As of January 1, New York State’s minimum wage for Upstate is $16.00 up from $15.50. New York State’s minimum wage was the same as the Federal minimum wage of $7.25 as recently as 2013, 13 years ago. Beginning in 2014, the State Legislature put in place increases in the State minimum wage ...

Our family has cut way back on Christmas presents in recent years. We all still enjoy filling some desires from the grandchildrens’ wishlists. Honestly, they are the only ones who really need anything. But I have a problem, and it is probably a hangup going back to my childhood. I want ...

By J. Paul Lombardo One of my favorite movies, (and its sequel, too), that almost always stops my channel surfing when I’m doing that is, the Billy Crystal, David Stern, Jack Palance Western, comedy, City Slickers. As many times as I have seen these movies, and even though I can recite most ...

Let’s pick up where we left off 148 weeks ago. Not even you, faithful reader of this column, will recall that we were well into March 2023. By turning on the snow machine then, Mother Nature appeared to be trying to make up for a lack of snow during the preceding winter. “No,” we told ...

I am one who likes to keep up to date with news and politics, but I tend to avoid the back and forth soap opera that comes from the personality and who said what of Washington. But lately I haven’t been able to avoid thinking about what has become of Marjorie Taylor Greene. The once MAGA ...

An old friend of mine, pretty much of the same vintage, sent me an email suggesting that the words of Auld Lang Syne (roughly translated as meaning “for old times’ sake”) might be an appropriate topic for a column at New Year’s. I will give it a try. Most of the research I have ...