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Thanksgiving, Deer Season Go Hand In Hand

It is Thanksgiving and another deer season is upon us. Many around here will likely spend some time at deer camp that day. In reflecting back, though I have no historical proof of it, I have always thought that the pilgrims likely ate venison along with turkey on that first Thanksgiving Day. Looking forward to deer season, I guess, is part of my DNA. I was once Chairman of the Subcommittee on Fish and Wildlife in the State Assembly. Every year we would have discussions with the DEC Division of Fish and Wildlife about setting the fish and wildlife seasons in New York, including the big ...

It’s Still The Economy

In 1992, James Carville coined the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid,” referring to how the economy affects one’s personal finances. This phrase was credited with playing a big part in getting Bill Clinton elected President. The economy means different things to many people. Some give their attention daily to the stock market, i.e., the Dow, S&P, NASDAQ. Economists talk about the gross domestic product (GDP), tariffs, trade deficits, the Federal Reserve, and the national debt. While each of these aspects of the economy may be important to the economic engine of the country, ...

Federal Rural Hospital Funding Is Far From Restored

You have to hand it to Nick Langworthy. Not everyone would be willing to go out in the rain and stand in front of a microphone to tell us temporary funding for rural hospitals that offsets only one-third of permanent funding cuts is a win. Langworthy called the $50 Billion Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) “one of the largest federal investments in our history to support rural healthcare.” Why was this bill necessary? Because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a bill Langworthy voted for, made drastic cuts to Medicaid, an important funding source for hospitals and nursing ...

Labor Shortages And Career Choices

According to summer 2025 statistics from the United States Department of Labor’s Labor Market briefing, Western New York currently enjoys a pretty low unemployment rate of 4.1%. That’s lower than the overall 4.6% rate in the United States. However, over the past year, initial unemployment claims in New York State increased the most in Chautauqua County. Compared to NYS’s increase of 3.6%, our county’s rate increased by 175.0%. That leaves many worried about what is causing this and what the future will bring to those of us living and working here. Plenty of employment ...

Tis The Season: Make It A Good One

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving. I’m always shocked in November, usually when I’m dressing my turkey, that another year has passed so quickly. It’s a universal truth for those over the age of fifty that time becomes a sort of quantum equation we haven’t quite figured out. The days stretch, the years collapse, and suddenly we’re pulling holiday decorations out of closets again, wondering how it can possibly be time already. As our families are scattered across the country, and sometimes the world, holidays become more important. The holiday season isn’t the busiest ...

Can You Complete These Oxymorons?

Having taught all Core Elementary and Middle School Subjects (including Grammar, Spelling, and Writing, as part of our Language Arts Curriculum) in the Jamestown Public Schools in my career, one day at home when Chasy was about 6 years old, a Campbell Soup commercial came on TV and finished with their slogan of that time, “Soup is Good Food.” When she saw the words and heard the slogan, she asked why “good” and “food” didn’t rhyme. In my classroom, many times, I had students who wanted to know the same about words like rough, cough, through, and though, and other words like ...