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Opinion

Primaries have important role in election

Peoples column

Editor, OBSERVER: When you hear “Election Day,” do you think of the November general election? There’s another Election Day that’s often overlooked by a majority of voters: Primary Election Day. If turnout for the general election seems low, participation in primaries is even lower. Yet in New York state, primaries can often decide the outcome of elections. New York has a closed primary system, which means you must be registered with a political party to vote in that party’s primary. Saturday is the deadline to enroll in a party if you want to vote in the June ...

Speaking truth to power

Commentary

This year, our President, Donald Trump, decided to go to Davos, Switzerland for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. While there he gave his usual, off-the-cuff grievance speech about how Europe and most of the rest of the world was falling behind, and how, under his leadership, America was the best of all nations and was charging ahead. There were some lines in his speech that people laughed at, but, in general, President Trump gave his usual meandering political stump speech, the kind that he typically performs at the rallies he has for his base in this ...

Reason for fear from Minnesota

Commentary

You cannot consider yourself an informed citizen and condone what this administration is allowing ICE to do in our communities. You cannot rationalize targeting states with immigrant numbers in the low 500,000’s such as Minnesota while ignoring states such as Texas with numbers over 6 million. This is the result of a president whose only “vision” is vengeance, cruelty, and greed. He is the only president in our history that has put the United States on the Human Rights Watch List. The Homeland Security funding bill is attempting to maintain ICE’s annual budget of roughly ...

New York State: Spelling out all the costs

The OBSERVER’s View

Sen. Pam Helming has a simple request of her fellow New York state lawmakers – tell people the projected costs of bills that would expand insurance coverage requirements. Last week, senators passed legislation that shines a light on why Helming’s bill (S.8619) is so desperately needed. Senators approved S.4497 to remove an existing restriction on infertility preservation services that would make more of those services something required to be covered by insurers in New York state. As is the case with most insurance coverage bills that come before the state Legislature, supporters ...

ENERGY: Gas repowering is shorter road

The OBSERVER’s View

Is it realistic to hope for a nuclear plant at the former NRG Energy Inc. site in Dunkirk? While many are not ruling out the opportunity, time is a factor. Even if the site is chosen, the state Request for Information for interested developers — which was submitted by the city — notes the hope of construction beginning by 2033. That’s a long time to wait, especially for a financially troubled municipality. In recent weeks, state Sen. George Borrello renewed a call to repower that site with natural gas. He did so in an opinion piece in the OBSERVER two weeks ago and followed that ...

Nation becoming more volatile by the day

Commentary

In this month of February, when we celebrate Valentine’s Day, we think of love, and hearts. We need something to warm our hearts, especially with the winter we’ve been having. A little 5-year-old boy named Liam Ramos in his now iconic blue bunny hat captured the hearts of Americans across the country. He was taken by ICE from his home in Minneapolis along with his father to a detention center in Texas. According to the district school superintendent, “This family is following US legal parameters and has an active asylum case with no order of deportation.” When news of this ...