As I write this column, I’ve just come back from listening to Governor Cuomo’s annual State of the State speech. Last year, the governor promised to change the dysfunction in Albany and get our state government working again. With the cooperation...

Coming on the heels of an announcement in November that the New York State Board of Regents was considering requiring four-hour reading tests for 3rd graders, I wrote a letter to Merryl Tisch, Chancellor of the Board of Regents, to express my concerns...

As the Christmas and New Year holidays approach, I’d like to take this opportunity to remind my constituents to make sure you have a designated driver if you will be out and about celebrating the holidays with alcohol. Any amount of alcohol affects...

Although 2011 is coming to a close, it seems like just yesterday we were passing the state budget in Albany. And, before we know it, budget time will be upon us again. To prepare for budget negotiations, I recently held a meeting with several school...

It’s hard to believe that November is already more than half over and Thanksgiving is upon us. Before we know it, it will be 2012! During this Thanksgiving and holiday season, I’d like to take a moment to encourage my constituents to volunteer their...

In the last two weeks, there have been two hunting tragedies here in Jefferson County. The first involved a teenager who shot at what he thought was a deer. Instead he shot and killed his hunting partner. The second tragedy involved another teenager who...

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. The disease robs people of their memories and leads to progressive physical and mental impairments. This eventual fatal disease represents a serious and...

Ask any local elected official the following question: “What is the single biggest unfunded mandate that Albany imposes on municipal budgets?” Ten times out of ten you will receive a one-word answer: Medicaid. New York’s Medicaid program has ballooned...

While many of us are wondering what happened to the summer, fall has arrived here in the North Country. The leaves are changing, the days and nights are cooler, and Halloween is just around the corner. But what’s best about fall in Northern New York...

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and since the program began in 1985, mammography rates have more than doubled for women age 50 and older and breast cancer deaths have declined. This is good progress, but still there are women who do not take...

Due to Primary Day, my town hall meeting with Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb has been rescheduled for Monday, October 17 from 6:30 - 8 pm. The location has also changed to the Lowville Municipal Building, 5535 Bostwick St., Lowville. For the first...

It’s hard to believe that summer is nearly over and children will be heading back to school in just a few weeks. With that in mind, I want to take this opportunity to remind motorists about school bus safety guidelines and laws. With school buses...

We often hear people talking about the “brain drain” in upstate New York: the mass exodus of our state’s youngest and brightest leaving for other destinations where there are better business opportunities. This “brain drain” hurts our state...

For the first time in a long time, the Albany bureaucrats listened – and New York has an on-time State Budget. The enacted spending plan was far from perfect – it involved tough, painful choices that began a long overdue process of reforming Albany’s...

With the recent enactment of the Real Property Tax Cap and the launch of the Regional Economic Development Councils, New York state is once again in a position to craft an economic development plan that creates jobs and puts unemployed New Yorkers back...

Much of the news the past few weeks has been dominated by the back-and-forth debate going on in Washington about raising the nation’s debt limit vs. passing real spending cuts and reform programs to balance the federal budget. As expected, much of these...

For more than 30 years, the 11 northern counties in New York State that comprise the North Country have, in some combination, been part of a single congressional district. This North Country district that runs from Oswego County to Clinton County and...