Sep 21
2012
The (Toronto) Globe & Mail takes a look at the impact of non-profit investigative reporting centers in the wake of the explosive Mitt Romney video published by Mother Jones magazine. Check out more on this topic
Sep 21
2012
Canadian scientist and environmentalist David Suzuki coined the phrase “A Biocentric viewpoint is needed now,” but it’s become the mantra of a white paper that the Western New York Environmental Alliance released this week. Suzuki wrote in his first research paper after leaving his day job that environmentalism has failed because the worldview is that humans are consumers of earth, not a part of it. The white paper came from the Western New York Environmental Alliance Habitat and Natural Resources Working Group, Jay Burney, Joseph Schmidbauer, Larry Beahan and Art Klein. In it they wrote: It is time for us[...]
Sep 20
2012
Got questions about hydrofracking? Turn to Grist for at least five answers. Here’s Grist’s Fracking FAQ. One tidbit that popped out at me was this: A study published in May 2011 in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found a link between methane in drinking water supplies and proximity to shale gas drilling. Seven months later, the EPA said for the first time that chemicals used in fracking had been found in drinking water in Pavillion, Wyo., home to hundreds of natural gas wells. And in July 2012, the U.S. EPA said its tests of wells around[...]
Sep 18
2012
Sep 18
2012
A redevelopment grant from National Grid will bring more life to the former contaminated brownfield site that’s now the Buffalo Bolt Business Park on Oliver Street in North Tonawanda, the company announced Monday. The site is the former home of Buffalo Bolt Corporation and Roblin Steel. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has certified the 23-acre light-industrial and manufacturing business park as clean and shovel ready for new development after the state and city spent about $3.4 million on clean-up efforts. Lumber City Development Corporation, which helps the city with redevelopment efforts, applied for the funding. “This grant of $190,000[...]
Sep 18
2012
The Investigative News Network coordinated an investigation of the EPA’s brownfield program and uncovered numerous problems, including richer communities getting more cleanup funding and that there aren’t enough federal dollars to get rid of the contamination at these sites across the country. The investigation also uncovered how there is a lack of monitoring and the EPA doesn’t even know how well its program is working in terms of remediating contaminated brownfields because it doesn’t have any standards for the clean-up efforts. All in all, it’s a great read and very informative. Western New York has 98 Brownfield programs. Of those[...]
Sep 16
2012
iPost interview with Kevin Connor of the Public Accountability Initiative and Little Sis. Check out more on this topic
Sep 16
2012
Kevin Connor is a research provocateur and one of the leading intellects in Buffalo’s burgeoning activist community. The Boston native and 2005 graduate of Harvard University moved to Buffalo five years ago. Since then, he has launched two watchdog research organizations, the Public Accountability Initiative and LittleSis. His work has garnered press attention, both locally and nationally, connecting dots among the powerful and authoring studies that have called out the false claims of developers and supposedly independent researchers. Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed Connor Sept. 12. A 4 minute 43 second feature with interview highlights appears above. The full 21-minute interview[...]