Readers’ Column for the week of March 31, 2025

You may call The Owego Pennysaver Readers’ Column at (607) 687-2378 24-hours a day, or email comments to ReadersOP@gmail.com. We reserve the right to revise or reject any messages. To allow more callers to be heard, please try to limit your comments to 100 words or fewer.

Attention Ukulele Players! The Tioga Ukulele Group’s next adult jam session is scheduled for April 5, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Coburn Free Library, Main Street, Owego. All levels of players are welcome to join us, from beginners to accomplished ukulele players. For more information or to receive music ahead of the jam session, please contact us at (607) 321-8815 or (607) 743-9803 or send an email to TiogaUkuleleGroup@yahoo.com.

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Helping Hands Food Pantry, serving Berkshire, Richford and Speedsville, is taking sign-ups for an Easter food box. You should reside in one of these areas. Distribution will be on Thursday, April 17. Pickup time will be assigned when you sign up. Come to the pantry during regular hours, or call either (607) 657-2501 or (607) 657-8158 between now and April 11.

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My electric bill budget was $177. Went to $310. BUT the amount owed was $610! This month, the same thing. Can I send my utility bills to Trump to pay? What’s the White House’s address? I’ll let NYSEG change my billing address. Needless to ask, will these ever go down?  

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Good things are happening near Crestview Heights. The new Light Years is great! The beer is good, the cider is good, the pretzels are good, and the pizza is good! The summer should be fun with some jamming outside!

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Has anyone contacted Weis regarding the empty Grand Union spot? Kinney Drug for the empty Walgreens? Other banks and credit unions for the TWO empty, turnkey bank buildings? A few phone calls may yield results.

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I see there is a public hearing coming up on April 7 regarding a zoning change for 138 Main St. from residential to business. This is foolhardy in many ways. It would further encroach on a residential neighborhood. There is absolutely no parking; there is only a tiny driveway. It is right next to the CVS drive-thru, making for a dangerous traffic situation. We already have a plethora of empty storefronts and commercial buildings sitting vacant. Expanding the business district further makes the one we have lose cohesion when it’s already a challenge. This was built as a HOME. Fill an already turnkey spot!

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It’s nice that the Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric car the village is buying is paid for by a grant funded by NYSERDA, but who pays for the grant? I could stand corrected, but sources say it’s taxpayer dollars. EVs serve only one common good, and that is to follow the green new deal hoax. Take a minute and Google the Vostok ice core study; you will note the proof that climate change happens after warm temperatures and has nothing to do with carbon footprints. There are better uses for that money, and the village has no need for an EV. Stop the stupid.

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Natural selection, as defined by Darwin, refers to a process of adaptation to environmental pressures. It can result in changes to an organism that make it more robust in a specific environment. Examples include bacterial resistance to antibiotics, blind fish in dark caverns, and the well-known finch beak changes in the Galapagos Islands. Darwin extended this to organisms changing into new organisms. However, he warned that unless future fossil discoveries revealed links between organisms, his theory would not be true. Since then, no uncontested links have been found. If it were true, there would be abundant, even overwhelming evidence. However, scientists have been trying unsuccessfully for decades to find even one unchallenged link.

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The value is greater than you can imagine. The rewards will last forever. The offer is made to you. The price is higher than you could ever pay. The purchase price is being paid for you by another. This gift is offered at no cost to you. If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. This offer is a limited-time offer. Now is the time.

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Chickens and roosters, how do you keep them out of your yard? They’re in my backyard all the time. They’re at my bird feeder all the time. I don’t know if these chickens and birds can transmit any kind of diseases like bird flu. They are a nuisance, and once my veggie garden gets going, they will destroy it. So how do you keep them out other than chasing them a couple of times a day? I don’t know whom to call about this. Can anybody out there help me?  

