Can we get a show of hands for anyone who wants to see gas prices increase 55 cents a gallon in New York state? How many of us either want to or can afford to spent 26% more on natural gas to heat our homes in the winter? If you answered no, then email every legislative Democrat in the state ...
I don’t know about you, but I am pleased that pronouncements from the White House have substantially decreased under our newly-elected President. For the past four years, you could almost count on getting three or four “tweets” in the early morning hours many of which were attacks or ...
Thirty or so years ago, soon after my wife Sue and I first joined Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Toledo, we met a young priest then serving as assistant rector, her first calling out of seminary. Today, that priest, the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, is the Episcopal Bishop of ...
Redistricting has been called “the backroom blood sport of politics.” The good news is that it may be coming a bit more into the light in New York state. Redistricting is the process of drawing legislative districts. By federal law, redistricting must occur following the census ...
National Child Abuse Prevention Month recognizes the importance of communities working together to help families thrive and prevent child maltreatment. There are formal and informal ways that child abuse and/or maltreatment can be prevented. During this unprecedented time of living ...
Most of us think of infrastructure as something physical: bridges, roads, pipelines, power lines and the like. President Joe Biden says he wants to expand that dictionary definition to include workers, families and people — and therefore to include schools and housing, for example. That ...
LOS ANGELES – In the 1950s and 1960s, a particular organization with views that in some quarters were – to put it mildly – unpopular sought to exercise its First Amendment rights and advance its agenda. But along came the government of a particular state that – for transparency’s ...
Melanie Witkowski knows the numbers too well — and they signal reasons for worry on a local level. Since discussions began to center around legalizing marijuana in New York state in recent years, she has seen a trend that could be considered as disturbing for Chautauqua County and our ...
Elected officials throughout Chautauqua County have the rest of the year to decide whether or not allow marijuana dispensaries or on-site consumption businesses to open. Dispensaries may make sense. If marijuana is legal, local governments may see an interest in marijuana sellers looking to ...
We’re all ready for life to get back to normal. COVID-19 is on its second year of laying waste to many traditional events and celebrations that thousands of us look forward to every year. Organizers of the annual Scandiinavian Folk Festival have said they are canceling the 2021 festival ...
Complaints from two local women about the hassles married women face when applying for a new federal REAL ID should be forwarded to the federal government. The women echo a complaint being made around the country that REAL ID laws burden women more than they do men because women have to show ...
To The Reader’s Forum: New York should be on the campaign trail in presidential elections. But because of the current electoral college system, we are ignored. Moreover, the candidate with the most votes nationwide should become President. New York has already passed the National ...
The biggest takeaway from this year’s state budget isn’t the record spending, the legalization of mobile sports betting or the $2.1 billion the state will spend for those who weren’t eligible for unemployment benefits during the pandemic. What should be striking to everyone in the ...
I have always been amazed by how most Americans pride themselves in making good value decisions—getting a “good deal” on things. Of course, advertisers know this so they promote things like “two for the price of one” or “50% off the retail price” in order to pull buyers in. 50% ...
When people live somewhere long enough, they often forget what they love about it. The next time you take a drive locally, pretend you’ve never been here before. Try to see the area through the eyes of a stranger. Think about the features that draw you to visit other places. Think about the ...
On this date (April 5) in 1952, Milton Joseph Fletcher, age ninety, died in Sarasota, Florida. Justice Robert H. Jackson soon learned the sad news, and he grieved. More than forty years earlier, when Jackson was seventeen years old, he had attended Jamestown High School in Jamestown, New ...
The recent story, Legislators Want Study Of Glass Recycling, mischaracterizes the state of recycling and end markets for glass in New York. It is important to cut through misinformation, as it is confusing for the public and policymakers. While the glass recycling and manufacturing ...
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That old axiom should be ringing in the ears of local school board members and district superintendents as they finish their 2021-22 budget proposals and look ahead to future years. New York is promising a lot with its recently passed ...
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has suggested a 90-day moratorium on immigration to give Congress time to make the issue a priority. He is right to try to inject a sense of urgency in tackling the issue. Most Americans cannot fathom living in a place where it seems preferable to live in ...
Many local schools have just completed another year of split one-week spring-semester vacations. It may be time to rethink these. It used to be that during the spring semester, schools had one two-week vacation, plus assorted individual days off. That two-week vacation took place during ...