CHAUTAUQUA — Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress is the most powerful of the government’s three branches. Nevertheless, with the growth in presidential power and authority, America every four years elects the most powerful peacetime president, says New York Times opinion columnist Dr. ...

In this hyper-political year, I was recently reminded of a movie about the world of presidential politics in a long ago time, namely the late 1940s. The movie stars the man who in my opinion was the greatest film actor ever, Spencer Tracy. It was directed by one of the most skilled men at ...

The veterinarian said something to Finian that I personally never heard in a doctor’s office: “You could stand to gain a little weight.” He removed our cat from the scale, announcing that he had lost ten ounces. That probably doesn’t seem like much, but it was 5% of his body weight. ...

We arrive once again at the somber date we all know as 9/11. Since the fateful hours we observed through immediate television coverage, the day from 2001, has been memorialized as Patriots Day. The resolve of a nation has been recorded, and the memories preserved of the nearly 3,000 lives that ...

Most of my life has been lived in Chautauqua County, and, if there has been one common denominator or barrier throughout — it has been what we call the “ridge,” the Chautauqua Ridge which separates the South County from the North County. It is a division originating in mother nature. It ...

A former president of the United States places a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery on the third anniversary of the deaths of 13 members of the U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan. This is an admirable show of respect, in itself. However, our former president is not capable of performing a ...