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Hochul secures victory for voter lists

Peoples column

Editor, OBSERVER: Thank you, Gov. Kathy Hochul for signing the ERIC (Electronic Registration Information Center) bill (S1356A/A3649B). This bill allows New York State to join ERIC, a multistate collaboration to help maintain voter lists. It will strengthen voter protection, election integrity, and efficiency in our state. ERIC is a nonpartisan collaboration of many states to maintain our voter roles. It has been proven to be secure, to help identify those who move, duplicate registrations and those who are deceased. It is set up to prevent wrongful purges and promote civic ...

Years of fulfilling Christmas dreams

Commentary

Marcy’s vacation week offers a holiday column excerpted from her book, Rounding Third … originally from 2006. Christmastime is pure nostalgia. Many of my holiday memories began with our children’s arrival. I will never forget the total exhaustion of falling into bed after filling the last stocking and cleaning up the toy construction evidence. The elves who visited our house weren’t super handy or organized. Depending on how successful last-minute wrapping and battery searches were, bedtime followed – during a lucky year at 2:00am. Often much later. I never felt as stringy ...

At their best, Bills are unbeatable

Commentary

ORCHARD PARK—Let’s pick up where we left off 15 weeks ago, after the first week of the 2025 National Football League season. You, faithful reader of this column, will recall that the Buffalo Bills came back from a second-half — indeed, a late-fourth-quarter — deficit for a 41-40 win over the Baltimore Ravens. ≤ ≤ ≤ With that in mind, how many times have we seen second-half comebacks this season? Whatever the number is, the answer to the question is, “More than we wanted.” It’s almost advisable to tune in after halftime and spare ourselves the ...

It’s the season for holiday movies

Commentary

I’m going to the movies again this week. This week it’s my favorite Christmas movies. These may not be the best Christmas movies or had the biggest box office, but they are my favorites. The movies I have selected while conveying the Christmas spirit have messages that often transcend the holiday. Three of the films were not even released as Christmas movies but during the summer months of June and August. It is not a Christmas movie per se, but it introduced the largest selling Christmas song of all time with 50 million physical copies sold of the Crosby version, Irving ...

CHRISTMAS Believing in magic of the season

The OBSERVER’s View

In September 1897, 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon asked a now-famous question in a letter to the New York Sun. Is there a Santa Claus? Not only did the letter make young Virginia O’Hanlon a celebrity, but it prompted one of the famous newspaper editorials ever written with an answer to O’Hanlon’s question. It is reprinted today, a tradition our sister paper in Warren, Ohio, takes part in each year in part, the editorial page said, because it’s entirely possible that no one has answered the question better, nor has anyone better described the spirit of Christmas. The ...

GOVERNMENT: Partnerships ease board tensions

The OBSERVER’s View

Pomfret Supervisor Dan Pacos, subtly yet accurately, summed up the biggest difference between serving on municipal boards during a December meeting. Though the village of Fredonia is located within the town, it is a much different dynamic when it comes to discussion. Pacos said of the Town Board, “We all respect and get along, and we generally agree.” He emphasized that when disagreements do happen, discussions are respectful. That may have been directed at new Town Board member EvaDawn Bashaw, who took the seat held by Ann Eckman who resigned in September. Bashaw, who served on ...