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Questions on Ripley Solar persist

“There are several factors impacting the (Ripley Solar) project, including import tariffs, high interest rates and federal trade policies that bring uncertainty to cost of materials (that) have made this project not economically viable in its current state.” This was a sentence in a recent letter to Ripley landowners who have signed leases with ConnectGen, the developer of the 3000 acre solar project that has been looming over the southwest corner of Chautauqua County since 2018. There has been much opposition to the project from Ripley residents during that time but the town ...

Rescuing Obamacare is bad medicine in U.S.

The recent U.S. government shutdown brought to light America’s debate over government intervention in our economy, and particularly in healthcare. Are we Socialist? Free-Market? Something else? Obamacare was sold as the remedy for perceived shortcomings in U.S. healthcare. Its supporters promised to save families $2,500 per year, contain costs, and make healthcare unicorns available for all. Yet, Democrats recently held the nation hostage for 45 days of shutdown demanding additional subsidies to rescue Obamacare from itself. But rescuing Obamacare is the opposite of rescuing ...

Seasonal church visit was a gift

Dear Richard and I were in Niagara-on-the-Lake on Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. We had matinee tickets for “White Christmas”, the holiday musical, on stage. When I bought the deep discount tickets, I thought it would be a great way to jump into the mood of the holiday season. We stayed at a friendly B&B and had a fun, chatty breakfast with the two other weekend couples. After breakfast, there was time before our theater afternoon for the Sunday service at St. Marks Anglican Church downtown. It was a good decision because for the past week, I’ve been chewing on a few ideas I ...

Antisemitism brings darkness to Hanukkah

On Saturday night, we went to bed after learning of the tragic attack resulting in the deaths of two students and the wounding of nine others at Brown University in Providence, R.I. We awoke on Sunday morning to learn of the vicious attack on Australian Jews resulting in at least 15 dead and 40 wounded as they celebrated the first night of Hanukkah at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Hanukkah, the Jewish “Festival of Lights,” is the eight-day holiday that commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after a rebel group led by Judah Maccabee defeated the Syrian Greeks and ...

One person can make a difference

In 1971, the Art Metal plant in Ashville closed. What was to be done with it? There were not many companies interested in taking over a 1 million square foot manufacturing facility in Upstate New York. The county had taken over the responsibility for the building through its Industrial Development Agency (IDA,) but for three years this shell of a huge manufacturing facility remained empty. Then, one day, a faraway company from the State of Indiana called and expressed interest in taking a look at it. On the day that a person from Cummins Engine came to take a look at the plant, a ...

Allowing Ukraine to stand alone

On December 1, 1991, the people of Ukraine voted overwhelmingly 92% to 8% to be an independent country, no longer a part of the Soviet Union (which soon dissolved on December 26, 1991). From December 2, 1991, onwards countries around the world recognized Ukraine as an independent state. For over 30 years the world recognized Ukraine (which had been the second largest Republic in the USSR) as an independent and sovereign nation before Russian President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Putin alleged that Ukraine, in fact, was not a nation but an historic ...