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Opinion

Voting Rights Act before high court

Commentary

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is before the U.S. Supreme Court again, this time in Louisiana v. Callais. After extensive back and forth among the state Legislature, the governor’s office, and the federal judiciary, Louisiana—with its six congressional districts—drew a second congressional district in which a majority of the residents are black. Drawing such a district would be one thing if the district—to put it in colloquial terms—were a normal-looking district. But this district isn’t a normal-looking district. Instead, it looks like a Rorschach test. To put it ...

Capital handouts keep cities in crisis

Editor's corner

Somewhere in Albany, there has to be a money tree. How else can a state, with a proposed budget of more than $254 billion for the next year, keep doling out funds to fiscally strapped entities with absolutely no repercussions? That is exactly what happened less than a month ago when the ...

These birds completely puzzle me

Commentary

I’m a puzzler. I’ve tackled jigsaw puzzles, word puzzles and occasionally number puzzles since I was a kid. And oh, the happy, smug satisfaction it brings. I begin my day puzzling with my first cup of coffee. Every morning, I do three types of word puzzles on the computer. By the time I finish, my sleep-slit eyes are open, I’m vertical, and taking nourishment. Dear Richard refills my coffee cup. At bedtime, I do the newspaper puzzles. Then this Christmas, to my delight, my grandson, Malcolm, gave me a jigsaw puzzle. A gift I would be thrilled to get every year. This ...

Socialism shift becoming more apparent

Commentary

Are we looking at a socialist future in this nation? With the election of two big city socialist mayors in Seattle and New York, you have to wonder. Today the current number of socialist officeholders is the highest it has been since 1912. As of 2025 more than 250 Democratic socialists hold public office in the United States. These include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Greg Casar (D-Texas), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), and Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) in the House. In the Senate there is of course the one and only Bernie Sanders (D-VT). At the State ...

Knowing the risks when hitting the ice

The OBSERVER’s View

A spring thaw deserves notice after two recent incidents in the last week, both happening over the weekend. In Portland, a man had to be rescued after falling through ice at a pond near a mobile home park last Saturday. On Sunday, a fisherman on Lake Erie had to be rescued after dusk after a sheet of ice separated outside the town of Evans. In both cases, responders risked their well being to assist these individuals. “Cold water and ice rescues are among the most dangerous and technically demanding incidents responders face,” a Fredonia Fire Department post said after the ...

Leaders have ability to shift taxes for all

The OBSERVER’s View

There was an interesting debate last week over an $8,000 increase to the income limit for Chautauqua County senior citizens to qualify for a property tax break. Legislator Dan Pavlock, R-Ellington, said the legislation proposed was not a “tax break” but more of a “tax shift,” because others will pay more since more seniors would be paying less. During committee meetings, Legislator Dalton Anthony, R-Frewsburg, noted that the more tax breaks are given to seniors, the more younger people have to pay. It was a notion that drew agreement from Legislator Fred Johnson, R-Westfield, ...