Tag: State Government

Feb 10

2016

Landfill with Love Canal legacy still poses danger

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Varsha Kraus and her family fled their neighborhood in Love Canal in 1981 only to learn two years ago that its toxic waste had been dug up and buried in a landfill behind their subdivision in North Tonawanda. After insisting for 25 years that the closed landfill posed no significant health threat, state officials changed their minds in December and declared it a Superfund site. But warning signs were evident all along: rusted chemical drums, battery casings stacked waist high and children getting burns from splashes of orange pond water. The Love Canal waste – enough to fill 80 dump[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Nov 22

2015

Heaney details local refugee situation

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Jim Heaney and Steve Brown discuss the hot topic of the week, refugees, in the wake of the Paris terror attacks in the latest installment of Outrages & Insights. Heaney told Brown that Erie County accepts more refugees than any county in the state, more than 1,400 last year. Surprisingly, relatively few settle in New York City, despite its historic role as an entry point for immigrants. Heaney explained that, despite rhetoric to the contrary, refugees undergo more vigorous screening than others coming to America, a process that typically takes up to two years. Heaney also discussed the local refugee[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Nov 20

2015

Heaney talks refugees with Capitol Pressroom

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Susan Arbetter of Capitol Pressroom interviewed Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney on Thursday regarding refugees in light of the Paris terror attacks. Heaney told Arbetter that Erie County accepted more than 1,400 refugees last year, more than any county in the state and about one-third of the statewide total. Interestingly enough, relatively few refugees settle in New York City. The interview, which can be found at this link, runs from 13:00 to 22:17.

Posted 9 years ago

Sep 16

2015

State kills plan for swimming at Gallagher Beach

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It turns out it’s not safe to go in the water at Gallagher Beach. State officials announced Wednesday they have shelved plans to open the beach along Route 5 in South Buffalo for swimming. The decision marks a retreat from plans announced two years ago by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins and Mayor Byron Brown, who were excited at the prospect of a beach within the city limits. What’s changed? Investigative Post has been reporting on water pollution and and soil contamination at the beach. State officials initially refused to even commit to testing to determine if there were[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jul 28

2015

State relents on Buffalo Billion records

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I interrupt the state’s incessant stonewalling of my efforts to use public records to track the Buffalo Billion program to report some progress. Cuomo administration officials, for more than a year, refused to release documents related to the selection of LPCiminelli to develop SolarCity’s sprawling plant in South Buffalo. The SUNY Research Foundation and the Fort Schuyler Management Corp. went to great lengths to thwart my efforts to obtain records under the state Freedom of Information Law, as I documented in December. Alain Kaloyeros and his associates at Fort Schuyler wouldn’t budge when the state Committee on Open Government issued[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Jul 16

2015

Water woes at Gallagher Beach

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  Gallagher Beach has a serious bacteria problem. The bacteria counts at the unofficial beach on Buffalo’s Outer Harbor – which local, state and federal officials want to open for public swimming – exceeded safe levels more than two-thirds of the time in tests conducted last summer. The test results are included in a 181-page study Investigative Post recently obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request. The state has not officially released the report to the public. “The results are that this is not a safe place to swim,” said John Finster, a retired public health engineer who used[...]

Posted 10 years ago

May 19

2015

iPost sues over suppression of records

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Investigative Post has sued a state development corporation so intent on withholding records involving the Buffalo Billion program that a leading state official likened efforts to obtain them under the Freedom of Information Law to an act of terrorism. Investigative Post has asked the State Supreme Court to rule on whether the Fort Schuyler Management Corp. is subject to the state FOI Law. WGRZ and the Gannett Company are helping to finance the lawsuit that was filed Monday in Albany. Fort Schuyler is managing the construction of three facilities that will house SolarCity, IBM and Albany Molecular Research Inc., which have been[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Mar 24

2015

Cuomo still stonewalling on Buffalo Billion

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The Cuomo administration has redoubled its efforts to suppress the release of documents that disclose how it is selecting developers and spending money on the Buffalo Billion program. The Fort Schuyler Management Corp., charged with managing the program, is still refusing to release information sought by Investigative Post despite a legal opinion recently issued by the State Committee on Open Government that concluded the agency is subject to the Freedom of Information Law. “In my opinion, it is cut and dried,” said Robert Freeman, the committee’s executive director. “It is, in essence, a governmental agency, that it is required to[...]

Posted 10 years ago
Investigative Post