Categories for News

Nov 8

2023

Poloncarz wins big; mixed bag for parties in town races

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Election Day was good to Erie County Democrats, especially in the top-ticket races. In the year’s marquee race, Mark Poloncarz beat Republican Chrissy Casilio by a resounding 18 points, winning an unprecedented fourth term as Erie County executive. And Democrats preserved their 7-to-4 majority in the Erie County Legislature, as incumbents in three competitive districts handily fended off Republican and Conservative challengers. In town and village elections, however, the results had a more purplish hue, as Democrats and Republicans alike made gains in areas that once were single-party fiefdoms. “In the suburbs, the towns that are flipping are continuing to[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Nov 3

2023

More state money for embattled industrial park

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The state is investing an additional $56 million in the STAMP industrial park to finance the completion of infrastructure projects that are the subject of legal and regulatory disputes. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced that Genesee County Economic Development Center, the economic development agency constructing  STAMP, will receive $56 million for various infrastructure projects. They  include an on-site wastewater treatment facility and pump station, a nine-mile sewage transmission line, a water main, natural gas lines and road improvements. The Genesee County EDC has been building STAMP’s infrastructure for several years. Some of the work has run into legal or[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Oct 26

2023

OTB lurches toward ‘new era’

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The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. is entering a “new era,” its new board chair has claimed, a shift that could see the public gambling agency increase transparency and institute reforms. The OTB board of directors meeting Thursday marked the first time the group had met since state lawmakers in May fired the old board, ordered the 17 counties and cities that own the agency to appoint a new one, and instituted weighted voting, throwing control to densely populated, Democratically-controlled Erie and Monroe counties, along with Buffalo and Rochester. Those reforms came after more than four years of lawsuits, investigations[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Oct 16

2023

Money running out to help Buffalo students catch up

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Programs that help Buffalo students catch up academically after the pandemic are headed for a “financial cliff” because federal aid is winding down. At stake are more than 300 positions for everything from teaching and after-school programming to school security to mental health counseling. Buffalo Public Schools will face cuts about a year from now, when the remainder of $290 million in Covid-19 relief funding through the American Rescue Plan ends.  “The financial cliff, it’s coming for all of us,” said James Barnes, the district’s chief financial officer. “The funding is going away. That amount of money cannot be absorbed[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Oct 11

2023

More misdeeds involving Niagara Falls candidate

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Guns gone missing and an order to stay away from a former girlfriend are included in the past of Carlton Cain, GOP candidate for Niagara Falls mayor, who once was a top official in the city’s police department.  Cain said he doesn’t recall signing an administrative order of protection issued by Acting Police Superintendent Michael Trane in 2019.  “I guess if I signed it, it happened,” he said.  The woman in question, who was cooperating with an Internal Affairs investigation of Cain, did not return a phone call from Investigative Post. Trane has not responded to an interview request.  In[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Oct 6

2023

Misconduct allegations against ‘Falls mayoral candidate

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Carlton Cain, the Republican candidate for mayor of Niagara Falls, was investigated at least twice on charges of misconduct while serving on the city’s police force before retiring in 2019. Charges that are a matter of public record include his efforts to retrieve his stolen police weapon and allegations that he removed files on him compiled by the department’s Internal Affairs unit. Cain, in an interview with Investigative Post, denied removing his Internal Affairs records. The department’s investigation of the allegation reached no conclusion.  He was docked three days pay involving the gun incident. A third matter involved a woman[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Oct 5

2023

Feds move to cite GEICO for anti-union actions

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The National Labor Relations Board has found probable cause to allegations GEICO engaged in anti-union activity in attempting to undermine an organizing effort at its regional headquarters in Amherst. Last August, two company executives said in an office-wide email to employees that they should feel free to call the police on union organizers visiting their homes. Organizers, who launched a union drive last year, said those executives later questioned employees about their support for the burgeoning union and made comments suggesting that joining the effort was “futile.” In recent weeks, however, the NLRB has found merit to charges of unfair[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Oct 3

2023

Buffalo’s stonewalling city government

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Mayor Byron Brown’s administration has long been hostile to requests for public documents from journalists.  In recent months, that hostility has grown worse. Since this summer, the mayor’s law department and several of his commissioners have broken state law time and again in their responses — or failures to respond — to document requests by Investigative Post reporters. Brown’s administration has failed to abide by the state Freedom of Information Law’s most basic requirements to respond to requests in a timely manner.  The city’s top attorney, Corporation Counsel Cavette Chambers, has refused to answer our reporters’ formal appeals when Brown’s[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post