It won’t be long before we hear about all the problems caused by a late New York state budget. The budget itself is bad, increasing operational spending 11%, increasing some taxes and failing to deal with out-year structural budget gaps. Spending on education and Medicaid continues to ...

We can all see that we need more family sustaining jobs in Chautauqua County. The poverty rate countywide was 16.7% in July 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with that rate rising to 24% in Jamestown and 24.9% in Dunkirk. The best way to decrease those percentages is to increase ...

We are deeply concerned about the misrepresentations surrounding decisions by a federal judge, James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. To be clear, Judge Boasberg has not ruled that criminal immigrants or violent immigrants cannot be deported. What ...

Two years ago, Chautauqua County chose not to make any changes to its County-Wide Shared Services Initiative. We disagreed with the decision at the time, in part because the need to find ways to streamline the provision of government services should never rest. We couldn’t agree more, ...

Matt Coon has acquitted himself well as the top officer in the Jamestown Fire Department over the past several years. It’s almost too bad Coon won’t retire from public service having attained the title of fire chief. It’s something that shouldn’t happen to his successor. City ...

County officials have begun a new effort to better help families who find themselves homeless by better connecting the county’s mental hygiene and social services departments into a unified system. On any given day there are roughly 50 families in temporary housing. The Family-Centered ...