Breaking News

Local Commentaries

Due Process Rights Being Violated

Our Constitution guarantees due process to every person, whether a citizen or not. This means we all have the right to a hearing before a judge if suspected of breaking the law. But our president, himself a convicted felon, doesn’t care about such things. No, Donald Trump is not bound by rules that have governed our nation for most of its 250 year history. His willingness to ignore established laws, Congressional authority, and now, even the U.S. Supreme Court, has landed us all in a very perilous situation, indeed. In the middle of March, the Trump administration sent 3 planes to El ...

POWs survive Soviet imprisonment

IMPERIA, Italy — From the veranda of a couple’s vacation home is a stunningly beautiful view. Brightly painted modest homes dot the high hills along the shore of this city on the Italian Riviera. On a sunny afternoon with nary a cloud in the sky, the Mediterranean Sea is blue all the way to the southern horizon. The couple and others in their generation of Germans were youngsters and perhaps young adults in the 1930s and 1940s, when life in their country was hard. For the then-future husband, who was away from his homeland from 1945 to 1950, life was even harder. That ...

Options When A Provider Moves Out Of Network

Question: I just found out that one of my providers is no longer in network for my Medicare Advantage Plan. What are my options? Answer: There are many important factors to consider when learning to understand your insurance and the coverage it provides you. When you have Medicare and a Medicare Advantage Plan, you must also understand the type of Medicare Advantage Plan you have. There are HMO’s (Health Maintenance Organizations), and PPO’s (Preferred Provider Organizations). When you have an HMO, you have coverage at in-network providers only. That means the plan will only ...

Easters Long Ago

Last Sunday we sang the hymn “Abide with Me”. That took me back to the church I went to in my youth. At Grace Lutheran Church in Dunkirk, we ended all Wednesday night Lenten services with that hymn. I knew the first verse by heart. The lights were dimmed so we had to memorize it. After singing we left the church quietly. It is funny how little things trigger memories. I had not thought about that for years but the hymn brought back my memories clearly. I remember our Good Friday service. Different churches took turns hosting it. It went from noon to three o’clock. We had off ...

The Great American School Musical

It always amazes me when I attend one of these. That local school kids can put on such an exceptional performance combined with all of the choreography and building of stage sets—is a great testament to our system of public education. As a grandparent of kids so involved, it makes me not a disinterested observer. When I go to one of these performances, I am all in. I keep my handkerchief close by as I know that at some point in the performance, I am going to tear up. One aspect of it is that “musicals,” as we know them, are primarily an American phenomenon. They are a Broadway ...

Trumps Economic Plans Are Scrambled

Trumpty Dumpty has laid an egg with his ‘plan’ to import 100 million eggs from Turkey. Faced with the problem of inflation and rising food prices, especially eggs, Trump ‘worked a deal’ with Turkey. Hooray! Trump saved the American Breakfast! Stop and think, how eggsactly was this going to work? Chicken eggs are a perishable food item which the US Department of Agriculture says should be consumed within 45 days. Once laid, the clock is ticking. Since most whole eggs are exported in ships, Turkish egg producers need to collect, clean, package and prepare them for shipment. ...