By Paul Lane
With government documentation already required to enter or re-enter the United States, local elected leaders have taken umbrage with a proposed increase in the cost to obtain said documentation.
CNN.com reported that the fee to get a passport may increase in the near future from $100 to $135 (from $75 to $110 for renewals). State Department heads say the fee hikes are necessary to cover department costs, but two Western New York lawmakers have taken up the fight against the additional cost.
“These fee increases could not come at a worse time,” Rep. Chris Lee wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The enhanced regulations have “exacted a heavy toll on trade and tourism at U.S.-Canada border regions.”
Rep. Brian Higgins, meanwhile, urges citizens to voice their displeasure with the move.
“We need to literally and figuratively build bridges that encourage cross-border tourism, commerce and economic opportunity, and this move would do just the opposite,” he said.
Leaders on the other side of the border are equally concerned, CNN said.
“It’s a total surprise and, under the circumstances, I’m rather shocked,” said Wayne Thomson, chairman of the Niagara Falls Tourism agency in Ontario. “It’s very difficult to get our American visitors across the border for so many reasons right now. This is certainly not good news for people in the U.S. who may not be able to afford a passport, and it’s certainly not good news for tourism destinations.”
If enacted, the fees would not go into effect until at least April.
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A Tonawanda police detective was recently featured in a story about a Florida-based forensics class.
Detective Thomas Moore with the Tonawanda Police Department recently took the class in Largo, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported. The three-day class focuses on proper photo documentation, fingerprint-lifting techniques and other advanced crime-solving methods.
Moore, a 12-year police veteran, said he was familiar with about 90 percent of the methods introduced during the course. But some items, such as a silicone product known as AccuTrans that can take casts of fingerprints, were new.
“Budgets are tight,” he told the newspaper. “The only way to see (such products) is in a class like this. If I can lift 20 more prints a year, it’s worth it.”
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The long-proposed culinary arts institute for Niagara County Community College garnered a mention in USA Today in a story about community colleges’ desire to spread out.
The story focused on a number of community colleges nationwide taking advantage of the depressed real estate market to acquire land to cheaply utilize for classroom space. Included in the discussion was NCCC, which wants to take over the vacant Rainbow Centre Factory Outlet in downtown Niagara Falls and put in the institute.
“According to rough plans that have yet to be approved by the local government, the college would open a faculty- and student-run restaurant and retail in the mall alongside the classroom space,” the paper said.
Contact Paul Laneat 693-1000, ext. 116.
