What good is a village if it doesn’t look after the safety and well-being of its citizens? We’re sure 10 Celoron residents on Butler Avenue and Seventh Street are asking themselves that question after waiting three years for the village to figure out the best way to help the residents ...

The recent reversal of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s corruption conviction is just the latest reason why New York state needs tougher ethics laws. Silver had been convicted, in short, for his role in a three-part scheme that used his position as Assembly Speaker to make ...

Interest rates will be allowed to continue rising, but gradually, later this year, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen told members of Congress on Wednesday. The economy is improving, meaning the Fed’s longstanding policy of holding interest rates at basement levels is no longer ...

Three audits released last week by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli should give even the most ardent Democrat reason pause regarding Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s threatened Faso-Collins Medicaid tax. Cuomo has threatened the tax in retaliation for legislation introduced by Republican Congressmen John ...

It shouldn’t take weeks or months to get a state parole violator to be moved to a state correctional facility, but it does. That means $76 a day of local tax dollars and local jail space are being used to house, feed and care for each jail inmate awaiting a parole hearing who rightfully ...

Health care reformers, not to mention tens of millions of other Americans who understand money does not grow on trees, are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The rock is this: President Barack Obama’s signature health care takeover law encouraged states to expand the ...

Carl Paladino wants to know why a local committee’s decision to use $1.5 million for his project to restore the Furniture Mart building on West Second Street, Jamestown, was reversed by New York state. Given the lack of transparency in the final stages of the DRI process, Paladino has a ...

Thumbs up to County Executive Vince Horrigan’s 100 Days of Summer Safety Campaign. Thus far, Horrigan has focused on boating, bicycling and how to be safe around tractors and buggies. Many of us have heard the information dozens of times before, but it’s important to keep these safety ...

Chautauqua Institution often lines up a fascinating array of speakers who discuss many of the pressing issues facing our society. This week, the institution’s morning lecture series focuses on Crises of Faith. The topic meshes well with Chautauqua’s mission of bringing people of ...

Rarely does a month go by without us having to publish a police or court report involving an adult who has victimized a child sexually. It was only a few short weeks ago we reported charges against a Cassadaga man accused of alleged sexual conduct with a child under the age of 11. There are ...

If possible, the Chautauqua County Legislature should rethink its support of legislation that made the sale and use of sparkling devices legal in Chautauqua County. Jamestown police responded to 57 complaints of illegal fireworks from July 1-6, though most of the complaints were deemed ...

According to the Economic Policy Institute, the wage gap between those with no more than a high school diploma and college graduates has never been higher. College graduates, on average, earned 56 percent more than high school grads in 2015, according to data compiled by the Economic Policy ...

A measure of the dishonesty with which the so-called Affordable Care Act was adopted during former President Barack Obama’s administration can be seen in legislation Congress is considering now to replace the ACA — Obamacare, as it has come to be known. Throughout the country, insurance ...

New York’s Medicaid program is wonderful — until the time comes to pay the bill. When Medicaid was created in 1966, the federal government said it would pay 50 percent of the program’s cost with the other 50 percent paid by the states. New York made the decision to be one of nine ...

Thumbs up to state Sen. Catharine Young, R-Olean, for making sure legislation to extend sales, occupancy, mortgage recording and real estate transfer taxes reached the Senate floor. The New York State Association of Counties recently singled out Young’s leadership in making sure the home rule ...

Roughly 3,800 children were married in New York state between 2000 and 2010. That’s 3,800 children too many. According to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, research shows young women who marry before 19 are 50 percent more likely than their unmarried peers to drop out of high school, and ...

It is not just because of a general concern for babies born addicted to opioids that three members of Congress from West Virginia and four from Ohio are taking leadership roles in an attempt to help the little ones. Those states have been hit very hard by that tragedy within the scourge of ...

President Donald Trump has become an enthusiastic proponent of using apprenticeships to provide people with on-the-job career training. He is right on target in that, as long as federal bureaucrats do not choke the life out of the idea. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on job ...

As we celebrate our nation’s birthday, it would be well for we Americans to reflect upon whether we have maintained the political philosophy the founders knew was essential to our continued independence. Upon leaving the convention at which the Constitution was written, Benjamin Franklin ...

Speaking of common sense and the federal government — a topic that sometimes seems all too difficult to discuss with a straight face — a change is being made in the Pell Grant program, which helps low-income college students. Pell Grants now will be available to help with the cost of ...