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Archived stories from Thursday, August 7, 2008 through Monday, October 6, 2008

Fall Foliage Report: Week of October 2
In the past week, the fall colors have progressed rapidly to "near peak" foliage, with the north-facing slopes experiencing the most change compared to the south-facing slopes, which are below midpoint. Across the state, most of the state is at midpoint, with some areas in Buffalo and Rochester still "just changing," the Catskills at near peak, and the Adirondacks at peak foliage.


Local developer busted by Seneca Mafia (Salamanca Press)... 9/27

Fall Foliage Report: Week of September 25
Colors have finally started to begin changing this week, with reds emerging among the greens and very few yellows. The State reports that the Adirondack Mountains are starting to already reach peak foliage by this weekend, with the Catskills at midpoint and the rest of the state as "just changing." Foliage Network reports that us in the Appalachians, as well as the Catskills and Adirondacks, are just changing and the rest of the state is still green, with little or no leaf drop across the state.

They had how many years to study the much needed 219 expansion and they couldn't figure out, or even acknowledge, a sinkhole and landslide problem? They should have known this by now. (Springville Journal)... 9/23

Guess how much of the 911 fee on your phone bill actually goes to 911 service? 5%. That's right. Only 6 cents out of the $1.20 911 fee actually goes to its intended purpose. (AP)... 9/22

Autumn begins at 11:44 a.m. EDT... 9/22

Good economic news for the area? Seriously? Wood manufacturer, owner of Randolph Dimension, is moving into the former Bush Industries plant here in Little Valley (Olean Times Herald)... 9/18

Fall Foliage Report: Week of September 18
Colors are still predominantly green in Little Valley, although the first signs of color change, to a yellower tint of green, are beginning to show on the hillsides. Across the state, New York is reporting some beginning signs of change in the Syracuse area, in addition to the continuing progression of changes in the Adirondacks and Catskills.

Cuomo demands local beer distributors pay $108,000 in restitution fees to local bars (Jamestown Post-Journal)... 9/16
WORDS OF NOTE: The law is the law, but in this case, the law is unduly harsh on beer distributors. It ensures that the distributors bear virtually all of the brunt of the bottle deposit law, since they can only collect 5 cents of deposit on each bottle and must pay 7 cents when they're returned, and they must take returns, a guarantee of a money losing proposition. It's no wonder this state has as many problems as it does. INSIGHT: Two of the three distributors involved, Certo Brothers and Little Valley-based Salamanca Beverage, do business with local vendors, including the Hughes Hotel and the Brooks Market. It is unknown whether or not either one was involved in this particular case.

OBIT: George Putnam, 94. At the time of his death, Putnam was the oldest talk radio host in the United States. 9/12

Fall Foliage Report: Week of September 11
Yes, once again, it's time for the weekly fall foliage report, presented by our own reports, the state of New York and by foliagenetwork.com. We have a few trees here and there that have changed over in Little Valley, but by and large, the trees remain mostly green. The only areas of the state showing significant foliage changes are the Adirondack region and the Catskills, according to the state; foliagenetwork.com shows no changes.

NEVER FORGET... 9/11

Gaming commission orders Senecas: "You have 5 days to close the Buffalo casino or we reserve the right to shut you down." Senecas say: We don't care, we'll appeal, and keep it open as long as we want (Salamanca Press)... 9/5

Watch out for the Senecas: they're starting their own ad blitz, right in the middle of political season (Salamanca Press)... 9/3

OBITS: Jerry Reed, 71. Country music singer known for his humorous touches to songs... Don LaFontaine, 68. The so-called "King of Voiceovers" who coined the phrase "In a world where..." 9/2

Now I've heard everything: Now businesses with over 100 employees can't even shut down without giving its employees 90 DAYS NOTICE, no matter what (Albany Times-Union)... 9/2

Flash thoughts from the RNC:
Night 2: Fred Thompson hit it out of the park, with hard hitting and well timed barbs. Joe Lieberman, even though he's a Democrat, did a pretty good job. Note the optimistic tone of the speeches in the RNC, as opposed to the negativity, doom and gloom of the Dems' convention.
Night 3: If Fred hit it out of the park, Rudy's was a grand slam... right into the face of Obama. Sarah Palin... eerily perky, but a very enjoyable speech, hitting hard right when she needed to. I'm loving the references to Obama's "bitter" and "clinging" comments (see "This is what Barack Obama thinks of you" in our archives). She's also very competent at discussing the issues.

Flash thoughts on John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee:
Sarah is an excellent choice. Although young and relatively green, she is a well-rounded and mostly well appreciated conservative, with strong credentials and an ideological, although nonpartisan, maverick reputation. She pleases the base and could draw Hillary supporters who were only voting for Hillary because she was a woman. She has rural values that many women appreciate.