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I have a problem. I live off Coleville in Nichols, and I have a woman kitty-corner from me who has around 20 or more cats that she does not take care of. I’ve got them all over; they get on my car and onto my roof at night. They’ve gotten onto my porch and broken things. I can barely get onto my porch without throwing them some kind of food to eat. I’m afraid they will get into my house. I do not have any cats. Any help will be appreciated!

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I almost caused an accident at the corner of Main Street and Church Street, where the traffic light is still not working correctly. Thank you to the other driver who avoided me. Please fix the light before a bad accident happens.

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I know someone who has ham radio equipment that she would like to sell, and I would like to help her out if I can. Does anyone know how to get rid of it or if they’re interested in it? You can call me at (607) 625-3564, and I will tell her.  

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I would hope the people who are running for the legislature or town positions would take the time to attend the meetings that are happening now, before there’s an election. And I would hope that the press, when they do interview these folks, would ask them how many meetings they have attended prior to the election. Thank you.

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Anyone having difficulty with their electric bill can call the Public Service Commission for New York State, 1-800-342-3377. I had a problem with my electric bill, and that’s what it took for me to get it resolved. I called them, and within a couple of hours, it was straightened out. 

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How does one electric vehicle that the Village of Owego is buying with a grant that should be used elsewhere serve the common good and reduce the carbon footprint when there are 50,000 tractor-trailer diesels running all day long? I’m choking on that idea. — Studebaker Hawk

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I hope someone can answer my question regarding the 12 o’clock news. I’ve watched it for years and years. I always look forward to seeing it every day on WBNG TV. Now we have basketball at noon. For the basketball game, why can’t they televise it at 12:30, not 12:00? I sure hope somebody can answer my question. Thank you. 

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This goes out to Hochul: I’m not paying school taxes. I’ve got no kids. I have dust bunnies under my bed; that’s it! That’s it!   

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I’ve called in for many, many weeks about the corruption in the town of Chemung, the bogus tickets that you buy from Amazon that would be written out like a police officer, a code man. The judge honors it: $100 apiece. I keep complaining about the corruption, but it never gets printed in the paper. It makes me wonder how far the corruption really goes.

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Those astronauts, when they got back, do you think they ever watched that program they called Lost in Space?    

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Yes, I agree with the cat comment and I had to laugh when I read it. Cats should not be allowed outdoors, unleashed, unsupervised and that they can do damage to other people’s property. And let’s not forget those who feed the strays only add to the problem. I’ve been saying this for years, but some people just never learn. 

 

National Political Viewpoints

What did Biden do for you? 2021: Negotiated and signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law. It includes $110 billion for roads, bridges, and major projects; $73 billion for power infrastructure; $66 billion for passenger and freight rail; $65 billion for broadband; $55 billion for clean drinking water; and $50 billion for water resilience and Western water storage. 2022: Signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law, providing $52.7 billion for chip manufacturing and research. Building chip manufacturing in Ohio and Syracuse, New York = jobs!

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I think most people are for fiscal responsibility. Last fall/2024, the right was crying because no money went to our American hurricane, flood, and fire victims. Was it a big morality issue? Today the right is cheering the DOGE findings and all the money being saved through the ICE actions. Has any of this money that the left “misappropriated” and now found under Trump/Musk gone to these victims? Follow the money, folks! Sorry, the answer is no; you’re on your own! This is even after being in office for three months.

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I hope the president and his entourage are ready to put on their jeans and T-shirts and go over to pick tomatoes in Maryland. Or maybe his family would rather work in the downstate Orange County onion fields. A little closer to being able to wash off before they go home. Personally, I had a great time picking cherries and apples growing up in the Hudson Valley, but we weren’t allowed to pick peaches because we might bruise them. Of course, one day was fun; months, probably not. Who needs immigrant labor! Just send out the kids! 

