Nov 7
2017
Keith talks 43North on WBFO
Investigative Post reporter Charlotte Keith discusses her recent story on the state-funded 43North business plan competition on WBFO’s Press Pass.
Posted 7 years ago
Nov 7
2017
Investigative Post reporter Charlotte Keith discusses her recent story on the state-funded 43North business plan competition on WBFO’s Press Pass.
Oct 11
2017
Jim Heaney tells Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom that out-of-town entrepreneurs who take state money and then leave after just a year remind him of a Steve Miller song … “Take the Money and Run.”
Oct 5
2017
The Niagara Falls Water Board is once again in the crosshairs of the state Department of Environmental Conversation for sewer overflows – a problem that plagues communities across the state. The Water Board reported three separate sewer overflows to the DEC on Wednesday. A total of 23.8 million gallons of untreated sewage mixed with dirty stormwater gushed into the Lower Niagara Gorge following a rainstorm. “These continued violations are wholly unacceptable,” the DEC said in a press release. Water Board officials said the rain overtaxed its sewer system, spewing raw sewage and stormwater into the river. Problem is, this happens[...]
Sep 18
2017
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was bullish about Buffalo on a call with investors last month. “We made that commitment to the state of New York,” he said, describing the company’s plan to hire thousands at a huge factory opening in Buffalo that was built at taxpayer expense. “We are going to keep that commitment.” In late 2015, though – before SolarCity was bought by Tesla – the contract that governs the company’s commitment to New York was tweaked to give it more ways out of the deal if its business goes south. Added to the list of reasons SolarCity could[...]
Apr 28
2017
It’s not the view from Virginia Golden’s front porch of the former General Motors plant that bothers her. It’s the toxic gunk – up to 110,000 gallons of it – that’s underneath the plant. Neighborhood residents have been waiting – and worrying – for a decade since state environmental regulators declared several acres of the plant on East Delavan Avenue a significant threat to public health. The contaminant of concern are PCBs – so toxic that the federal government banned the manufacturing of them in 1979. The residents want the property cleaned up, but have instead endured inaction from state[...]
Mar 30
2017
Continuing a discussion that started Tuesday on Capitol Pressroom, Jim Heaney and Susan Arbetter discuss the “State of Subsidies” series published this week by Investigative Post in partnership with ProPublica and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Mar 29
2017
This is the final part of a series that began Sunday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » State and local economic development agencies in New York give away billions of dollars in subsidies to businesses every year but do little to assess what taxpayers are getting for their money. “What politician doesn’t want to stand there with a shovel in their hand and a hard hat on their head to announce new jobs coming to their district?” said Ron Deutsch, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a labor-backed think tank. “The[...]
Mar 29
2017
This is the third part of a series that began Sunday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » Craig Bernier had only been bagging grain at Harbor Point Minerals in Utica for a few months when the company started sending him inside its silos to “walk down” the grain to help it flow to the bottom. Bernier, 24, was claustrophobic and hated being in the dark, closed structure, but Harbor Point told him he would have to go back in, his father said. “He told his mother, ‘I don’t want to go to[...]