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Inactive Voters Are Worrisome Wildcard

Registered voters in New York State fall into two main categories — active and inactive voters. I contend that sending mail-in ballots to inactive voters is problematic. This is not to be confused with absentee voting. New York state has had absentee voting for a long time. If someone is in the military, has a permanent or temporary physical disability, is out of the county on Election Day, or an election official working on Election Day, they are able to make an application to the Board of Elections, and if approved, have a paper ballot sent to the address listed on their ...

The Virus, The Pandemic — Getting Back to Basics

Over the past six months our world has changed to a degree we could not have predicted. The impact of COVID-19 to most of us has been challenging, for many overwhelming, and to others, devastating. On a daily basis all of us, lay people as well as health care professionals, are presented with a dizzying array of information and recommendations from many sources, some more reliable than others. Most acknowledge that we are in the early stages of understanding this ‘novel’ or ‘new’ virus, and as such suggest that we stay tuned as new data may result in a different directive ...

Individuals Make A Difference In Many Lives

My wife is the victim of a degenerative brain disease called fronto-temporal dementia (FTD). It starts in one part of the brain, in this case, the frontal and/or temporal lobes, and, over the course of years, spreads to other areas, progressively altering, diminishing, or even eliminating various functional capacities, similar to Alzheimer’s disease and other progressive dementias. There is, at this time, no medical cure for it, and in fact, there is still little that is really known about its cause. There is an apparent genetic component to it, and her father and her uncle both had ...

Working Together Toward A Better Tomorrow

A lot has changed in 2020. COVID-19 has caused modifications to the way we live. The impact is not only being felt in Chautauqua County. Life has changed all around the world. Schools have closed. Businesses have closed. People have lost their jobs or have been furloughed. Some places we love to visit, like gyms, museums, and amusement parks, are shuttered indefinitely. Many of the events we enjoy have been postponed, some for a full year. Others, like ball games, are starting to be played, but in empty stadiums. As a result of all this disruption and uncertainty, business owners and ...

Fluvanna Upgrades Are Nice

It has been a pleasant surprise to observe the new upgrades along Fluvanna Avenue in Jamestown. If you haven’t driven on this part of Route 430 recently, you should. In my view, the newly paved highway from Washington Street to the city line is a vast improvement over the prior road. Not only is the road smoother with a new black-top surface, its configuration is also safer for the traveling public. The new three-lane design with a continuous turning lane in the middle, makes left turns off the highway much easier with less constriction in traffic flow. Of course, the primary ...

Justices Debate Title VII

A June 15 Supreme Court opinion on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is worth reading. Title VII makes it unlawful “for an employer to ... discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” As the court’s opinion notes, the issue was whether - given Title VII’s ban on discrimination because of sex - an employer may “fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender.” Not long ago, the analysis may well have ...