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“Kurtz noted that Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has promised hearings on the many injunctions against the Trump administration. Kurtz also noted that angry Trump supporters have called in bomb threats against judges who have stood against Trump’s excesses, including Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and have sent anonymous pizza deliveries to the homes of judges and their relatives as a way to demonstrate that ‘we know where you live.'” — Heather Cox Richardson, March 20, 2025

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“I’m not sure we learned anything from these documents [JFK Files] other than the names and Social Security numbers of government workers, many of whom are still alive and are about to find out what it’s like to have their identities stolen.” — Jimmy Kimmel

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I am confused about electric vehicles serving the common good in our country. How does burning Tesla cars and dealerships serve the goals of the green new deal. I guess we will have to use more gas and oil; there goes the neighborhood. Mama Gump

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The leftists are torching Teslas because they cannot deal with the fact that Elon Musk is helping Trump reduce waste and corruption in the federal government. It goes to show you that the left never cared about the environment. It was nothing but a power and wealth grab. The same science was used over the last century to state we were going into an ice age, global warming, and now climate change. News just came out that the Biden administration purposely hid new environmental data that showed climate change was grossly overstated. I guess we can thank the leftists for showing it was all bogus, with all these Teslas going up in smoke.

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Were Epstein’s files unsealed? Were Trump and Musk there?

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Musk has 14 children. Should he be a father to them? He acts like he is a six-year-old on red dye #5. It’s called drugs.

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What task has the first lady taken on? The first time was bullying; it didn’t work too well. Maybe a second attempt with Trump and Musk. She might have better luck.

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As someone who was around in the ’80s, I remember the big push to move manufacturing offshore to increase profits by using the low wages of Asian countries; the markets were just bubbling over with the increased profits. Fast forward 40 years, and now our so-called leader is trying to force manufacturing to return to the U.S. Stop and think about the increased cost of producing a $20 item from China in the U.S. at our wages; it would cost at least $50; do you see the problem now?

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Under the new Trump administration, judges who rule against him are to be impeached. Law firms that represent clients unfavorable to him have been sanctioned and had security clearances removed. This is meant to intimidate the entire legal system and eliminate any checks and balances on his power. In addition, career government employees must sign a personal loyalty oath to him, not the U.S. Constitution. Universities must teach according to his wishes. The fact that half this country chooses to ignore all this because he is deporting more immigrants is very concerning.

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Trump’s first full month in office, gas prices are high, groceries and eggs are expensive, he is threatening tariffs against one of our allies, and you are watching the stock market drop daily. Someone wrote last week saying Trump is going in the right direction. Now you know where the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid” comes from.

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Shame on the Pentagon, and shame on our country for allowing the whitewashing of the records of the Pentagon to keep going on. Today they have removed the Navajo code speakers who helped win World War 2. We took their land, and now we’re taking their records. How cruel, how shameful!

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Trump is bombing Lebanon and trying to start a war. You start a war to hide how bad a job you’re doing in your own country. He’s ruining this country and he’s trying to start a war to divert the attention away from what he’s doing in this country. How can you have a man in charge of the Army who was a four-time draft dodger? He calls prisoners of war losers. He called John McCain a loser, and he’s cutting benefits to the veterans, the people who fought for this country, while he was hiding behind daddy’s coattails.  

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Oh my God, unbelievable! Trump’s got nothing better to do than flash around the seal of the President of the United States and take over as the chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center. He should be worrying about gas prices. He should be worried about food prices, energy prices, and taking care of America. But fools voted him in. He doesn’t need you now. He doesn’t care. So he’s going to screw around and figure out how to be a dictator. What a bunch of crap. I hope you are happy. 

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I ask my Republican friends how the stock market is doing and how their 401K is doing, and they don’t want to talk about it, and if they do, it’s like this: it’ll come back. So, what if Trump starts taking away chunks of your Social Security, is that going to come back?  

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Why does Trump serve South African immigrant Elon Musk and Russia’s Vladimir Putin instead of the American people? He wasn’t elected to serve those foreigners or to change our democracy into a dictatorship to serve himself. This certainly is NOT what Americans voted for. Some Republicans are now admitting publicly in recent polls that they were conned by Trump, the world’s greatest con man; others are still drinking his Kool-Aid to our collective detriment.

