Friday April 26, 2024 
A Heinous Crime Was Committed
A heinous crime has been committed and every time the detectives point to the most obvious suspect, that very powerful, well connected suspect and his minions laugh in their faces and suggest that they have no evidence.
What do the detectives do? Do they back off and let their powerful suspect go? They might, if some on the detectives’ team have connections to the suspect and also happen to despise the victim.
What if some of the detectives also happen to be among the victims?
What if the local judge is in the pocket of the same powerful suspect?
Far from being a wild conspiracy theory, this is a very common scenario in movie plots and who-done-it stories. There has never been a story of this type that simply ends with the suspect getting away scot-free and never committing a crime again.
The more likely scenario is that the audience is led through a series of subplots that expose numerous accomplices, pawns, pigeons and even more crimes. If the suspect is never exposed and convicted, he and his accomplices will be emboldened to continue their lives of increasingly heinous crimes.
Do you think I’ve been talking about the 2020 Presidential election here? Maybe …but I’m more probably just half way into the series of crimes that members of our nation’s political class and their ilk have gotten away with over many decades …and will most definitely continue to get away with if they are not stopped now!
David Crawmer, Wynantskill
America’s Biopharmaceutical Innovation Key to Saving Lives and Businesses
COVID-19 hit America with both a public health emergency and an economic crisis, which continue to challenge local businesses and working families. New Yorkers can be proud of the sacrifices we’ve made to protect our neighbors, keep essential services running even during the worst, and restore many jobs following the last closure. And while things were returning to normal, we are now faced with a second wave of this pandemic.
Fortunately COVID-19 vaccines will soon be available on a large scale and they will help repair the economy and blunt the resurgence – saving lives.
As a business owner and elected representative, I oppose public policies that inhibit innovation. I especially object to importing price controls from abroad. To do so is to turn over the reins of our health care system to foreign leaders not accountable to American citizens, while leaving our people to suffer the negative effects without a voice.
Among those effects, American patients could lose access to advanced pharmaceuticals. For example, patients in the U.K. and Canada can obtain only a fraction of the cancer therapies that have come on the market in the past decade. Should the U.S. apply similar price controls American patients could expect the same barriers to life-saving treatment.
At this critical time, when we need a COVID-19 vaccine to put our economy back on track, policymakers must apply great restraint against altering pharmaceutical market dynamics. America was able to develop COVID-19 vaccines because to date we have supported medical innovation.
Scott Bendett, Averill Park