Tag: State Government

Nov 20

2017

UB Foundation invests in fracking

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The University at Buffalo Foundation quietly invested in an offshore fund that finances fracking and oil companies, even as the university declares itself a leader on combating climate change, leaked documents reveal. The private foundation, whose assets top $1.1 billion, is technically separate from the public university and does not disclose information about specific investments – despite mounting pressure from a student-led campaign for divestment from fossil fuel companies. But, in data made public Friday through the so-called “Paradise Papers,” a massive leak of documents from an offshore law firm, the foundation is named as a shareholder in a fund[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Nov 9

2017

IBM another Buffalo Billion letdown

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Bringing IBM to Buffalo was meant to create good-paying jobs and develop a technology hub downtown. Three years ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would spend $55 million on equipment and office space for the company to set up a “center for cutting-edge software development.” In exchange, IBM and its partners agreed to create 500 jobs over five years. State officials made the point over and over: these would be good-paying, high-tech jobs. But many of the employees in IBM’s Buffalo office, at least so far, are working in low-skilled, relatively low-paying, call center jobs. Most of them[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Nov 7

2017

Keith talks 43North on WBFO

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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

Oct 11

2017

Heaney talks 43North on ‘Pressroom

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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.”    

Posted 7 years ago

Oct 5

2017

The DEC’s puzzling fixation on Falls overflows

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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[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Sep 18

2017

SolarCity’s expanded escape clause

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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[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Apr 28

2017

A threat to Scajaquada Creek – and neighbors

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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[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 30

2017

Heaney talks subsidy reform in ‘Pressroom

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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.

Posted 8 years ago
Investigative Post