Breaking News

Commentary

Fingerprints from the same hand

If issues are only seen through a partisan lens, you’ll miss the fingerprints besmirching them. There’s the issue of billions in alleged fraud perpetrated by Islamic Somalis in Minneapolis ripping off taxpayers through phony Medicaid and autism claims. As Democrat Gov. Tim Walz curries favor with this burgeoning voting bloc led by Ilhan Ohmar, the classically sarcastic Babylon Bee ran a headline saying how city officials are considering a name change for the Minnesota Vikings to the Somali Pirates. There’s the issue of Zohran Mamdani assuming the mayor’s office in NYC. ...

Challenges remain as new year begins

“Another year over, and what have you done?” If John Lennon were still with us, he’d be singing it once again as he would have needed to every year since he released it in 1971. His anthem to stop war plays every year in the Christmas mix along with “White Christmas,” “Jingle Bell Rock,” and “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” but his message has a much deeper meaning. He hopes we have fun, but he challenges each of us to stay informed, engaged, and civically active. He knew then, as it stands again now, that “war is over, if you want it,” that change and ...

Rounding Third: 24 legs in the house at holidays

Today, the second of January, a working day, really begins the New Year. Fuggedaboudit. I’m hoping people have today off to go along with the holiday. Two long weekends in a row? Now THAT would make for a happy Christmas. Despite housing six additional 2-legged residents and two 4-legged critters for the fun of Christmas week, our house is now back to its boring everyday quiet. Every bed was full including a new twin inflatable. Each seat at the dining room table was occupied. And the matriarch’s heart was full of comfort and joy I noticed the noise level that normally arrives ...

Unfairness can befall us tomorrow

JAMESTOWN — Let’s pick up where we left off 60 weeks ago when we first considered ultimately successful efforts to save Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Jamestown from closure. ≤ ≤ ≤ The Diocese of Buffalo has tough, unenviable decisions to make in addressing issues that Catholics aren’t alone in facing, such as attendance, finances, and clergy-shortages. Then there are the claims particularly—though not solely—impacting Catholics. For such claims, New York state government legislatively, temporarily extended the expired statute of limitations. No one ...

Backtracking before going forward

Well it’s the end of another year but for me it’s not time to make resolutions but a time to look back on the previous year and wonder what the new year will bring. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is Catholic while pro-choice, has told the legislature that she will be signing the bill to allow medically assisted death in the state. It makes me wonder if she has forgotten that the Catholic Church holds an unequivocal position that both abortion and assisted death are morally unacceptable because they constitute the direct and intentional killing of innocent human life, which is a gift ...

The lake freezes before Christmas

We have lived on Chautauqua Lake now for over 30 years and have very seldom seen the lake, as it now is, iced-over before Christmas. It may have happened once or twice before, but then, I think, it was only partially frozen. The snowfall this year has also been significant, i.e. the kind of snow you usually see in January or February. At last count, the Village of Mayville had recorded 58.9 inches of snow. We have already seen, in December, a few ice fishermen on the lake—a scene that usually takes place in mid to late January. Winter is upon us! The other day an eagle landed out ...