Feb 11
2013
Seven organizations, including Public Citizen, ask the district attorney in Albany to investigate whether the stock holdings of Lawrence Schwartz, a key Cuomo insider, represent a conflict of interest. The groups said Schwartz owns stock in companies that would benefit financially should Cuomo approve hydrofracking.
Feb 11
2013
The practice of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas may not take place here in Western New York, but is the waste from it potentially headed this way? A report by the Niagara Gazette.
Feb 10
2013
Feb 10
2013
Alan Bedenko gives his first impressions of Sergio Rodriguez, whose announcement that he’s running for mayor isn’t going over well with some Republicans, much less Democrats.
Feb 10
2013
Mark Schroeder serves as Buffalo’s fiscal watchdog in his job as city comptroller. He made news recently by raising concerns about City Hall’s budgeting practices, which have involved the use of reserve funds the past three years to balance the books. Schroeder, 57, spent 25 years in the private sector, working for two food companies before moving into electoral politics in 2001 as part of a political organization lead by Brian Higgins. Schroeder served three years in the Erie County Legislature before winning election in November 2003 to the New York Assembly. He represented Orchard Park, West Seneca and portions of[...]
Feb 8
2013
Investigative Post and WGRZ team up to report on Buffalo Comptroller Mark Schroeder’s concern, and Mayor Byron Brown’s response, over the continuing use of reserve funds to balance the city budget.
Feb 8
2013
Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula, who made his fortune hydrofracking, has used his status as a sports mogul at least once to lobby state lawmakers to embrace drilling for natural gas. Jon Campbell of the Gannett News Service’s capital bureau in Albany is reporting that Pegula invited lawmakers to his hockey arena 15 months ago and pitched them on the merits of hydrofracking. In late November 2011, nine months after he took control of the National Hockey League club, Pegula gathered Buffalo-area officials and state lawmakers in a boardroom at then-HSBC Arena. There, he and members of his East Resources team[...]
Feb 8
2013
The three experts the state picked to review health impacts of hydrofracking say they finished over a month ago. But the Department of Environmental Conservation and the state Health Department didn’t reveal this in front of lawmakers last week. DEC faces a Feb. 27 deadline to finish regulations or they expire. A report from Albany’s Gannett bureau.