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Opinion

Big Brother Is Watching; Do You Mind?

In Our Opinion

The use of cameras as a policing tool may be expanding locally. The village of Lakewood is considering the use of cameras on Fairmount Avenue, Fairdale Avenue, Chautauqua Avenue, and Terrace Avenue as part of a contract with Flock Safety. The contract would also come with the ability to access cameras in other areas that have contracts with Flock. At the same time, the county Sheriff’s Office announced a new partnership with Axon to deploy the sheriff’s Community Request integration with Ring smart cameras. There are obvious benefits to the use of cameras, or access to Ring or ...

Readers’ Forum

Letters To The Editor

Warming Shelter Is A Sign Of Compassion In Action To The Reader’s Forum: I worked last night at our CODE Blue Warming Shelter, a temporary shelter that protects those experiencing homelessness from the extreme cold temperatures outside. The following donations came into the Center, “unsolicited” in ONE night. Homemade pasta, cheese, Italian bread, four different kinds of homemade cookies, a huge tray of brownies (homemade), body wipes, fruit snacks, women items, wash clothes and hand towels, applesauce snack drinkies, hand-warmers, and little packs of snack cookies. TRUTH! I ...

What Speech Are Chautauqua County Legislators Getting Tired Of Hearing?

In Our Opinion

What opinions, exactly, are the ones the Chautauqua County Legislature is tired of hearing in its second privilege of the floor during monthly legislature meetings? Is it federal matters that could impact the county or its residents? Is it local residents’ opinions on energy policy? Is it Chautauqua Lake? Are they tired of Legislator Tom Nelson, D-Jamestown, using time at the end of legislature meetings to speak about federal issues as he did five times in the first six months of 2025? We ask because those were the most common topics addressed by the public during the second ...

Surviving Olympic Glories

Local Commentaries

The Olympics have barely begun and I’m almost comatose. Coverage from Milan and Cortina during the afternoon, prime time, and late night have my eyeballs operating in the glued position. Holy biathlon. I’d forgotten how many events are covered. For the first time though, while watching these Olympic Games, I realized that I don’t envy any of the beautiful young athletes anymore. I absolutely, positively cannot imagine attempting any of those death-defying sports. Every surface they challenge is hard. My firm mattress is as far as my imagination can take me. Either they are ...

Why Young New Yorkers Can’t Afford To Live Here

Local Commentaries

Americans want to help people in need, but when government does that, about 500 billion taxpayer dollars get stolen. It’s how the system is designed, says the United Council on Welfare Fraud’s Andrew McClenahan in this new video. “You’re measuring success by the amount of money you put out.” Because of that, government agencies rarely check whether their handouts go to the right people. Minnesota is just the latest example. Government officials didn’t uncover that fraud -- YouTuber Nick Shirley did. I say to McClenahan, “It’s weird that a kid did what government ...

Remain Connected To The Truth

Local Commentaries

Do your eyes lie or is it your mind struggling to erase what your eyes have seen? If you never saw the videos of Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s deaths, you could just accept the news that they were provocateurs and deserved to be shot. You could choose to believe what you hear. The operative word here is choose, but your mind can’t erase what your eyes saw, you don’t have a choice to unsee what you saw! That is a hard mental disconnect! Our pledge of allegiance says, “we believe in one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Justice begins with us ...