LETTER from GARY KOUTNIK County Board Has Honest Folks Trying To Do Best To the Editor: I’ve been paying attention to politics and governance since the Eisenhower administration. It’s always been an important part of my life, from dinners as a boy listening to the news on the radio, and talking about it with my family, all the way to today, listening to and reading about the current Congressional hearings, and talking about them with my wife. So in 2011,…
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Opinion - Page 183
VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT Save Eagles From Environmentalism In 1969, our country moved from demonstrating against the Vietnam War to marching for environmental protection. That year, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which required federal agencies to do an Environmental Assessment (EA) and/or an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prior to granting a permit allowing a “project” to go forward. If it was determined the project wouldn’t cause any “significant” environmental impact, a Negative Declaration (Neg Dec) could be…
VIEW FROM ALBANY Art Lawless Rewarded And Lives Endangered? At this time of year, I normally review positive policies and new laws that have been adopted in Albany. Unfortunately, there was more bad news than good coming from the state Capitol during 2019. One item that will benefit homeowners is a permanent 2-percent property tax cap. I have long supported this tax relief measure and have helped pass Senate legislation on a number of previous occasions to guarantee this savings…
2ND EDITORIAL The New Decade Will Bring Pretty Much What We Expect County Rep. Meg Kennedy, in her interview on being named this newspaper’s Citizen of the Year for 2019, shared this story, which captures just the right note as we begin the new decade. A customer pulls up to a local gas station. As the owner is filling the tank, the driver asks, “I’m moving to this town. How are the people here?” “How are they where you come…
EDITORIAL 2019 Full Of Oddities, But Things Can Change GREEN LIGHT LAW, BAIL REFORM ASTOUND Many sages over the centuries have concluded: The future has not yet been written, (if it ever is). Whatever we’re going through, this too shall pass. • You may have seen the Associated Press dispatch the other day: The Government Justice Center in Albany is suing to prevent Governor Cuomo from getting a pay raise, saying Section 7, Article XIII of the state Constitution prohibits…
EDITORIAL As Did Garretson, So Does Kennedy Kindred Spirits In Problem-Solving In a way, our Citizen of the Year designation – it will continue, of course – has come full circle. Interviewing Meg Kennedy, this year’s designee, brought to mind Tom Garretson, the first designee, in 2006. Throughout that stormy year, when the Cherry Valley area was torn between those who feared 24 industrial-sized windmills would degrade the town’s environment and ambience, and those who saw a boon in new…
MONEY TALK ‘He Lied Under Oath.’ That’s It By TOM MORGAN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com The bloodbath-cum-circus in Washington these days? It awakens memories. Of how a notorious American ambassador handled a similar brouhaha – the Clinton impeachment. He deployed a simple device. With it, he brought a certain order to the mayhem of the thinking of his friends. In one stroke he turned their murky thinking to crystal clarity. I am certain he would use the device today. G.…
WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER The Only Constant Is Change By LARRY BENNETT • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Once we are born, every moment of every day brings change. We are born biologically complete, yet with little else to our beings. We can’t speak, walk, or talk. As a baby, then in our youth, in our teens, maybe even through our twenties, we live through endless and often tumultuous changes. Every day offers fresh knowledge and new experiences. Our parents first…
The Christmas Message Gospel of St. Luke And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.…
YES, VIRGINIA… There IS A Santa Claus, Editor Wrote 8-Year-Old Editor’s Note: The New York Sun’s Francis Pharcellus Church penned this famous response to 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon in 1897. We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun: Dear Editor— I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If…
