Free Republic

SALAMANCA - Sen. Catharine Young presented local World War II veteran George Heron with the New York State Medal For Merit on Thursday alongside his friends, family and members of the Seneca Nation and local American Legion posts. “As a member of the U.S. Navy, George Heron gave several years of his life in service to our country,” Sen. Young said. “Like all veterans, he is deserving of our respect and gratitude. I am pleased to congratulate George on earning this honor and thank him for his dedicated and distinguished service.” The Medal For Merit is awarded to New York...

The trouble with Indian cigarettes By Tom Precious NEWS ALBANY BUREAU ALBANY — In Iroquois history, Seneca is a name of great pride, the Keepers of the Western Door. But to thousands of smokers, from California to Florida and from the Caribbean to Mexico and especially in upstate New York, Seneca is something entirely different: a cheap cigarette that has prompted grave health concerns and dozens of lawsuits. Billions of these Seneca brand cigarettes are made and trafficked within an hour’s drive of Buffalo and sold each year in a sophisticated distribution network. The Seneca brand is just one of...

BUFFALO -- It appears the New York State Thruway will again figure prominently in a dispute between the Seneca Indian Nation and the state over cigarette taxes. On Tuesday, Seneca President Barry Snyder outlined the nations response to a law signed by Gov. David Paterson that would ban manufacturers from selling unstamped cigarettes to wholesalers who supply reservation stores. Snyder says tribal councilors are now devising a system to collect tolls of $2 per car on the Thruway, where it passes through the tribes Cattaraugus Reservation in western New York. He called the interstate an illegal, unlicensed business. In 1997,...

I feel sort of cheated - like discovering that your spouse has been sneaking out the back door with a pack of Pall Malls. It doesn't fit the character type either. McCain, yes. The guy was a two-pack-a-day smoker for 25 years and looks like a man desperately in need of a fix. But Obama? Mr. Coolunderfire? I guess part of it is the way we characterize smokers and smoking in this day and age. What was once accepted, if not encouraged - the Flintstones did a commercial for Winstons in the old black-and-white days of television - is now...

It is in times of turmoil and strife that true manliness is shown. A life without adversity makes a man weak, dull, and effeminate. In his essay, On Providence, the Roman philosopher Seneca discuses the importance of adversity in shaping a man’s life. According to Seneca, it is only through adversity that the Great Man can be created. Theodore Roosevelt understood this principle. It was the basis of his philosophy of the strenuous life. My generation has grown up in a time of unprecedented peace and affluence. Consequently, we’ve become wussified man-children. If we really want to know what we’re...

State aims to collect Indian tax, but how? By Tom Precious - NEWS ALBANY BUREAU Updated: 04/08/07 9:49 AM ALBANY — New York State’s budget will be in the hole $200 million if it does not begin collecting taxes this year on the sale of tobacco and petroleum products by Indian retailers. That is the amount Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer and lawmakers agreed to place into the 2007 budget, as part of revenues needed to balance the state’s fiscal books. “It’s another encouraging sign,” said James Calvin, executive director of the New York State Association of Convenience Stores, which has...

U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton Will spend much of the next several days in the Finger Lakes region. Clinton will be in Penn Yan Wednesday morning to announce the expansion of a small business initiative in Yates County. From there, she'll head to Canandaigua for a Farmer's Day celebration at the Wine and Culinary Center. Wednesday night, Senator Clinton will deliver the keynote address at a reception at the Ventosa Winery in Geneva with Democrats from Ontario, Seneca, Yates, and Wayne Counties. Thursday, Clinton will discuss enhancing economic development opportunities along the Erie Canal at a stop in Palmyra before heading...

WATERLOO — The state Commission of Investigation will be asked to look into allegations of inappropriate activities by Democrats prior to the Nov. 8 general election. The Seneca County Board of Supervisors’ Government Operations & Technology Committee voted 4-1 Tuesday to consider four specific points Committee Chairman David Kaiser of Romulus brought up Nov. 7, when the measure was tabled because it was the night before the election and two of the committee’s members were facing a challenge. Kaiser, a Republican, alleges county property may have been illegally used for political purposes. He specifically cites the listing of Democratic Elections...

AUBURN NY--A federal Department of Interior official said the U.S. Supreme Court's city of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation decision applies to the Cayuga Nation's purchase of land within their land claim area on the open market. Based on the Sherrill decision, when taxes are not paid, the Cayuga Nation's property would be subject to foreclosure, Associate Deputy Secretary James Carson wrote in a Sept. 22 letter to U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-New Hartford. Boehlert had contacted the department of behalf of Seneca County attorney Steven Getman. Carson wrote that questions about the legality of the tribe's bingo halls in...

WATERLOO, N.Y. The Cayuga Indian's 25-year-old land claim will not get a second look from a federal appeals court. Seneca County Attorney Steven Getman says today's decision by the Second U-S Circuit Court of Appeals is another victory for property owners. The Cayuga Indian Nation of New York and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma had asked for a rehearing after the court's split decision in June. The decision said the tribe was not entitled to a 248 (m) million land claim judgment awarded by a lower-court jury. Today's decision cited an earlier U-S Supreme Court ruling in a separate case...

WATERLOO NY — They’re not in the belfry and may not even be along the proposed canal trail, but a few flying mammals have the Seneca County Board of Supervisors going a tad batty. Members agreed Tuesday, in a split decision, not to spend up to $5,000 for engineers to identify endangered Indiana bat habitats and wetlands as an unanticipated part of a contract with Clough Harbour & Associates engineering firm to design the trail from Geneva to the village of Waterloo. The trail, still in the beginning stages, would run along an old railroad bed on the south side...

<p>Long before Sophie Masloff made history as Pittsburgh's first female mayor, another woman reigned at the confluence of the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny rivers.</p> <p>She led a band of American Indians through turbulent times. She met with George Washington. A city in Beaver County is named for her. And she was a queen to boot, at a time when most women were ruled rather than rulers.</p>

<p>February 7, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - The United States has extensive proof of communication between Iraqi officials and an al Qaeda-affiliated group - but has been reluctant to reveal the information because of its sources, The Post has learned.</p> <p>A stream of intelligence links Saddam Hussein's government to Ansar al Islam, which wants a Taliban-style government in Kurdish northern Iraq, sources said.</p>

The next move in the Cayuga Indian land claim is up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Manhattan. Last week, lawyers for Cayuga and Seneca counties and the 7,000 private landowners in the 64,027-acre claim area formally asked to be part of the appeal of rulings made in U.S. District Court. On June 13, U.S. District Judge Neal P. McCurn of Syracuse granted the defendants permission to seek appeals court approval to join the state in appealing his rulings that the Cayugas have a valid claim to the land. The request to appeal was filed...