Free Republic

We have written before about the deer sterilization program in Cayuga Heights, which borders the Cornell campus (most people think of it as Ithaca, but it’s actually a separate municipality). Because Reproductive Health Care Is A Cervine Right: I have written before about the moral angst sweeping the upscale Village of Cayuga Heights, bordering the Cornell campus and home to a large number of professors and staff, over how to control the out-of-control deer population. After years of debate, which tore the community apart, Cayuga Heights has come up with a solution: "The board of trustees passed a resolution Monday...

There are few people less likely to sell drugs than Fred Skinner. The 76-year-old lives alone on Mc Neeley Road in Victory, getting by with help from neighbors. Much of his home has been quietly abandoned because he can’t get up and down the stairs; his son, also named Fred Skinner, said his mind “goes in and out.” Since suffering a stroke last July, he speaks haltingly, sleeps with an oxygen tank and has a pacemaker in his chest. Skinner doesn’t hear as well as he used to, but there was no missing the pair of crashes he heard late...

A former Cayuga County resident serving an 18-to-40-year state prison sentence for rape and sodomy is on a heart donor list and is undergoing a heart transplant evaluation at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. Coxsackie Correctional Facility inmate Kenneth L. Pike was flown from Albany to Rochester Monday, and hospital officials confirmed that a Kenneth Pike is at the hospital and is listed in guarded condition. Pike is being evaluated for a heart transplant, is on the donor list and will most likely die without the procedure. the average first-year cost of a heart transplant comes in at $787,700. In...

The US Supreme Court has announced it will not hear an appeal of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling throwing out the Cayuga land claim. Seneca County Attorney Steven Getman says the ruling means the end of the more than two decade old land claim. The Cayuga and Seneca-Cayuga Indians had asked the Supreme Court to review the lower court ruling, saying the Appeals Court incorrectly cited the Sherill case involving the Oneida Indians in throwing out the quarter billion dollars awarded the Indians. The focus of the battle between the Indians and governments in Seneca and Cayuga Counties...

The three federal lawmakers representing constituents affected by the Cayuga Nation land claim in Cayuga County have demonstrated distinct approaches to the crucial issue of land-in-trust applications. With the news this week that the Cayugas have officially requested some of their holdings be placed in trust - which would remove them from the tax rolls and essentially make them sovereign - it is now time for these members of Congress to make their voices heard. So far, only Sen. Charles Schumer is serving land claim residents properly on this key question. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert has done some good work, but...

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...

AUBURN NY--Callers to Cayuga County District Attorney James Vargason's office June 11 received a telephone message that the district attorney's office was closed for the day to mourn the passing of former President Reagan. While the day was set aside by President Bush for the nation to pay last respects to Reagan, county leaders said this week they made it clear beforehand that county offices were to be open that day. They said Vargason arbitrarily made the decision to shutter his operation for the day. Vargason, who took elected office in 1992, was asked to explain his actions to county...

The Union Springs area has been in the heart of the 64,027-acre Cayuga Indian land claim in Cayuga and Seneca counties for nearly 22 years. A drive along Route 90 or Route 326 will find a host of roadside signs stating "no sovereignty" and "no reservation." Native American tribes with land claims against the state or localities get little sympathy here. Lunchtime patrons of Legends Tavern in downtown Union Springs reflect that sentiment when asked about Native American and land claim issues Thursday, five days before the election. Margaret Reister, of Union Springs, a server at the tavern, was quick...

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...