Categories for In-Depth

Sep 19

2018

Police policy seen as lacking on de-escalation

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The Buffalo Police Department’s use of force policy lacks “important provisions” and is “very weak” on the de-escalation of crisis situations, two national experts have told Investigative Post. The shortcomings, first documented by Investigative Post two years ago, are again open to question following the fatal shooting of Rafael “Pito” Rivera, 32, by a police officer last week. Video tape shows Rivera was running away from police when he was shot three times, including once in the back. No gun is readily visible on Rivera in the video, although police maintain he was in possession of a handgun and posed[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 13

2018

Dispute over Tonawanda Coke soil study

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Residents who live near Tonawanda Coke want to know whether pollution from the plant has contaminated the soil in their yards and their children’s schools and playgrounds. A federal judge agreed and ordered the Tonawanda Coke Corp. to fund a $711,000 study investigating how the plant’s foundry coke emissions have contaminated soil in surrounding communities. It’s being conducted by a research team from the University at Buffalo. That study is now the subject of a dispute between the mayor of the City of Tonawanda and researchers from UB. Mayor Rick Davis said he decided to pull the city’s support for[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 12

2018

A looming threat to the Niagara River

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Researchers are concerned that climate change could be helping to lay the groundwork for an eventual collapse of the Niagara River’s ecosystem. Populations of the Emerald Shiner, a minnow that serves as the foundation of the river’s food chain, have been cut drastically this summer. Researchers worry that as the region heats up, this could become the new norm. The Emerald Shiner is the primary source of food for many of the larger sporting fish in the Niagara River, such as bass, trout and walleye. Birds also feast on both the minnows and the larger fish that eat them. Because[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jul 23

2018

Another ‘Billion project falling short on jobs

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It was one of the first Buffalo Billion projects announced: a $50 million state investment in drug discovery company Albany Molecular Research Inc. which, Gov. Cuomo promised, would yield almost 200 spinoff jobs. Five years on, there’s little evidence those jobs have materialized. AMRI was responsible for creating only 55 jobs, a goal the company met earlier this year. The partner companies whose jobs the state had been counting towards the project’s overall goal of 25o jobs appear to employ only a few dozen people, rather than the 195 anticipated. And only a handful of those jobs seem to be directly[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 5

2018

Vet a victim of discrimination – and inaction

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The red brick apartment building on Crescent Avenue is two blocks from Delaware Park. Online listings show pictures of light-filled rooms with hardwood floors and decorative fireplaces. Reginald Holloway never got to see inside. In 2008, Holloway, a disabled Marine Corps veteran, was looking for a one-bedroom apartment in a peaceful neighborhood. He still struggled with flashbacks and nightmares from his military service and wanted to live somewhere quiet; doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs had diagnosed him with chronic post traumatic stress disorder. Holloway had a Section 8 voucher that would help him pay the rent and, in[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 5

2018

Buffalo not enforcing its fair housing law

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 The heating in her apartment was acting up and her knee problems made carrying groceries up the stairs difficult. So, Gloria Adkins had gone with a friend to look at an apartment in Black Rock, planning to ask the landlord if he had anything else available. After he said he did, she steeled herself to ask the all-important question: Did he take Section 8, a federal program that helps poor people pay their rent? She remembers him saying no: too much hassle, too much paperwork. Most people would have let it go. But Adkins knew that refusing to rent[...]

Posted 7 years ago

May 8

2018

Pegula back fracking – and violating regulations

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COUDERSPORT – Terry Pegula cashed in when he sold the bulk of his hydrofracking business in 2010 for $4.7 billion. He used a chunk of the change to buy Buffalo’s two major league teams, and made it clear when he purchased the Sabres that he was in it for the sports, not the money. “If I want to make some money, I’ll go drill another well,” he quipped at a press conference. Pegula is, in fact, drilling other wells. He started another fracking company – JKLM Energy, drawing on the first letters of his children’s names – and has been[...]

Posted 7 years ago

May 1

2018

Safety practices ignored in Lehner’s drowning

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If training practices elsewhere are any indicator, the Buffalo Police Department had no business sending Officer Craig Lehner into the rapid currents of the Niagara River last October. Depending on the agency, trainees for swift water diving elsewhere typically start out in water moving somewhere between 1 and 4 knots, or under 5 miles per hour. But the Niagara River on the day Lehner trained – and drowned – was moving at a much faster clip – between 8 and 12 knots, or up to nearly 14 miles per hour. Records obtained from the U.S. Coast Guard show that some divers[...]

Posted 7 years ago
Investigative Post