Flash thoughts from the DNC:
Night 1: Ted Kennedy doesn't look so good. Michelle's devoting quite a bit of time to her life story, another "My daddy was a blue collar worker" like John Edwards. Carefully picked words... some of Michelle's speech sounds almost Republican? Not much in specifics, though. Clearly pandering to Hillary supporters. Painstakingly trying to explain she's been proud of her country all her life. EDIT: Now she's getting into specifics: free health care and education for everyone! Reconstruct the economy to be fair for everyone! I take back the Republican thing. No sane Republican would ever offer that stuff. Barack Obama's satellite appearance was a train wreck.
Night 2: What is up with Hillary Clinton's inferiority complex, and she hasn't really mentioned Barack Obama much, has he? And this vitriol (from almost all of the speakers) toward the Bush administration is over the top! How can Hillary mention "fiscal responsibility" and "universal healthcare" and talk about education the way she did in the same speech?! Also note: she stated "God bless you and Godspeed," but not "God bless America."
Night 3: Missed it, doesn't seem I missed much in Biden's speech.
Night 4: Wow, Barack Obama is a nasty, arrogant, deceptive S.O.B. What more should I say.

New York Lottery to release a scratch-off ticket costing a whopping $30 to play (New York Daily News)... 8/29

Another reason to hate New York City: They get better drinking water than any upstate city! It's like they've got "Whites Only" on the fountains (AP)... 8/27

Corrupt goings-on in Panama (Jamestown Post-Journal)... 8/27

Bonehead at a Kennedy convenience store: Man steals a $20 lottery ticket, scratches it off, finds out it's a $100 winner and tries to cash it in at the next counter over (WESB)... 8/25

Something to ponder: Seneca Nation heads Barry Snyder and Moe John to head to the DNC in Denver (Salamanca Press)... 8/25

Golisano announces the candidates he's supporting this election cycle (AP)... 8/25 Thoughts: I like some of the choices, but he's supporting a lot of Democrats in the Senate. Does he not realize 1) Joe Bruno already resigned, 2) if he succeeds, we will have one-party rule by the Democrats which will likely make the situation much worse, and 3) even though he's backing a lot of Assembly candidates, he has no chance of unseating Silver this way? Silver is the problem-- he's the mouthpiece for the teacher's union lobby.

OK, folks, I'm back on track with what appears to be a regular schedule. News updates and weather forecasts to resume as usual. And one thing, though: Let me be the first to say that the Cattaraugus County bicentennial celebration seemed to go well Friday, but Saturday was an absolute bust. One day of celebration would have sufficed, and can the county tell me with a straight face that they couldn't find anyone to do fireworks? You know, there are more people in this county than the horsemen.

A sign of things to come? Paterson will hand off the state's delegation to the Democratic convention to Sheldon Silver (oh, and by the way, the delegation includes the head of the teacher's union) (New York Post)... 8/16

Congressman Kuhl to join the "shadow congress" in Washington (WLEA)... 8/16

Cathy Young assures you: despite the budget crisis, your pork is safe (Dunkirk Observer)... 8/14
...BUT SHE'S CAUGHT RED-HANDED AND SQUIRMING (WLEA)... 8/16

Senecas send a $57,300,000 check to the state as their cut of casino revenues (Dunkirk Observer)... 8/14

OBIT: Sandy Allen, 59. World's tallest woman. 8/14

Dust off that old Spitzer commercials with the crybabies because here they come again (AP)... 8/13

Officials not pleased about this open burn ban (AP)... 8/12

This seems like it'd be obvious, but forcing students to stay in school an extra year increases graduation rates (AP)... 8/12

Fiscal conservatives ought to be outraged after reading this little Buffalo News article on teacher pensions... 8/9

Here we go again... State Senate approves bill to force Senecas to collect their exorbitant cigarette taxes. Paterson says this is to supposedly stop tax increases. Assembly still wants to raise taxes on the rich and won't consider it. Senecas think they have a right to buy cigarettes. We'll see how this goes. If it fails... set up some smoke shops in PA. (AP) (Tom Precious, Buffalo News)... 8/9

Only in Cattaraugus County... can a wagon train travel a distance of 180 miles to get to a place only 7 miles away and call it an achievement. That's the "Bicentennial Wagon Train" in a nutshell. Yes, I realize it's a historical reenactment intended to visit as many towns in the county as possible (and a reenactment of what they did in the centennial), so spare me the hate mail. (Olean Times Herald) (Salamanca Press)... 8/9

Gormley's latest on the influence of public unions in local school board elections (AP)... 8/9

OBITS: Bernie Mac, 50. Stand-up comedian and host of an eponymous sitcom... Isaac Hayes, 65. Soul singer and producer. 8/9

Unsolicited fax spam? Now I've heard everything... but now there's something new for the state to ban (Gannett)... 8/8

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