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Local Commentaries

How Times Have Changed!

I got a message on Facebook that said – and I am paraphrasing here- If you grew up in the era where you went out each morning and did not come home until dark you grew up in the best of times. I think that is true. When I think back to the way it was when I grew up, I am in awe of the ...

A 10% National Sales Tax

In 2025, the United States has essentially imposed, for the first time, a 10% national sales tax on the wholesale value of everything imported into our country. Even agricultural products that we do not produce in the United States are now faced with a minimum 10% tariff, which ultimately is ...

When Things Look The Same

Life can sometimes get complex when things look the same. The other day, for example, my wife went to the lecture at Chautauqua and took a rollator...essentially a walker with four wheels that helps out when you have a limp or a bad leg. When she got home that day, she realized that the ...

There’s Hope For Jamestown Yet

I’ve come back to visit my roots and am staying in a friend’s home on Lower Swede Hill. I grew up in Jamestown, graduated from JHS, and then went off to college. Like most of my friends, I settled elsewhere. I’ve lived in Tacoma Washington since 1974 and visited Jamestown only ...

State’s Hostility Toward Fossil Fuels Continues

CHAUTAUQUA—Suppose that you want to lay and connect a natural-gas line. According to press reports: Under longstanding New York law, a natural-gas utility may not charge you for this if the connection is within 100 feet of an existing natural-gas line. Yet now some protest that it’s ...

The Separation Of Church And State

It was drilled into me at an early age that part of being an American was the belief in the separation of Church and State. Of course, the foundation of that belief goes back to the earliest history of the country when immigrants came here from Europe to escape religious persecution. That ...