Debate over a critical issue of U.S. policy - defeating Islamic terrorists - appears to have taken on an impressive bipartisan tone. Both Democrat and Republican members of Congress have serious concerns about President Barack Obama's request they authorize additional use of military force.Air ...

If Gov. Andrew Cuomo is serious about tackling corruption, he should work to restart the Moreland Commission - or start a new group with the same powers to gather information about violations.The governor appointed the investigative commission under New York's anti-corruption Moreland Act in ...

Islamic State terrorists have beheaded Christian children, buried prisoners alive and crucified people, often videotaping their atrocities and sharing them with the world.Why, then, did it seem to shock so many people that the Islamic State burned a Jordanian pilot alive?Condemnation of the ...

It is unfortunate that Rae Foods in Westfield has closed its doors a little more than a year after opening.The pierogi maker opened its doors in 2014 to great fanfare. Rae Foods was going to bring 50 new jobs to the area over five years. The county Industrial Development Agency approved a ...

A Page 1 photo earlier this week reminded us of the team effort that takes place every time 9-1-1 is called, so thumbs up to the hundreds of men and women who spend their days and nights helping others. Gordy Overturf of Lakewood went into cardiac arrest on the evening of Jan. 27. He was alive ...

The village of Mayville had found itself in a sticky situation recently.Its lease with the Chautauqua Belle wasn't satisfactory - to either party, it appears. Village officials had to protect the safety of the taxpayers they are elected to represent while acknowledging the will of those very ...

Candidate Andrew Cuomo knew that poor school districts weren't getting their fair share of funding from New York state."I think the inequity in education is probably the civil rights issue of our time," Cuomo said while on the campaign trail in 2010. The quote was included in a recent Alliance ...

One of the problems in dealing with the drug problem in Chautauqua County is that the problem is constantly changing.For a time, marijuana and alcohol were the problem drugs. Then prescription drugs became the opiate of choice. Crack and cocaine have been around, too. More recently, heroin ...

The snow-covered sidewalks in the city have caused many pedestrians - including Jamestown Public Schools students - to travel in the streets. While some property owners and tenants take shoveling their sidewalks seriously, others are either unable or unwilling to clear their ...

Barely had "sequestration," the government spending limits Congress put in place Jan. 1, 2013, celebrated its second anniversary when President Barack Obama urged throwing any restraint to the wind.Recently, Obama urged Congress to approve $74 billion a year more in spending than allowed under ...

At all levels of government, policy makers are bombarded with conflicting messages - lower taxes and preserve services.We see it in Washington, D.C., with ongoing debates over entitlement spending. We have seen it in Albany with debates over education funding. We have seen it locally in ...

Thumbs up to a pair of Jamestown residents who harnessed the power of social media to do a good deed. Audrey Ralstron and Georgeanna Culpepper noticed a Facebook post in another city in which people partnered with businesses to hang clothing items in Ziploc bags with cold weather items. The ...

It's good Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has relinquished his leadership post after federal corruption charges were lodged against him. New leadership untainted by scandal should help state government get on with its work in the short term.However, in the long term, state officials must ...

Chautauqua County residents should be encouraged by a recent report that the county's Welfare to Work participation rate has more than doubled from January 2012 to September 2014.Christine Schuyler, county health and human services commissioner, and Marge Johnson, Health and Human Services ...

There will be more than enough time for the public to sound off on a proposal to de-dedicate Lafayette Street to facilitate an expanded Dave Warren Autogroup on Washington Street.The issue came to a head during a recent City Council meeting when more than 40 people attended to express their ...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo won't be receiving much fan mail from local school board members and superintendents in the coming weeks. It's school budget season, and the governor has local officials planning in the dark.Cuomo, in an unprecedented move, has withheld the state aid runs, which are typically ...

To The Readers' Forum:On Saturday, Jan. 17, just a few minutes before 10 a.m., my husband and I were pulling out of our driveway on Newland Avenue when we became stuck because of thick, wet, heavy snow at the end of the driveway.This in itself would not have been quite so frustrating but for ...

Seventy years ago this week, Soviet army troops stormed through the front gate of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in southern Poland. What they found stunned many of the battle-hardened soldiers.More than 1.1 million men, women and children were murdered by the Nazis at ...

There is much to talk about from Mayor Sam Teresi's recent State of the City address.Let's set aside, for a moment, the discussion of things the city doesn't control that must change to keep the city financially viable and to make property taxes affordable for city businesses and homeowners. ...

Thumbs up to once again meeting a campaign goal. On Tuesday, the United Way of Southern Chautauqua County announced it had exceeded its 2014 Campaign goal of $1,320,000. The campaign reaching its goal every year reaffirms the sense that many south county residents know the importance of the ...