Readers’ Column for the week of January 25, 2026

You may call The Owego Pennysaver Readers’ Column at (607) 687-2434, extension 2, 24-hours a day, or email comments to ReadersOP@gmail.com. We reserve the right to revise or reject any messages. Please limit your comments to 100 words or fewer.

I’ve noticed a proliferation of bike riders, especially motorized bike riders, on our local highways. I think they should be reminded of the law when they’re riding their bikes. Number one, they should be riding with the traffic, not against it. Pedestrians should be walking against the traffic, not with it. I almost hit a bike rider this past week who was riding on the other side of the lane against me and almost came into my lane, which would have resulted in a head-on crash. So just a safety reminder for the bike riders. 

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A study on the prevention of cruelty to animals found that people who abuse animals are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against humans. Thank you.

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Explain to me, Owego Superintendent, how a $3.3 million increase in the tax rolls, before you even have your normal budget increase, stays within the 2 percent tax cap?

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I agree with omitting all the pharmaceutical commercials on TV. I’d like the lawyer commercials to stop as well. All they do is encourage lawsuits. We don’t need that.

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Hello, I was just wondering if anyone in the Owego or Tioga Center area is available for piano lessons. If so, please respond to this column. 

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Concerning the $450,000 grant just to STUDY a rail trail from Newark Valley to Berkshire, is a total waste of money. The route and clearance are already done. I support hiking trails, but if this ends up costing taxpayers money for maintenance and upkeep for the few who would use it, I would say no. Be careful of wolves in sheep’s clothing!

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Does anybody realize the county is taking another $50 thousand a year out of the village when they take the Walgreens building and two more houses off the tax map?

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How did your electric bill get so high? Albany politicians let foreign corporations in: NYSEG, owned by Iberdrola from Spain; National Grid, owned by the United Kingdom; Central Hudson, owned by Fortis Inc. a Canadian holding company; and New York shut down its own power plants. These are the people who charge you all the extra fees and charges, thanks to the liberals and Hochul.

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Is the county trying to bankrupt the village? They now own 18 properties in the village for which they pay zero in taxes. This does not include churches and nonprofits, which account for another 50 percent paying zero. Do the math!

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I myself am not going to lament the loss of politicians who have had a say in what happens in the Village of Owego. If there was a public hearing about the purchase of the commercial property on Main Street, I missed it. It has been my experience that a public hearing is a mere formality anyway; more often than not, the issue is already a “done deal.” To take yet another tax-paying building off the tax rolls in Owego is ridiculous.

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I usually go to the source when I have a question, but I’m wary this time. Does anyone know why we make checks/ payment payable to an individual for our Town of Owego/ County of Tioga taxes? This just doesn’t seem right to me. Whose idea was this? Is this common in other places?

National Political Viewpoints

Trump has his hands full with the military dealing with China and Taiwan, and now he’s talking about sending the military to Iran, let’s not forget about Venezuela. It sounds to me like he’ll be bringing back the draft. You people wouldn’t have a problem with that now, would you?

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Pete Hegseth’s very own mother said that he’s an abuser of women. Robert F. Kennedy’s family says he’s a threat to public health. Donald Trump’s niece Mary says that Trump is a fraud and a bully. So who knows these people better than their own family? Believe them; they’re just telling you the truth. Deal with it!

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We need to remember Black history on this Martin Luther King Day, especially since this administration is trying to erase all of it. In 1936 at the Olympics, Jesse Owens was the fastest man in the world, and yet when he came home, he couldn’t go where only white-people could go. He couldn’t eat at the same restaurants, and we have not come too far from that. Today, he would be stopped; Jesse Owens is Black and would have to prove his papers to stay in the United States, and it’s only going to get worse.

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I used to be happy that Americans disliked Donald Trump; now the whole world dislikes him except for Russia.

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So if the president seizes Greenland, he should be impeached.

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Thank God, Trump got his Nobel Peace Prize, not really his, and the Nobel Peace Prize committee said he can’t really have it, but he has it in his hands, and he is so delighted. He’s such a thin-skinned little boy, and now he can go back to seeking retribution against all or anybody who ever had anything to say about him. That’s all our Department of Justice is doing, not guarding the country, not following up on real crimes, not anyone who smiled at him in a different way or said anything. This is such a sad nation.

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Brooke Rollins, who is in charge of the Agriculture Department, makes more than a million dollars a year, and she has the gall to tell Americans to spend $3 on a meal. What planet does she live on? The same one Trump lives on?

