COVID hits home Editor’s Note: The author, Dr. Richard Sternberg, a retired Bassett Hospital orthopedic surgeon, is providing his professional perspective during the COVID-19 threat. Also a village trustee, he lives in Cooperstown. Until now, COVID did not hit too close to home for me. My cousin’s father-in-law died of it in late 2020 as did that gentleman’s sister, but nobody very close to me had. This past week, my elder daughter came down with COVID. She said it was…
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Noteworthy News: Beyond the classroom at ONC BOCES [Editor’s note: This week’s “News from the Noteworthy” comes from Otsego Northern Catskills Board of Cooperative Education Services – ONC BOCES – serving student from 19 component districts throughout the greater Otsego County region. ONC BOCES has plenty of great stories to share, and we’re delighted they accepted our invitation to do so in this space.] One of the Career & Technical Education Course extras that students can take advantage of while…
Menthol marketing Editor’s note: This column appears in the 2/24/22 print editions of The Freeman’s Journal and Hometown Oneonta. Its author, Jennifer Hill, is the Community Engagement Coordinator for Tobacco-Free Communities: Delaware, Otsego & Schoharie. Seventy years ago, the tobacco industry launched an aggressive marketing campaign to persuade African Americans to smoke menthol cigarettes. The industry endeared themselves to Black communities by being among the first white-led businesses to hire African Americans for executive positions and use Black models, actors,…
Editorial: “We’re following the science.” “Your call is very important to us. Please hold.” There’s one that’s hard to believe, particularly after you’ve been on hold for an hour with a faceless conglomerate whose digital operator’s repeated reassurance becomes more grating than helpful. “Thank you for your service.” A thoughtful and once-meaningful sentiment that recognizes our heroes who serve or have served our nation during war and peace. It keeps its intended depth on a one-to-one or small group setting,…
Letter: Farmers deserve a fair return Recent reports and letters that advocate for keeping the overtime pay threshold at 60 hours rather than reducing it to 40 present valid issues facing farmers today. Farmers struggle, caught between increasing costs and low income from processors who set the prices they will pay. Farming is a noble profession; farmers need and deserve to make a steady, predictable profit. Paying overtime at the 40-hour threshold will hurt farmers. Prices would need to rise…
Legitimate Political Discourse by a Loving Crowd? Another Voice: Opinion by Jim Malatras The Republican National Committee recently declared the January 6th, 2020 attack on the U.S. Capitol a “persecution of ordinary citizens in legitimate political discourse.” Normally opposing a mob that grew violent and disrupted proceedings of Congress in the midst of certifying a presidential election would be a political layup. But these are dizzyingly polarizing times. Contrary to President Trump’s claim, that it was a “loving crowd”—like it…
District Attorney right on bail, discovery Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl is in a dangerous spot when it comes to what we understand his position to be on the third-rail issues of bail and discovery reform. He can see both sides of the issue. That’s poison these days – acknowledging, in this case, that those calling for reform to the criminal justice system had reason to do so but that those saying it went too far are equally justified.…
Opportunities for Otsego: The Childcare Dilemma By Dan Maskin I recently listened to an interview with journalist Claire Suddath about childcare. She was speaking about her November 2021 article in Bloomberg Business Week titled “How childcare became the most broken business in America: Biden has a plan to make day care more affordable for parents — if the providers don’t go out of business first.” The high cost of childcare is mainly due to it being a private market that…
Rust never sleeps My patient and considerate son-in-law, Alex, had had just about enough of helping me carry seemingly countless and too-heavy crates of records from the U-Haul into the long-term storage facility, their home for the next 10 months or so. “Have you not heard of Spotify?” he half-joked as he lugged another crate. Sure I’ve heard of Spotify. I even signed up for a subscription so I could trade playlists with our daughter who lives out in Tucson.…
Sternberg on COVID this week: Getting better? We’ve been hearing reports that the spike in cases and deaths from the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has peaked and is decreasing. This is certainly true in metropolitan New York. Epidemiologists have estimated that greater than 40 percent of the City’s population has been infected with Omicron even though the confirmed case rate is much lower. Most people infected there probably experienced mild or no symptoms and didn’t even bother to get tested.…
