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Editorial

Law enforcement by camera

Legislation introduced in the state Assembly this spring is the latest step in a troubling trend—law enforcement by camera. Assemblyman Fred Thiele, D-Sag Harbor, recently introduced the Protect our Pedestrians Act (A.10169) to amend the state Vehicle and Traffic Law to create owner liability for failure of an operator to comply with stop signs in the villages of Upper Brookville and Flower Hill in Nassau County and East Hampton in Suffolk County. You may ask why a bill affecting three villages on the other end of the state affects us here in Chautauqua County. The answer is ...

Paniolo’s Corner

The past few months and years have ushered in tremendous tsunamis of change. It seems that ever since the new decade hit, we have experienced change at a rate and frequency that probably has been seen in the past, but at this moment in time seems unique and brand new. A saying handed down to ...

Texas GOP fears to lose

For a party that hasn’t lost a statewide election in nearly 30 years, the Texas GOP sure is acting like it expects to start losing. First, there was the obsession with voter fraud, a serious issue but never so widespread or alarming to merit the paranoia it has stirred among some Republicans. Then, there was the push to close primary elections to only certain voters, as if Democrats and independents are flooding GOP nominating contests. The latest addition to the Texas Republican Party platform, while creative, is a wild overreaction to—well, we’re not sure what, since ...

Lawmakers fail at top job

We would prefer state Rep. Gary Click and other lawmakers in Columbus focus on the state budget and how public schools are funded instead of proposing and approving laws that undermine public education and diminish it. Click, R-Vickery, and other Republicans in the supermajority statehouse have accomplished nearly nothing to establish public confidence that they care about public schools. They have done the opposite of that with school vouchers and so-called “school choice” programs that take money away from public programming and funnel it to private interest schools. They are ...

Rafah, the red line

The Israeli strike that killed at least 45 displaced Palestinians, many of them women and children, at a tent camp in Rafah this weekend clearly crossed Joe Biden’s “red line” over the need to protect civilians in the Gaza conflict. France’s Emmanuel Macron did not doubt what should happen next. “These operations must stop,” he posted on X. “There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.” Those in Israel who believe that they still need to make an appearance of deference towards US ...

Economic mood glum

America’s economic mood remains glum. This is despite great news: Growth is strong; the stock market just hit record levels; unemployment is low; and inflation has significantly cooled in the past year. Dig a little deeper into public sentiment and there’s a striking dichotomy — the vast majority of Americans (72 percent) say their personal finances are all right, but only 22 percent think the national economy is in decent shape, according to a chart the Federal Reserve recently released. Negativity about the national economy nosedived during the pandemic and has barely rebounded ...