last month. “This is what 60 years of one-party rule will get you. You have to change the way[...]

Posted 3 months ago
Investigative Post