Categories for Outrages & Insights

Mar 7

2012

A new tack for Central Terminal

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One billion dollars opens the door to all sorts of possibilities. Consider the Central Terminal. Despite its scars, the Central Terminal might be the neatest space in Buffalo. The city’s proverbial diamond in the rough, even if the emphasis is on “rough.” Plans to revive the hulking structure have been kicked around for years, to no avail. Now comes a pitch from Larry Quinn, conveyed in an interview published Tuesday at investigativepost.org  to restore the Central Terminal and relocate the Albright-Knox Art Gallery there. I asked Quinn how he would spend the $1 billion in cash and incentives that Gov.[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Mar 1

2012

My take on the Fahey-Kearns contest

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A fair number of elections for state office are stinkers. They’re over before they start because of lopsided party enrollments or one of the candidates, typically the one offered by the minority party as the sacrificial lamb, is clearly not up to the job. That’s not the case in the race between Chris Fahey and Mickey Kearns to succeed Mark Schroeder in the 145th Assembly District. No, folks, we have a real race with real candidates. Kind of a nice change of pace. The seat has longed belong to a Democrat, thanks to a big enrollment edge (43,200 to 20,000[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Feb 28

2012

Bare knuckles in South Buffalo

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Politics has been a blood sport in South Buffalo for, well, probably forever, certainly as far back as my memory goes. There was Jimmy Griffin, in league with the influential Keane family until hizzoner and Jimmy Keane had a falling out. A Hatfield and McCoy kind of falling out. Later there was Griffin and Dick Keane protege Brian Higgins, although they managed to maintain a  detente for the most part, even when they later squared off against each other to serve in the Assembly. Higgins, of course, evolved into not only a South Buffalo political powerhouse, but arguably the most[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Feb 27

2012

High pricetag of City Hall politics

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I couldn’t help but be reminded of Joel Giambra’s relationship with Jim Spano when I got through reading the profile of Adam Perry and his law firm’s dealings with Bryon Brown’s administration in Sunday’s Buffalo News. Spano, if you recall, was Giambra’s chief campaign fund-raiser when the Democrat turned Republican ran successfully for county executive in 2000. Once in office, Giambra’s administration rewarded Spano’s firm with 85 percent of the county’s office furniture business, worth $2.5 million. Spano’s company, not content with the lion’s share of business, overbilled the county by an estimated $550,000 according to an investigation I did[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Feb 23

2012

Cuomo’s welcome break with the past

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A fair number of folks I’m talking to in economic development circles aren’t entirely sold on Andrew Cuomo’s plan to spend $1 billion to jump start the Buffalo economy. For starters, a lot of the details have yet to be worked out. There’s skepticism over the governor’s motives. And there’s his apparent intent to throw a lot of money at companies willing to relocate to the region, which has the makings of  good photo ops but a poor return on investment. But Cuomo is showing a willingness – indeed, an eagerness – to abandon the mindset behind the failed policies[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Feb 22

2012

The journalistic DNA of Investigative Post

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I’ve had a quote from Carl Bernstein taped to the front of my computer terminal for the better part of 20 years that reads, “Reporting is not stenography. It is the best obtainable version of the truth.” They were words I worked by as I toiled at The Buffalo News and a mantra of sorts for my new venture, Investigative Post, non-profit investigative reporting center focused on issues of importance to Buffalo and Western New York. I’ve never been a fan of the “he said, she said” brand of journalism practiced by many reporters and taken to its lowest form[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Feb 20

2012

About this blog

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There’s straight reporting, which I’ll do a lot of for Investigative Post. Witness my analysis of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $1 billion plan to revitalize the regional economy. Then there’s blogging. I loved blogging for The Buffalo News. Blogging allows reporters to write in their natural voice. Most editors pride themselves in beating the voice out of their reporters in news stories. Blogging gives reporters their voice back. I got my voice back with a vengeance, and with it, a fair number of news tips from readers. During the two years I wrote Outrages & Insights my posts generated nearly 1[...]

Posted 13 years ago
Investigative Post