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 ...

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 ...

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 to ...

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 ...

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 ...

Every May I drive to Lexington, Massachusetts to celebrate my grandson’s birthday and decorate our family graves. This year was special. Malcolm was also graduating from high school and the family gathered – even more of us than usual. His grandfather drove up from New York City with ...