Breaking News

Opinion

CHPE power line failure underscores fragility of power grid

In Our Opinion

New York’s power grid spent last week in the spotlight as a four-day heat wave brought requests to moderate power usage - including requests by Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s for air conditioners to be set to 78 degrees and for as many electric devices as possible to be used during cooler evening hours. Last week certainly shows the mess that New York’s elected officials and the administrators they have put in charge of day-to-day have made of the state’s power grid. While New York is hardly alone struggling to provide enough electricity for its ...

While New York delays data centers with study, Texas finds solutions

In Our Opinion

If you listen to political debate from the state capitol, you’d think the only way to have data centers in New York state is to power them with a power grid that is already struggling under increasing electric loads. How can the state power data centers when it’s struggling to power its transition to an all-electric power grid without data centers? Accepting that assumption as true is one of the biggest arguments against data centers in New York state. But, as we learned recently from Cummins Engine, New York residents are being fed a half-truth. Texas is building data centers ...

Arcade Building’s future looms over DRI

In Our Opinion

With more than $30 million in potential Downtown Revitalization Initiative project applications listed, there will be a series of frank talks as city officials decide which projects get a slice of the city’s $10 million DRI pie. It is obvious that not all projects listed in the city’s DRI application to the state will receive funding. The question is which projects are funded and how much they will receive. A proposal to use $400,000 to stabilize the Arcade Building will surely result in lengthy discussions. On one hand, the Arcade Building is a throwback to Jamestown’s ...

Triumphal arch, or sign of an arch enemy?

Local Commentaries

Architecture always sends a message. So what does President Trump’s desire for a Triumphal Arch say about his authoritarian aspirations? About his regard for process, precedent, and the rule of law? First, we should look to the inspirations for the “Arc de Trump.” The form originated with Ancient Roman arches such as the Arch of Titus which served as “billboards” for military victories and glorified the absolute power of the emperors who erected them. Similarly, Napoleon’s famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris marks his army’s victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, a monument to ...

Freedom Is The Key To Independence

In Our Opinion

Today, we Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Our focus is what the document meant — creation of a new nation, a new set of ideals to form a more perfect union. But what the document itself says about the Founders and about what they intended for us is just as important, in many ways. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness …” That single sentence is familiar to ...

American war of independence was no revolution

Local Commentaries

MECOSTA, Mich.—When this columnist was a newspaper reporter, one of the editors was fond of saying we needed to write in a way that would hold people’s attention when the kids were screaming, the dog was barking, and the television was on. Today’s column doesn’t follow that ...