Latest

Apr 7

2025

Big turnout in mayor’s race already

Published by

Seven candidates for Buffalo mayor last week filed nominating petitions bearing the signatures of nearly 27,000 city voters. That’s more voters than took part in the 2013 and 2021 Democratic primaries for mayor. It’s nearly as many as cast valid ballots in 2005 and 2017. Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon led the pack with a whopping 7,565 signatures, nearly four times the number needed to qualify for the ballot. Garnell Whitfield, the former fire commissioner, filed the second-highest number of signatures, with 4,315. University District Council Member Rasheed Wyatt had more than 3,800 signatures, according to The Buffalo News. State Sen. Sean[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Apr 3

2025

Lawmakers demand answers on border detentions

Published by

Federal, state and local lawmakers across Western New York are denouncing a Trump administration practice of detaining individuals and families in cells at the U.S.-Canada border for as long as two weeks. The region’s federal lawmakers are demanding answers on the new practice. “Our office is looking into these disturbing allegations,” a spokesperson for Sen. Chuck Schumer said in a statement to Investigative Post, noting his office is also seeking answers on ICE’s recent arrest of a mother and children in Sackets Harbor. “There is no excuse for the cruel or inhumane treatment of children & families. [U.S. Customs and[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Apr 1

2025

Feds locking up families, children at Canadian border

Published by

Pedestrian entrance to Rainbow Bridge Customs station. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. In a departure from past practice, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is detaining people — including families with young children — at official ports of entry along the New York-Canada border for as much as two weeks at a time. In multiple instances since mid-February, families with young children have been detained in cells at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. An Investigative Post reporter personally confirmed one of those family detentions. In that case, the family was held for two weeks.  Jennifer Connor, a Buffalo advocate for[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Apr 1

2025

Judge rules radioactive waste lawsuit “untimely”

Published by

Metal plate bearing the name “Titanium Alloy Manufacturing Co.” Photo from court records. A federal magistrate has recommended dismissal of a wrongful death claim filed last year by a Lewiston man who blamed his wife’s death on radioactive waste buried on the couple’s property. U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Roemer ruled Philip Palmeri filed his lawsuit long after the two-year statute of limitations had expired, as measured from the date in 2018 when his wife, Tracey Palmeri, was first diagnosed with breast cancer. In a footnote to his ruling, Roemer acknowledged this was not “a fair result” for the plaintiff.  Palmeri[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Mar 31

2025

D.J. Granville and the “blue wall of silence”

Published by

At the heart of the scandal enveloping Erie County Sheriff John Garcia and his chief of narcotics, D.J. Granville, is the so-called “blue wall of silence” — the unwritten understanding that law enforcement officers protect one another by refusing to report or corroborate wrongdoing among their ranks. For nearly a year Granville has been protected by that code. A deposition the narcotics chief gave for a lawsuit in November — nearly seven months after the incident that in recent weeks has made him famous — illustrates his own commitment to it. First, a refresher: Granville last April 11, while driving his[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Mar 28

2025

OTB settles lawsuit, pays whistleblower

Published by

Michael Nolan, at one time the second-in-command of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., has settled a wrongful termination lawsuit with his former employer, related to his firing more than four years ago. As a result, OTB will pay Nolan a $550,000 settlement. In a statement saying the “long-standing litigation” had been resolved, OTB attorney John Owens said simply that “the parties are satisfied with the settlement.” OTB spokesperson Mike DeGeorge declined to comment further. Steven Cohen, Nolan’s attorney, also declined to comment. Owens said OTB will pay $150,000 of the settlement and its insurance company will pay the rest. Neither[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Mar 27

2025

A new approach to East Side development

Published by

Henry Louis Taylor of UB presents plans for Census Tract 166. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel Census Tract 166 — an economically devastated community situated in the heart of the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood — will be ground zero for a new approach to revitalizing the East Side. The census tract is peppered with 1,300 vacant lots, more than any other neighborhood in the city.  Only 25 percent of its adult residents work, according to 2022 US census estimates. More than a quarter of its households live below the poverty level. Henry Taylor, director of the University at Buffalo’s Center for Urban Studies,[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Mar 25

2025

Wage theft widespread in Western New York

Published by

The theft of employee wages is widespread across Western New York, data from state and federal labor departments show. State and federal labor investigators found some 1,900 regional employers withheld $17.1 million in pay and benefits from 23,613 workers over the past decade.  That’s an average of $3,066 per affected worker, according to data collected by Documented and analyzed by Investigative Post. Some employers were found to owe a handful of employees large amounts — more than $40,000 in some cases — while others were found to owe many workers small amounts. The median worker was returned $500 due to[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago
Investigative Post