Categories for News

Jun 9

2022

OTB reform bills stall in state Legislature

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After state auditors criticized the handling of public funds and resources at Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., a pair of Democratic state lawmakers sponsored legislation in hopes of changing the way the public benefit corporation operates.  The reform measures — sponsored by state Assemblywoman Monica Wallace, D-Lancaster, and state Sen. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo — were not approved by the state Legislature before the end of this year’s session that concluded Saturday. Kennedy’s bills passed the Senate, but not the Assembly. Wallace’s bill never got out of committee in the Assembly. Wallace said she plans to submit a revised version of[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 8

2022

Barton retires as principal following settlement

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Crystal Barton has retired from Buffalo schools, less than a month after the Board of Education approved a settlement ending their long and costly efforts to fire the veteran administrator.  Barton was on administrative leave for nearly five years before the settlement was approved on April 4, permitting her to return to her job as principal. As part of the deal, Barton was granted $200,000 for overtime and other compensation she might have earned if not suspended, in addition to nearly $645,000 in salary she was paid while on suspension.  Her retirement on April 22 was quietly approved at a[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 8

2022

Paladino does it again

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Carl Paladino is running for Congress, and his opponents, Democrat and Republican alike, are rushing to remind voters of the real estate developer’s history of making racist remarks and sharing pornographic emails with friends. They need not delve so deeply into the past. Just last Wednesday, Paladino shared a Facebook post suggesting mass shootings such as those in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, might be “false flag” operations, orchestrated by government agencies like the FBI and CIA, using “hypnosis training,” as justification “to revoke the 2nd amendment and take away our guns.” Paladino initially told Buffalo News political reporter Bob McCarthy[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 7

2022

Only 2 of 6 school board seats contested

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Only two of six district seats will be contested in this year’s elections for the Buffalo Board of Education. And they aren’t the two left open by exiting members Louis Petrucci and Hope Jay, the current Park and North district representatives. The deadline to file nominating petitions with the Erie County Board of Elections was May 31; the deadline to accept a spot on the ballot was last Friday. Ten nominees filed and all of them accepted their nominations.  Theresa Drillings-Schuta, former principal of South Park High School who retired in 2020, is running unopposed in the Park District.  Cindi[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 6

2022

OTB tries to stifle a critic

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Jim Shultz has gotten under the skin of Henry Wojtaszek, president and CEO of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. Wojtaszek ostensibly works for a 17-member board of directors appointed by 15 counties and the cities of Buffalo and Rochester, but in reality, he has a free rein over OTB operations. And he’s apparently sicced one of his many lawyers on Shultz. Hodgson Russ is one of four law firms OTB presently has on retainer. As we reported last week, OTB over the past year has spent $333,684 for assorted legal services, much of it dealing with investigators probing claims[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 23

2022

Easing the path to graduation

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The New York State Education Department has lowered the academic bar for graduating students again this year.  Last week, the Board of Regents approved a temporary policy that broadens the scope in which students are able to appeal and graduate despite failing scores on required Regents exams.  This is the third consecutive year the Board has made changes involving Regents exam requirements for graduation, citing the ongoing impacts and “varied teaching and learning conditions” caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, students were required to earn a score of 65 or higher on at least four Regents exams in[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 16

2022

Attorney General’s inaction on OTB

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Last fall, an attorney representing New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli asked Attorney General Letitia James to take yet another look at the gold-plated health insurance Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. is still providing to its part-time board directors.  The comptroller’s referral, made in September, called on the attorney general’s Taxpayer Protection Bureau to take “appropriate action,” noting that DiNapoli’s office deemed the practice “impermissible” in keeping with a prior attorney general’s opinion that “unambiguously” stated the same.  It’s now been nearly eight months since the referral was made.  What has the attorney general’s Taxpayers Protection Bureau done in that[...]

Posted 3 years ago

May 15

2022

More coverage of the Tops massacre

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Investigative Post continues its team coverage with The Daily Beast of Saturday’s killing of 10 people by a white supremacist at the Tops Market on Buffalo’s East Side. Reporter Layne Dowdall contributed to a story that recounts the killer’s reconnaissance that led him to choose the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue to commit his deadly deed. Jim Heaney wrote a story about the losses suffered by the parishioners of one East Side church and the pastor’s call for America to confront the root causes of racism and the violence it has spawned. Our coverage Saturday focused on retired police officer[...]

Posted 3 years ago
Investigative Post