Mall renovations, the construction of a for-profit college's campus, and several projects that move jobs from one local town to another: these are the latest batch of projects getting economic development subsidies from the county Industrial...

Outrage over government spending, particularly on social programs, helped fuel the Tea Party movement. And it has been a key issue for conservative presidential candidates, who have all pledged to cut spending.
But some recent reports show that...

The latest news on what Newt Gingrich is correctly calling a roller-coaster ride: Mitt Romney is now leading in Michigan, according to one poll.
Real Clear Politics says Romney's leading Santorum by 2 points in a new Mitchell/Rosetta Stone poll....

The Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council will have its first meeting of 2012 on Wednesday at Monroe Community College, an Empire State Development spokesperson says.
A time for the meeting hasn't been set yet.
Ultimately, the...

Worth a read: Bill McKibben's "Why Not Frack?" in the current New York Review of Books.
McKibben reviews two books on the topic - Seamus McGraw's "The End of Country" and Tom Wilber's "Under the Surface: Frack, Fortunes, and the Fate of the...

For much of the last century, the superpower status of the US was in part based on the ability to fight multiple wars at one time.
There are similar expectations for the next permanent superintendent of city schools.
The next superintendent...

I have to admit: I'm conflicted about the push to have the Democratic Party include a same-sex-marriage plank in its platform when it holds its convention in September. And I'd love to hear from some local gay-rights advocates.
Is this a good...

At its heart, redistricting is about representation.
State and federal laws lay out the criteria for the districts, but legislators have become masters at technical compliance of the law without meeting the intent. They're supposed to draw...

Following up on my column this week on Iran: Do read Fareed Zakaria's Washington Post column today, "How History Lessons Could Deter Iranian Aggression."
Zakaria delves into something I didn't touch on - and that I'm wrestling with: what if the...

We've been chuckling in our newsroom about recent articles about Rochester in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The two papers have been writing about the post-Kodak condition of our little town, and they've been painting a...

The last time I drove through Virginia there were signs, bumper stickers, mugs, T-shirts, and a slew of other tourist paraphernalia calling it the state for lovers.
My-oh-my, how things have chilled.
Virginia's House and Senate, according to...

Throughout much of 2011, we heard about the widening income gap between average Americans and the wealthy. Frustration over income disparity helped to fuel the Occupy Wall Street movement.
But the income gap may have deeper roots than anyone...

Albany's legendary dysfunction may mean independent redistricting after all, but not in the way that advocates wanted.
Yesterday, a federal judge recommended that the federal courts take over the redistricting process. The decision came as...

He holds coffee greetings with parents and community members at least twice a month. He's walked city streets and knocked on doors in search of students who aren't in school. And he can be seen smiling from billboards around the city,...

Hoo boy.... The Republican presidential contest just keeps getting more interesting.
Public Policy Polling is reporting that Rick Santorum led Mitt Romney by 15 points in a survey conducted February 9 and 10.
I'm not making too much of that;...

 
On Wednesday, you can tell state legislators what you think about the proposed state Assembly and Senate redistricting maps. The legislature's redistricting task force will hold a public hearing on the new plans at the Monroe County...

So now we wait to see how far President Obama will back down on contraceptive coverage.
Many media sources are reporting that the administration will announce some kind of compromise later today. That's a terrible mistake. As I wrote earlier...

Can't get enough Newt? Well, who can?
Rebecca Gingrich-Jones, wife of Newt Gingrich's gay half-sister Candace, is coming to Rochester in April for Bread & Water Theatre's production of She Said/She Said. Rebecca Gingrich-Jones wrote the...

The draw-down of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan seems to be popular with Americans, as well it should be. But apparently that doesn't mean we've learned anything from our involvement there. Nor, apparently, have we learned anything about...

Jiminy Christmas! For anyone hoping for an Obama victory in November, the Republican presidential competition is proving to be an awful lot of fun.
Yesterday, everybody seemed to think that Mitt Romney had the nomination locked up. The most...