“Old habits are hard to change in people and especially hard to change in government,” said Paul Wolf, President of the non-partisan, non-profit New York Coalition for Open Government.
“Elected officials should begin 2022 by conducting the public’s business in an open and transparent way,” he said.
“To show their commitment to open government, elected officials serving on a village board, town board, city council or a county legislature should introduce and pass a New Year resolution stating they will:
(1) Post timely notice of all meetings at least one week prior to a [...]
New York City, 2002 — “Sometimes your feelings become your memories.”
Steven Whipple said that’s when he realized his recollection of Sept. 11 was bogus.
Because he lived just two miles from the smoldering, stinking, spewing nightmare of Ground Zero, the former Albion resident reported his Greenwich Village neighborhood seemingly deserted for weeks.
“It was a ghost town,” he said. “No cars, no horns, no people and the restaurants were all shut down.” Then he consulted his journal, which told a different story. “Actually, it says here that it lasted only three days.”
Three days. Three weeks. Or 365 [...]
A former translator for U.S. forces in Afghanistan — who’s now living in North Tonawanda — has been trying desperately for weeks to aid his family trapped in Kabul.
Phone messages and emails left to senators and congressmen have gone answered during that time, and the University at Buffalo graduate in structural engineering is losing sleep while feeling helpless at his family’s plight. (Because of the extreme danger facing his family in Kabul, the subject’s name is being withheld.)
After working for the U.S. government from 2010-2014, he was granted a visa and eventually became a U.S. citizen.
He’s now pursuing a [...]
Four LGBTQ Pride Flags were raised across Niagara on Tuesday, and the county is better off for it.
Not only is it the right thing to do — granting representation to communities that have been historically denied it and are still discriminated against — it’s also the smart thing to do for a county that’s pinning much of its future hopes on expanding tourism.
For Niagara County to truly succeed Niagara Falls has to become the thriving economic engine it once was and could be again.
Tourism is a big part of what’s keeping the city afloat through its tough times now, and it’s also the hope for a thriving city in the [...]
