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Reason for worry over U.S., Israel military merger Editor, OBSERVER: Recently the House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which merges the US military industrial complex with Israel’s. The vote had to be disturbing, if not shocking, to the Israel Lobby which has counted on passage of the merger by a pliant Congress. The vote was 209 in favor, to 205 against. Though the Democrats, like the Republicans, are almost all recipients of AIPAC money, they voted as a bloc against passage of the $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027, with only six ...

Name has strong connection to city hospital

The OBSERVER’s View

A visit to the Brooks-TLC web site offers some history regarding the hospital’s name. It notes, “Horatio G. and Julia A. Brooks never wanted their names on a building. In fact, they were both deceased when that moment came to pass and Brooks Memorial Hospital was created. “It was their two children that saw an opportunity to model honor for us,” the website says. “They saw it first-hand in the way their father and mother cared for their staff at the Brooks Locomotive Co. for so many years. They were deeply involved and attached to the health, safety and continued well-being ...

Pieces of personal history bring wealth of happiness

Commentary

Heirlooms are wonderful things. If you’re lucky you may find that Grandma’s brooch is worth $100,000 on Antiques Roadshow. Or maybe it’s just a keepsake that was passed down through the generations, with no value beyond sentiment. I have a number of keepsakes passed down to me from my ...

Thinking about the downside of bigness

Commentary

We have had a tradition in America, not always but mostly, of trying to avoid the perils of businesses that get too big. The most prominent example in our history was likely the passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act which became law in 1890. Though its primary target, twenty years later, became John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company—its original passage resulted from a growing public concern about the concentration of power in big business, the elimination of competition and the resultant driving up of costs to everyone else. Today, we are seeing big business on a new and ...

The OBSERVER’s View: Hochul can veto cannabis wage board

The OBSERVER’s View

Both houses of the state Legislature approved legislation (A.11562/S.10643) that would create a wage board for the state's cannabis industry. It's a bill that both state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, and Sen. Liz Krueger, D-New York City, opposed in the state Senate. It's one of the few areas of cannabis policy on which Borrello and Krueger have found agreement on over the past few years – a fact that we hope will help sway Gov. Kathy Hochul as she decides whether or not to sign the legislation and create a wage board for a fledgling industry made up of small businesses ...

Ontario means lake of shining waters

Commentary

There has been a bit of a buzz since President Donald Trump decided to make an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America. Some hard core Trump supporters have been given to calling those who take issue with the renaming of one of the five Great Lakes as woke, Libtards, Dumbocrats ...