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Local Commentaries

Big Corporate Real Estate Versus The Rest of Us

Recent newspaper reports of well-known national big-box retailers demanding huge reductions in their real property assessed values by Chautauqua County towns is not a new phenomenon. In 1998, then County Executive Mark Thomas and the Chautauqua County legislature saw these huge corporations ...

Moore Proves Economics Isn’t Boring

CHAUTAUQUA—If you think economics is boring, Stephen Moore proves the opposite. ♦♦♦ On Aug. 7, the White House chief of staff called Moore, co-founder of the Club for Growth and a Fox News contributor, and asked that he meet with the president, whom he has known since 2016. “I ...

A New Approach Needed For Lake

The July 4th weekend was an “Absolute Nightmare” on Chautauqua Lake for Burtis Bay, Sherman Bay, Ellicott and Fluvanna residents as broadcast by Channel 4 WIVB Buffalo to all of Western New York. Several broadcasts followed from impenetrable weed-choked areas of the lake now designated ...

Standing In Solidarity With Canada

One of the joys of living in Western New York has been the lifelong friendship that we have had with our next door neighbor, Canada. Back in the days when I was a bit more mobile, we would take a yearly trip to Canada for a week or two of wilderness canoeing. You had only to drive a few hours ...

Tariffs Are Not A Sales Tax

Local commentators recently claimed that President Donald Trump’s general 10% tariff constituted a sales tax on consumers. That would be true if tariffs directly affected consumers, but the point of a tariff is to affect the behavior of producers and governments, not consumers. Trump’s ...

Ignoring Climate Change Won’t Make It Go Away

You cannot stop climate change with an executive order. Misinformation is defined as politically motivated actors spreading false or misleading information to reinforce their beliefs. While it can be harmful, it is more of a symptom than a disease. Research shows that misinformation does ...