Breaking News

In Our Opinion

Most Severe Punishment Isn’t Enough In Child Death Cases

Two Jamestown men will go to prison after pleading guilty to killing infants in a fit of rage within two weeks of each other in April 2024. Matthew Nuttall, 27, will be sentenced this year after throwing a child into a Pack-and-Play portable crib because he was frustrated the baby wouldn’t stop crying. The child’s spinal cord was severed, which caused the child’s death. In December, Sean Thomas pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter just before his jury trial was scheduled to begin after admitting to causing the death of eight-month-old Aniyah Turk. Thomas intentionally ...

Innovation Now Needed Because Nuclear Power Demands Grow

As America’s energy demands grow exponentially, the country won’t be able to keep up without more nuclear power. For decades, the climate-friendly industry has been held back by overly burdensome regulations, but that’s beginning to change. In the 1960s, plants took about four years to build, and they cost, in today’s dollars, about $1,500 per kilowatt of electricity generated. Now the idea of building a reactor in less than a decade is unheard of, and the cost of construction is six times greater. The Energy Department took steps this month to exempt certain advanced ...

Water’s Fine For Chautauqua Lake Fishing

We all should be able to acknowledge that Chautauqua Lake needs work if it is to return to the type of hub for summer activities that many south county residents remember. But it was interesting to read about the opinions of DEC Fisheries officials after a recent presentation to the Chautauqua Lake Watershed and Management Alliance board meeting regarding the lake’s fish populations. We’d have loved to be able to report on the DEC officials’ presentation in person, but alliance meetings have been closed-door affairs for more than a year. But we digress. Jim Markham and Justin ...

Lawmakers Are Generous With Your Money

Deb Makowski, county human resources director, said several times during last week’s Audit and Control Committee meeting that increasing salary ranges for management employees doesn’t automatically give the affected employees salary increases. She’s technically right, of course. Salaries for 2026 were set in the 2026 Chautauqua County budget. But there would be no need to change the salary ranges in the first place if there weren’t raises coming soon for those employees. Makowski told county legislators there are 128 employees who are getting close to the maximum salary in ...

With Temporary State Aid, City Can Breathe Again Financially

An unexpected $1.6 million in temporary state aid will make Jamestown’s 2027 budget a lot easier on both the City Council and on city taxpayers. Gov. Kathy Hochul 2027 Executive Budget extends for one year the $50 million temporary program for cities, towns and villages. This program, which was initially authorized in 2025 for two years, provides general purpose aid for local governments. The funding comes at a good time for Jamestown, which has exhausted its remaining federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to whittle down tax increases the past two years. Additional state aid ...

Cannabis Law Clarification Won’t Be Final One

We can’t disagree with the state Legislature’s decision to clarify how the distance from a proposed cannabis shop to a school or church is measured. Lifted, the city’s first cannabis dispensary, had trouble with exactly this issue before it could receive its permit from the state to open. The delay was unfortunate, but not allowing the store to open in the first place would have bordered on injustice. In the roughly 18 months since the shop opened on North Main Street there have been no issues reported and Tim Scoma, Lifted’s owner, has made the shop a regular contributor to ...