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Commentary

She was proud to be the Coal Miner’s Daughter

Last week, the Coal Miner’s daughter went home to meet her daddy, her last road trip. Loretta Lynn, the Queen of Country Music, died at age 90, and the news brought me to tears. Losing two queens in four weeks has made me think about my attachments, my loyalties, and who I respect. Why do ...

Grip of health care keeps growing

As I’ve grown older, I have, like most people my age, become more dependent on our medical system. In my case that means Medicare supplemented by a Medicare Advantage program which works very well. I am in reasonably good health but sometimes it’s easy to feel a little overwhelmed by the ...

Fire prevention needs constant spotlight

To hear my daughter tell it, and she was there, the six young children who regularly visited the Monroe Street Municipal Pool in Little Falls were “as cute as can be, well-behaved little angels.” Raised by a single mother who struggled to make ends meet, economic circumstances prevented ...

Good news for upstate manufacturing

Recently, there have been some good reports on new manufacturing commitments for Upstate New York. Probably the biggest announcement was that Micron Corporation would be building a multi-billion-dollar facility near Syracuse to manufacture semi-conductor chips. A much smaller, yet significant ...

City needs bigger splash than water park

By RICHARD MAKUCH On the front page of the OBSERVER within the last month was an article headlined, “Water park idea floated in Dunkirk,’’ with a front page picture of Vince DeJoy, who is the Dunkirk Planning and Development Director. The article states that a water park on Lake ...

Albany edicts endanger rural care

America is facing a significant physician shortage, and nowhere is that more obvious than in rural upstate New York. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. is projected to lack up to 124,000 doctors by 2034, as practitioners age out of the profession or opt to ...