It is understandable that area residents are struggling to justify the virtual close of Chautauqua County’s economy when there are so few cases of COVID-19 inside the county. There is a good deal of unease for small business owners who don’t qualify for many of the programs available to ...

Logic dictates that the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic can’t possibly sustain the thousands of out-of-work families in Chautauqua County. A family of four would receive roughly $3,600 if both working adults in the home each earn less than $75,000. That $3,600 is a nice tax ...

It is difficult, frankly, to view people refusing to join the rest of us in attempting to contain the COVID-19 coronavirus as anything but spoiled brats. The vast majority of them appear to be young. At least reports from our country, such as those of college students packing beaches for ...

Sources ranging from the CIA to the Census Bureau disagree on how reliant we Americans are on drugs and medical equipment imported from China. Extend that to international agencies and the variances are even greater. For example, some sources place China far down on the list of countries ...

Millions of dollars in stock transactions on behalf of five U.S. senators have raised serious questions about their ethics — and whether they broke laws against insider trading. Clearly, the matter needs to be investigated, but not as a witch hunt with the preconceived notion that someone ...

At President Donald Trump’s urging, the United States is adding a sixth branch — the “Space Force” — to our armed forces, in order to defend the vast region beyond our atmosphere. Perhaps we should be thinking of inner space, instead. Throughout the nation, public health officials ...

The decisions being made in the halls of Congress and in Albany regarding COVID-19 are important — but so are the decisions we all make every day. One of the best decisions we can make is to do all we can to support local small businesses that are staying open during the coronavirus ...

Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, told The Post-Journal that he expects a state budget extender to be discussed rather than trying to piece together a full state budget in the next 11 days. Goodell’s thought is a good one. There is no way, right now, for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the ...

It is likely our awareness of how widespread COVID-19 is in the United States represents only the tip of the iceberg. Until widespread testing kicks in, many among us made by carrying the virus unknowingly, both to themselves and the rest of us. Still, paying attention to what information ...

The U.S. health care system — and thus, public policy regarding it — is coming under fire because of COVID-19. Among complaints are that there are not enough COVID-19 test kits, not enough ventilator machines to help sufferers breath, no vaccine to be available quickly and not enough ...

Prudence, not panic, needs to be the order of the day among Americans. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to have gotten the memo. During a press conference Sunday, President Donald Trump noted that heads of major retail companies had told him something he never expected to hear: Don’t ...

Big tobacco lied for many years about the adverse health effects associated with its product. We know that. It has been proven in court through billions of dollars in settlements by some companies. The same goes for some in the drug industry, who knew even as they were reaping windfall ...

It would have been easy in the midst of the onslaught of news regarding COVID-19 both locally and nationally to miss a concerning news release from Chautauqua County Health and Human Services officials late Wednesday. Through March 1 and March 11, there were 12 overdoses in Chautauqua ...

On a nice spring day earlier this week, one shouldn’t have been surprised to see a woman pushing a stroller up a sidewalk on Baker Street. What was surprising was that there was no child in the stroller. The stroller was filled to the brim with paper grocery bags. There are many reasons ...

COVID-19 — the coronavirus — has brought everyday life in large areas of China to a near standstill. Schools and factories are closed. The same goes for many other businesses, including retail outlets. As the virus has spread, other areas have been affected similarly, though not to the ...

It was little surprise last week to hear Republicans complain that they hadn’t been clued in on discussions of the state’s $40 million coronavirus funding bill that came with an expansion of gubernatorial power during an emergency. What was surprising was to hear Rep. John Salka, ...

Prendergast Library board members want Jamestown Public School District taxpayers to approve $370,000 in new taxes by creating a school district public library. Any such discussion should also include an elected library board. Libraries that are formed as School District Public Libraries or ...

A peace agreement signed Saturday between U.S. officials and representatives of Afghanistan’s Taliban organization is long overdue, as far as Americans are concerned. We have spent far too much and lost too many lives in what has become the longest armed conflict in our nation’s ...

The passing of Amo Houghton on Thursday sent many reporters and editors scurrying to their clip files. What was already a sad day for the area became even sadder when one read the old news clips of Houghton’s exploits as Chautauqua County’s representative in Congress. Nowhere is it as ...

Thanks to Howie T. VanRensselaer, Cattaraugus County coroner and owner of the VanRensselaer and Son Funeral Home, Walter Luther Bunn received the funeral he deserved. Bunn had resided at the Gowanda Rehab and Nursing Center for 11 years and passed away without any living relatives. Several ...