Categories for Investigations

Feb 26

2015

Urban League hits back at whistleblowers

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The Buffalo Urban League, accused of submitting inflated bills for social services to Erie County, is retaliating against whistleblowers and impeding an investigation by the county comptroller, numerous sources have told Investigative Post. Some of these sources said whistleblowers have nevertheless provided investigators with evidence of “blatantly fraudulent billing” that buttresses their original claims that the Urban League was bilking the county. They’ve provided the comptroller documents purporting to show, among other things, 15 instances of double-billing and a one-day bill from a single employee that claimed 170 hours of work, sources said. Despite public statements to the contrary, internal[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Feb 12

2015

Falls hotel subsidies defy recommendation

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The American side of Niagara Falls has too many cheap hotels and not enough high-end ones – so a specialist consultant told state officials in a 2011 report. The proposed solution: build more high-end hotels and don’t subsidize budget or mid-range ones because of their “limited potential for economic impacts.” The state has since invested $5.6 million to help finance three upscale hotels. The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency has given another $8.3 million in tax breaks to three high-end hotels, including two that also received money from the state. But the IDA has also approved $7 million in tax[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Feb 8

2015

Rochester’s success at solving murders

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Unlike in Buffalo, police down the Thruway in Rochester are solving most murders committed in their city, Steve Brown of WGRZ reports. His story concludes a three-part series, the first two of which were done in collaboration with Investigative Post. The first two installments can be found here and here.

Posted 10 years ago

Feb 8

2015

Why killers are getting away with murder

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Authorities in Buffalo cleared only 39 percent of homicides from 2010 to 2014 and that solve rate has been steadily declining. In part two of our report, Jim Heaney of Investigative Post and Steve Brown of WGRZ explain the reasons for the low rate, which include a decline in the police department’s homicide squad and a lack of cooperation from witnesses, and sometime victims. Some also fault prosecutors for not being aggressive enough. Part one of our series can be found here; a concluding report here.

Posted 10 years ago

Feb 5

2015

Getting away with murder in Buffalo

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A lot of people are dying in the streets of Buffalo. The body count last year was 62. To put that number in perspective, consider that only five murders were committed in the balance of Erie County last year. Buffalo’s murder rate is high, not just in comparison with the suburbs, but with comparably sized cities with a population between 250,000 and 500,000. Buffalo recorded an average of 18.7 murders per 100,000 residents vs. 11.3 for all mid-sized cities for the five years ending in 2013. That’s the bad news. And it gets worse. Most killers get away with murder[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Dec 29

2014

Local government websites earn ‘F’ grade

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Have a complaint about uncollected trash or a noisy neighbor? New York City has an app for that. Want to know if the streets you’re about to travel to work have been plowed? Chicago has an app for that. Curious about crime in your neighborhood? Louisville provides an online map where you can check for types of crime by day, week or month. It’s another story in Buffalo and Western New York, where local governments’ use of technology to inform citizens and taxpayers is behind the times in two critical ways. First, local government websites are failing to provide even[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Dec 22

2014

Suppression of Buffalo Billion spending records

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants everyone to know he’s spending $1 billion to revitalize the Western New York economy. But the bureaucrats he’s charged with managing the Buffalo Billion are refusing to account for how they are spending $855 million earmarked for the program’s big-ticket projects. Three developers, all significant contributors to Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign, have been selected to build and equip facilities that will house companies recruited to set up shop in Buffalo. But the state-affiliated non-profit corporation managing that work has refused to release contracts and other documents to Investigative Post that detail, among other things, how the contractors[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Nov 26

2014

Troubled families, troubled services?

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Seven social workers on the front lines of dealing with troubled families have taken the unusual step of accusing their employer of cheating both taxpayers and the families they are tasked with helping. The social workers – who are employed by the Buffalo Urban League – sent a letter to the Erie County Comptroller’s office Nov. 14 expressing “extreme concern” that their organization was failing to live up to the standards agreed upon in its county contract. Their letter outlines a number of problems, including short staffing, inflated billing and a failure to store client information securely or train staff[...]

Posted 10 years ago
Investigative Post