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I really hope the military takes their oath because they don’t have to obey Trump’s orders to invade Greenland. It’s against international law. It’s an illegal order. Anybody that says it’s not, just look it up and do some fact-checking. I know you Republicans don’t know how to read very well, but you can find out if they tell you.

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On Dec. 10, 2025 at Mount Pocono, Donald Trump stated that affordability was a fake word. A point of proof of ignorance, incompetence, and illiteracy. Just check your dictionary. I am sure that our White House felon is operating on the big lie theory. In psychology, this is known as the illusory truth effect, first presented by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 book Mein Kampf. I doubt that our White House felon has done much grocery shopping lately.

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Donald Trump is lucky that breathing is an autonomous function. Or is it our bad luck?

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One out of three Democrats is just as stupid as the other two. — Mama Gump

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GestapoDer Fuhrer” has deployed the Gestapo.

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Now that Mr. Trump has threatened our NATO ally Denmark by declaring he will take Greenland by force; he has done more to undermine the 75-year-old alliance than Russia could have ever hoped to. Mr. Putin must be giddy. In addition, by adding punitive tariffs to our allied countries that dare to disagree after negotiating deals this summer, he has shown the world his word means nothing.

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It was of interest to me last week that someone would write in to express their religious prejudice that politicians have to be sworn in with a Bible. This country was founded in part by people in Europe seeking religious freedom. Most religions rely on a holy book.  The Bible for Christians, the Koran for Islam, the Torah for Jewish persons, the Sutras for Buddhists, the Vedas for Hindus. We should respect these people for their beliefs and not diminish them for what they have chosen. That’s the true American way.

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Is this what you voted for? Masked guards kidnapping, murdering, and battering people in the streets! Masked guards shackling people without due cause! As innocent as your children, your mother, your father! Think twice and use your voice, or they will eventually come for you or your children, too. If you don’t believe me, search online for Pastor Martin Niemöller.

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Trump bombed seven countries in 2025: Syria, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Yemen. He’s fraying our country with his ICE militia. Representative Nick Langworthy is allowing it; do you hear his voice in opposition? Call them out. Even if you hate Biden, you didn’t see him build a militia and attack us and our way of life! Your country needs you to defend democracy, or you won’t have a country anymore. You might not even have a family anymore if they end up shackled, deported, or shot, even if they’re U.S. citizens.

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For all those worried about corruption in Minnesota, the biggest corruption comes from many big businesses that have billion-dollar profits but get taxpayer money. Does Elon Musk really need $78 billion of taxpayer money? Does the military really need to spend $750 for a hammer or a toilet seat? People need to read more from reliable sources of information.

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“Under Article II of the Constitution, the president, as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States – and of the militia when under federal control – has the authority to act against enemies both foreign and domestic.” — M. T. Owens, IMPRIMUS, December 2025

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Once again, get that clown out of office now! Before he starts WW3!

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I watch the leftist network news show all their leftist and anarchist brethren trying to stop ICE from doing their job in Minneapolis. American citizens, they say, have been detained, but I never see network news ever report the names of the Americans that ICE has detained. Only podcasts are reporting detainee names. So far, over 2,000 illegals that are known rapists, pedophiles, murderers, thieves, and robbers have been detained. Give me the name of one American citizen.

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Liberals say we entered Venezuela illegally, but we didn’t stay long enough to get free housing and SNAP benefits. — Melvin T. Loophole 

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Did you really vote for WWIII? civil war was it just a civil war?

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“Invading Greenland is not a show of strength; it is an act of national suicide. We are trading our reputation, our economy, and our security for a frozen island and a handful of minerals we can’t even process. The price of this real estate deal is everything we built over the last century. If we cross this line, there is no going back. We will be the lonely superpower, ruling over nothing but our own decline.” — By Brent Molnar 

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Trump wants to withhold Federal Funds from New York, sounds like an invitation for New York to secede from the United States of Trump and turn all formerly federal taxes into New York taxes, freeing ourselves from this clown!

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So the White House felon did not get his Nobel Prize. And now he throws a tantrum like a little three year old by applying new tariffs on eight European countries. No matter how you work the math, a tariff is a tax on the consumers of the importing country. The tariffs will cause increased inflation, rising costs, and greater expenses for daily needs. All of this ensures that more Republicans will get voted out of the House and Senate and Democrats in. When this happens, the White House felon will be impeached and thrown in jail, along many of the toadies that follow him.