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Safety net shortfall puts GOP’s stance on reserve fund to test

In Our Opinion

There was an interesting debate during a recent Chautauqua County Legislature meeting over the county’s ever-escalating safety net program costs. Lawmakers delayed a vote in June on a resolution that would have spent a $2.8 million from the county’s surplus to pay for safety net costs that are coming in much higher than the amounts budgeted for when the legislature approved the 2026 budget. According to the county’s website, Safety Net Assistance is for individuals who are not eligible for other assistance programs. It is a state- and local-funded program for: Single adults; ...

Happy 50th Birthday to the Chautauqua Belle

In Our Opinion

It’s hard to imagine a time when the Chautauqua Belle wasn’t a fixture on the waters of Chautauqua Lake. But that’s exactly what our reality would be if not for James Webster, the Rochester man who had the vision to bring a paddlewheel steamship to Chautauqua Lake in the early 1970s. Webster collaborated with Capt. Alan Bates, who designed the ship around the same time Bates designed the Natchez, another steamship still in use in New Orleans. For a time, Mayville was marketed as Steamship Village when the Chautauqua Belle was still in its relative infancy, and many still make ...

In Our Opinion

In Our Opinion

State lawmakers, largely Democrats, want to increase Open Meetings Law and FOIL request training requirements for local government officials. Given the recent altercation in the Chautauqua County records room involving a self-proclaimed First Amendment auditor, the training likely isn't a bad idea. Local public records officials need to be the experts in the room when it comes to releasing records, and too often that isn’t the case. But in our opinion the legislature should also help local governments driven to the point of frustration by bot-driven FOIL requests and local ...

Is AI truly “the future,” or is it being marketed that way?

Local Commentaries

To The Reader’s Forum: “The world goes along only one road -- the road of progress.” -Charles Kettering, American businessman, 1929. The rhetoric is everywhere: AI is an “inevitable” part of modern life, and people who question the truth of this phrase are reactionaries clinging to “the past.” However, separating ourselves so neatly from our own history creates a false sense of immunity from repeating it. Artificial intelligence will lessen mental strain, shorten labor times, and increase productivity: so the claim goes. Yet a growing body of scientific studies ...

Supreme Court misunderstands Constitutional authority of Executive, Legislative branches

Local Commentaries

To The Reader’s Forum: The Supreme Court’s vision of the constitutional legitimacy of the exercise of authority by each Branch of Government – in and by itself – unrelated to the Separation of Powers doctrine, is poorly conceived. The Constitution delineates the authority of each of our Branches of Government. It does so by bestowing powers and imposing duties on each of the respective Branches. In the exercise of a particular Branch’s authority, situations may arise where the use of one of its constitutional powers conflicts with one of its duties, and even results in ...

What does patriotism look like?

Local Commentaries

I hope you’re feeling a little more patriotic. The visiting international spectators at the FIFA matches should have stirred something in all of us. The Fourth of July, despite the strange weather, managed to break through the clouds long enough to remind us there is still much worth celebrating. Oddly, there are Americans who seem to hold their own country in contempt. Yet talk to many new citizens who escaped communist or socialist governments, and you’ll often hear a very different perspective. They still see the United States as a remarkable experiment in human freedom. I ...