‘GREEN LIGHT’ POSITION PAPER Law, Precedent Prohibit Giving Driver’s Licenses To People Here Illegally Editor’s Note: Saratoga County Clerk Craig Hayner developed this position paper on the state’s new “Green Light” law before asking President Trump to intervene and ensure it doesn’t require New York State’s county clerks to violate their oath of office. By CRAIG HAYNER • Saratoga County Clerk The ability of states to regulate who drives on their roadways dates back to the Model T with the…
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Columns - Page 138
THE VIEW FROM FLY CREEK Only Grassroot Activists Can Save Our Planet By ADRIAN KUZMINSKI • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Sustainable Otsego has been both a social network and political action committee since its founding in 2007. Over that time, it has advanced three principles around which local life could be organized: Sustainable Living. Economic Independence, and Home Rule. Today let me address Sustainable Living; I’ll take up the other two in later columns. Sustainable Living turns out to be a…
FROM WAR ON POVERTY’S FRONT LINES Participate In Census – Or Lose Clout By DAN MASKIN • Opportunities For Otsego CEO As mandated by the Constitution, the United States conducts a decennial census. This once-every-10-year count of the population – it is coming up in April 2020 – shapes the future of our communities and helps ensure political power is fairly allocated among the states and at the local level. Some communities, like those with higher rates of low-income households…
COLUMN Fair Practices Act May Force Farms Out Of Business By State Sen. JIM SEWARD • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Earlier this year the New York City-centric state Senate leadership, for political reasons, blocked Amazon and 25,000 jobs from coming to our state. Now, in the closing hours of the 2019 legislative session, the same group of “leaders” are killing off existing jobs by targeting our state’s number one industry – agriculture. To be clear, when New York was announced as…
COLUMN How to Waste $400 Million By ADRIAN KUZMINSKI • Special to wwww.AllOTSEGO.com At the January 2019 Otsego County Energy Summit in Cooperstown, sponsored by the Otsego County Chamber of Commerce, a NYSEG representative surprised many present by announcing that the utility was planning to rebuild and expand the DeRuyter pipeline, which brings natural gas to Oneonta. In a subsequent report, filed with the Public Service Commission on March 15, NYSEG states, with regard to the DeRuyter pipeline, that it…
COLUMN Do Renewables Make Sense Yet? By MIKE ZAGATA • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com I see the left is at it again. If you disagree with or question their agenda, then you are labeled as “evil.” Now I’m being accused of being opposed to renewables. If you’ve read my writings on the topic, then you know nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who is aware of the concerns regarding climate change and understands that fossil fuels are not renewable,…
COLUMN Steinem: Surrogate Bill Would Put Poor Women At Mercy Of Rich Ones Editor’s Note: Another one of many troubling ideas out of Albany this session – the creation of a surrogate-mother industry – led Gloria Steinem to ally herself in opposition with the state’s Catholic bishops. She wrote this letter June 11. The state Senate passed the bill, but as this edition went to press, it was stalled in the Assembly. Happily, the legislative session ends today, June 19.…
OTSEGO CHAMBER POSITION PAPER Renewables, Yes, But Decompressor As Well Editor’s Note: The Otsego County Chamber of Commerce released this Energy & Infrastructure Policy Thursday, June 13. Otsego County has a diverse economy. Manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, and tourism have been part of the economy for hundreds of years. Having a large part of the economy linked to these sectors, the Otsego County Chamber of Commerce affirms that Otsego County requires a variety of energy sources to allow it to be…
A FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE New View, From Delaware Street It’s a pleasure to be writing again for The Freeman’s Journal (as well as, for the first time, Hometown Oneonta). I’ve been here before, though it was about two decades ago. More about that in a future column. For this new stint of columns, of course I need a new name. “From Fly Creek” just won’t do. Though all I learned and came to love while writing from that hamlet still lives…
COLUMN Local Police Exempt From Mug-Shot Ban, State’s Expert Avers Editor’s Note: This is reprinted from the June edition of NewsBeat, a publication of the New York Press Association. One provision of the recently passed state budget has been interpreted by many as a “ban” on police agencies releasing booking photographs. But state officials have since clarified it’s not an outright ban, and local police retain a great deal of discretion in how they handle mugshots. The measure in question,…
