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Peoples column

People’s column

Take out the tobacco habit Editor, OBSERVER: With baseball season in full swing, it is a timely opportunity to unravel the complicated history between baseball and tobacco products. Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in New York State, yet there remains normalization of baseball and tobacco, specifically smokeless products. Smokeless tobacco contains at least twenty-eight cancer causing chemicals, an important reason that 17 of the 30 MLB stadiums in the U.S. are now tobacco free. April was Oral Cancer Awareness Month, time to shine a light ...

People’s column

Who’s next to be expendable? Editor, OBSERVER: In a recent commentary “Sore losers continue futile efforts” (March 27) the author asserts: “It’s obvious that he (the judge) has a bias against (President Donald) Trump and to spite Trump he apparently favors keeping these illegal alien rapists, murderers, and thieves in our nation.” As an American woman, I can assure the writer that I have no desire to see our nation favor rapists and murderers. As an American citizen, I remind (or possibly inform) him that our system guarantees every person due process under the law. ...

People’s column

Hochul easy on crooks, tough on staff Editor, OBSERVER: Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed and or supported several legislative measures, including Bail Reform, the Less is More Act, the Clean Slate Act, and the HALT Bill. These laws aim to reform aspects of the criminal justice system, impacting individuals who have been convicted of crimes. Recently, Hochul issued an Executive Order preventing New York employees from working for all state agencies and barring them from future employment as police or peace officers, even though these workers have not been convicted of any crime. This ...

People’s column

GOP cuts harm Langworthy plan Editor, OBSERVER: This is a letter I emailed to U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy concerning the massive layoff of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees. Dear Congressman Langworthy, About your WARN Act. This proposed legislation that is intended to improve weather alert systems. The success of this legislation depends on NOAA, the agency responsible for providing meteorological data essential to accurate weather forecasting. Can you explain why DOGE was allowed to enter NOAA headquarters and facilitate the layoff of about 800 ...

People’s column

Maintain tradition of court access Editor, OBSERVER: The editors last month in the OBSERVER’s View said that the Town of Arkwright, in the midst of construction plans, should jointly build a new Town Hall with the Town of Villenova. With the establishment of the Town of Sheridan in 1827, every residence in Chautauqua County became within an hour’s walk of a Town Hall and the Courts retained within. At that time, court access was a concern as the heads of household in Chautauqua County were predominantly farmers negotiating property rights. This was not the rule among New ...

People’s column

Rejection was ‘note of sanity’ for schools Editor, OBSERVER: To the people of the Fredonia Central School District who voted to reject Items Two and Three on the recent building project referendum: Congratulations on your intelligence, on your wisdom, and on your perspicacity. You dodged a bullet of extravagant, frivolous boondoggle. You avoided a monument to perverse incentive. You escaped a welfare program for architects and contractors. You injected a note of sanity and prudence into the discussion of building projects. Had the projects passed, they would have ...