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Apr 25

2017

Heaney talks mayoral race on ‘Pressroom

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Jim Heaney handicaps Buffalo’s upcoming race for mayor with Susan Arbetter on The Capitol Pressroom. Heaney, in an interview taped April 20, said challenger Mark Schroeder, the city comptroller, faces an uphill battle against incumbent Byron Brown. But he cited several factors that could change the dynamics of the election, including a decision by Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant to enter the Democratic primary. Grant announced several days after the interview that she, indeed, intended to enter the race.  

Posted 8 years ago

Apr 24

2017

National focus on Buffalo lead poisoning

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Investigative Post has reported for years that Buffalo is Ground Zero for lead poisoning in upstate New York. But a new report by Reuters designates Buffalo as among the “most dangerous lead hotspots in America.” WGRZ’s Michael Wooten interviews Investigative Post reporter Dan Telvock about his investigations and how President Trump’s proposed cuts to lead programs could impede progress. Click here to read all of Investigative Post’s reporting on the city’s serious lead poisoning problem.

Posted 8 years ago

Apr 17

2017

Cuomo: Expand study of Wheatfield landfill

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed state environmental regulators to move “quickly and thoroughly”on an investigation of a toxic landfill with a Love Canal legacy in the Town of Wheatfield. Cuomo wants the Department of Environmental Conservation to collect soil and groundwater samples from residential yards in the neighborhoods closest to the landfill “to determine whether offsite migration of contaminants has occurred.” The DEC, so far, has maintained that chemicals have been confined to the landfill. Current and former neighbors of the landfill, and their attorneys, have contended in a lawsuit that their soil tests show that landfill chemicals already have contaminated their properties. “We[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Apr 6

2017

Woman threatened over lawn signs

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An Amherst woman with a lawn sign that declares “Black Lives Matter” has been threatened by an anonymous letter writer who invoked the name of a right-wing news site. Ivy Yapelli received the letter two weeks ago stating that she had been placed on a “database of homeowners who may be deemed dangerous.” According to the letter writer, the “Black Lives Matter ” and “Resist” signs on Yapelli’s lawn promote “hatred and violence.” “It was clearly an attempt to intimidate me,” Yapelli said. No return address was provided, but the letter was signed, “Truth Revolt, Buffalo, NY Chapter.” The editor of Truth[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 30

2017

Heaney talks subsidy reform in ‘Pressroom

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Continuing a discussion that started Tuesday on Capitol Pressroom, Jim Heaney and Susan Arbetter discuss the “State of Subsidies” series published this week by Investigative Post in partnership with ProPublica and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 30

2017

Heaney discusses subsidies on WBFO

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Jay Moran, host of WBFO’s morning edition, interviewed Jim Heaney on the subsidy series published this week by Investigative Post in partnership with ProPublica and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Posted below is the unabridged version of the interview. An edited version aired on WBFO.

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 29

2017

Lack of scrutiny for subsidy programs

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This is the final part of a series that began Sunday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » State and local economic development agencies in New York give away billions of dollars in subsidies to businesses every year but do little to assess what taxpayers are getting for their money. “What politician doesn’t want to stand there with a shovel in their hand and a hard hat on their head to announce new jobs coming to their district?” said Ron Deutsch, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a labor-backed think tank. “The[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 29

2017

Lackadasical vetting of subsidy seekers

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This is the third part of a series that began Sunday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » Craig Bernier had only been bagging grain at Harbor Point Minerals in Utica for a few months when the company started sending him inside its silos to “walk down” the grain to help it flow to the bottom. Bernier, 24, was claustrophobic and hated being in the dark, closed structure, but Harbor Point told him he would have to go back in, his father said. “He told his mother, ‘I don’t want to go to[...]

Posted 8 years ago
Investigative Post