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Trump’s OMB Director Russell Vought says his mission is to traumatize the federal workforce. Why would Americans want our federal workers traumatized? These people provide services to us. We don’t want our services cut by Musk’s DOGE. We don’t want our workforce traumatized. What they are doing is reprehensible and cruel. 

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Two headlines should worry Americans. From The New York Times – Chinese Nationalists Praise Trump’s Cut to Voice of America. Evidently, Trump doesn’t like or want unbiased, true news to be heard in autocracies and dictatorships around the world, leaving more room for communist propaganda to flourish. And from The Atlantic magazine – They’re Cheering for Trump in Moscow – Again! This headline is unfortunately easily self-explanatory. 

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I think the Democrats have forgotten the Republican language, the American language, because all they can do is swear. Too bad, too bad!  

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Trump has gone from unconstitutional to anti-constitutional in his power grab. Pay attention to this, and you’ll see the transition from our beloved 248 years of democracy to a full dictatorship that’s happening right now! Resist the Trump regime. Fight to hang on to democracy from Trumpism. What Trump is doing isn’t making America great again; it’s destroying it. Goodbye freedom. Hello tyrannical rule. The crisis is happening. Do what you can to fight back against this self-proclaimed king. 

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The cockroaches are mad because Elon turned the lights on. 

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Guess who wants to be our leader again? Why, it’s none other than Joe Biden, who does have the support of the despicable Tesla bombers and the far left who support Hamas, trendy Aragua, the cartels will kill hundreds of thousands of America’s youth every year with illegal drugs, the horrific U.S. education system, which ranks 40th in the world in academics and is anti-parental control, and a host of other insane causes. God help the USA! 

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I get news breaks on my phone, and I saw that Florida may not have property taxes anymore. No property taxes! Wouldn’t that be wonderful? That would be a lifesaver to have those hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in your pocket. It would be so wonderful if New York State did that. I heard that maybe Pennsylvania was going to do it, but that would be wonderful if you didn’t have to pay property taxes. We pay enough taxes otherwise. So everybody, keep your fingers crossed for something good to happen here. 

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In 1773 Patriots in Boston tossed tea into the harbor to protest the King’s increased taxes. Today American patriots are protesting Tesla dealerships to fight Musk’s illegal cuts to our nation’s Social Security and Medicaid at the request of King Donald. No different from then. Today is no different. 

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If the typical Democrat voter were seen in a psychiatric emergency room, the accurate diagnosis would be senility, delusions of grandeur, paranoia, intellectual disorder, depression, dissociation, post-traumatic loser complex, anxiety disorder, gender dysphoria, psychotic disorder, and major depressive disorder. This is not what the wise among us voted for, and what the greatest president of all time, namely Donald, is fixing right at this minute. 

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More investment, more jobs, and more money in the pockets of U.S. workers. President Trump has enticed over $3 trillion, with a T, dollars of foreign investment in the U.S. economy. GO Trump!

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Trump’s appointed commerce secretary billionaire (with a B) Howard Lutnick said over the weekend, “No one but fraudsters would complain about missed Social Security checks.” Let’s see now, how about the average Social Security recipient? Would you complain about not receiving your Social Security checks? I sure would, but of course I’m not one of Trump’s billionaire buddies, are you? Trump and Musk are laying the groundwork to come after our Social Security to pay for more tax cuts for the rich. Stop Trump and Musk’s assault on democracy and our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – Save America! 

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Did you hear about the gross negligence of JD Vance and Pete Hegseth leaking National Defense information? This new administration can’t be trusted. We are less safe now than ever before. 

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A while ago I called the Pennysaver to say that people needed to take care of themselves as the government wouldn’t. Save your money, make sure you can plan for your future. How true this is today now that all this fraud is being uncovered and eliminated. I hope you took my advice and took care of yourself.