Categories for Investigations

Apr 19

2020

Delayed Wi-Fi project shortchanges students

Published by Geoff Kelly

It’s a problem that was meant to have been solved months ago, at least for two impoverished Buffalo neighborhoods. Lack of reliable internet access in low-income households puts thousands of Buffalo public school students at an educational disadvantage. So last summer the school district hired a local IT company with a troubling track record to provide free, fast Wi-Fi to approximately 5,500 students on the city’s East and West Sides. The “Connected Communities” project was scheduled for completion by January. That’s two months before the COVID-19 shutdown made home internet access a critical issue for students and teachers trying to[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Apr 9

2020

Immigrant detainees describe poor conditions

Published by Jim Heaney

Updated: 1:10 p.m. It’s called B-2, one of nine units at the detention center run by ICE in Batavia. These days it’s a terrifying place for those held there. Most of the 50 or so men confined there are coughing and displaying other symptoms of COVID-19. The entire unit has been placed in a 14-day quarantine. Six detainees were removed Wednesday, and today a government attorney told a federal court that four of them had tested positive. Four others from B-2 are awaiting test results. Social distancing? Near impossible in detention settings. Soap and hand sanitizer? Running in short supply.[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Apr 6

2020

COVID-19 threat not spurring many jail releases

Published by Investigative Post staff

Although local jails are potential incubators for the spread of COVID-19, authorities are moving slowly, some not at all, to release inmates being held on low-level charges and parole violations, or who are at high risk of contracting the deadly virus. Only 10 of 89 parolees being held in Erie and Niagara county jails for low-level violations had been released as of Friday, a week after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that 1,100 such parolees would be freed statewide. Nor have any of the 225 inmates – 165 in Erie County, 60 in Niagara County – been released who are serving[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Feb 26

2020

State stonewalling on IBM project

Published by Jim Heaney

Several years ago, the Cuomo administration spent $55 million of state taxpayer money to buy, renovate and equip seven floors of a downtown Buffalo office building to bring IBM to town. The payoff, we were told, would be 500 good-paying software engineering jobs and the start of a technology hub with all sorts of spin-off development. Now, four of those floors at Fountain Plaza are available for lease, raising all sorts of questions about IBM’s commitment to Buffalo. Has it pulled out? Working on a Plan B? None of the above? IBM isn’t saying. Neither is the Cuomo administration. In[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Feb 19

2020

Lead poisoning plan missing key elements

Published by Geoff Kelly

In January, the City of Buffalo launched its long-awaited pilot program to combat lead poisoning. The pilot program is small — much smaller than the problem in Buffalo, which has one of the highest rates of children afflicted with lead poisoning in the nation. And, as it stands now, the program lacks funding mechanisms to make it bigger. Furthermore, a key element is still missing: a new local law that will allow city inspectors access to the interiors of the city’s abundant rental singles and doubles in poor neighborhoods. Those dwellings comprise 80 percent of the city’s highest-risk properties. Still,[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Feb 5

2020

Child pornography prosecutions on the rise

Published by Investigative Post staff

Prosecution of child pornography cases spiked last year in Western New York. Between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Erie County District Attorney, 80 cases were prosecuted last year. That’s almost double the number of cases prosecuted in 2017. “There are times where we’re finding child pornography involving children who are 10 or 12 months old. That’s very shocking, seeing those images and videos and trying to figure out why someone would have interest in that stuff,” said said Michael Hockwater, a detective on the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force. Cases the FBI task force handle range from a man who photographed[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Feb 1

2020

Police brass overstate availability of patrol cars

Published by Geoff Kelly

Buffalo police officers have a lot fewer cars at their disposal to respond to 911 calls than their commissioner would have the public believe, union officials say. Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood told the Common Council’s Police Oversight Committee on Jan. 14 that the department’s dilapidated fleet had 134 working patrol cars available to answer calls. The actual number is less than 50, said Mark Goodspeed, vice president of the Police Benevolent Association. Goodspeed performs a regular survey of working patrol cars assigned to the city’s five police districts. On the evening of Jan. 14, the same day Lockwood[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Dec 18

2019

Mychajliw’s muddied campaign finances

Published by Geoff Kelly

Stefan Mychajliw may have a federal campaign finance law problem. Should the Erie County comptroller ever officially declare his candidacy for New York’s 27th Congressional District seat, he could face fines and sanctions from the Federal Election Commission for the way he’s financed his undeclared but vigorous campaign thus far. Mychajliw insists he is not currently a candidate for the 27th Congressional District seat. “I’m not a candidate for anything right now,” Mychajliw told Investigative Post in a recent phone interview. And yet he acts like a candidate for the 27th District seat. He sounds like one, too. And he’s[...]

Posted 5 years ago