Breaking News

Local Commentaries

Budget is flawed, but persistent advocacy paid off

The state budget has finally passed, long after it should have. Let us be clear from the start: This is not a budget worthy of celebration. It spends too much. It came too late. It carries with it the marks of a state government that too often confuses activity with achievement and spending with leadership. For families, farmers, seniors, small businesses and school districts across Western New York, this budget does not fully answer the most important question before us: How do we make New York a more affordable place to live, raise a family, and do business? And yet, even in an ...

Living on the Great Lakes

Growing up around here you get so used to living around the Great Lakes that you don’t appreciate them. Recently, in reading a book about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, it hit me again about how significant this watershed is. The Great Lakes make up 80% of the freshwater in North America and over 20% of all the freshwater in the world. When Alexis De Tocqueville visited the United States in 1831, he described the Great Lakes as one of the wonders of the world—and he only saw the smallest of the lakes, Lake Erie. I remember, as a kid, our parents taking us to go ...

The beast finally settles in

Last July I wrote about Finian, our Maine Coon cat, and his stubborn need to be outside. For some reason he is well-behaved at the front door – as long as visitors don’t stand chatting with the storm door open. I mean, give the furry kid a break. A 10-minute open door is temptation even a well-tamed feline couldn’t resist. But who am I kidding? A well-tamed cat? There is no such animal. Dear Richard and I are the only ones who are trained in this relationship. We have learned to work around Finian’s strict schedule. His day directing us begins early. If Finian decides ...

Visit a Chautauqua County museum this year

Do you remember years in which winter lasted until mid-April and then it was 90 degrees by mid-May? Those were years in which spring lasted about a month. Not by the calendar, of course, but by the weather. Following the heavy-snow winters of decades ago, some snow banks took until May ...

The U.S. has become a can’t do nation

The BPU sent me a large electricity bill this month like they always do this time of year. I set up a fixed automatic payment based on an estimate of what I’ll use for the year. My situation is complicated a bit by the solar panels on my roof. They produce a consistent 5000 kWh or so annually, but do better in summer than winter. My heat pump uses more electricity during the winter for heat and in the summer for AC than in fall or spring. Once per year, I catch up. This past year, I paid the BPU a total of $880, but $240 of that was for solid waste. The $660 in electricity charges ...

Chautauqua picks a new president

I must admit, upfront, that I am a bit biased in this matter... but I was delighted with the decision of Chautauqua Institution to hire Mark Johnson as its new President. He will be undertaking these new duties in the coming year. I first knew Mark as a kid growing up in Jamestown when we lived on Chestnut Street...he lived right down the street from us. We were good friends with his parents and, one summer, went with their family on a canoe trip to the Adirondacks. And, aside from that, how can you be against a “Johnson” from Jamestown...especially, this one? His grandfather ...