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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 play, which is about a mother renouncing her homosexuality and trying to keep
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Just in from the Washington Post: a federal appeals court has ruled that California's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Proposition 8 was approved by a slim majority of the state's voters in 2008.
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I am intrigued and bothered by this LeRoy "mystery illness" case. What's really eating at me is the dismissal by some of the "conversion disorder" diagnosis. And I'm not saying that the victims, families, and their doctors shouldn't investigate this spontaneous outbreak of Tourette-like symptoms to exhaustion. Of
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FINALLY! Finally, someone has put into words what's been bothering me about Mitt Romney. Much has been made of Romney's pitch-perfect appearance, and he certainly seems like the candidate programmed by central casting. But there's something off, isn't there? The Atlantic nails it in an article called "The Uncanny
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Another Rochester neighborhood is worried it could lose its YMCA. The Southwest YMCA on Thurston Road is less than a handful of miles away from where the Collegetown YMCA would be, if that deal goes through. A few weeks ago we reported that neighbors - worried about the proposed
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I continue to be troubled by the lack of transparency in the effort to review the police oversight system. I first called for greater transparency back in October when I happened to catch notice of an upcoming meeting in a City Council member's newsletter. That Council member, Matt
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I had a chance recently to talk to John Klofas, criminal justice professor at RIT, about the situation at the Liberty Pole. Several local media organizations reported that approximately 200 young people met up at the Liberty Pole one afternoon a couple of weeks ago to fight or to
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Kodak's role in Rochester's future will be much different from its role in the city's past, said Mayor Tom Richards this morning, reacting to the news that Kodak had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But, Richards said, most everyone has known that for a long time and the
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This is bizarre. I'm sure you've heard about the big fight at the Liberty Pole last week. As many as 200 kids walked down there after a planned fight at East High was disrupted by administrators and police. The Democrat and Chronicle has reported, directly and indirectly, on the alleged
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There's little doubt in my mind that Mitt Romney will end up being the Republican nominee. I think the people who don't like him because he's too corporate, too Mormon, too bland, too... whatever will eventually see him as the only "real" candidate and hold their noses. Like the
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I don't believe for a minute that Elaine Spaull gave up the City Council vice-presidency willingly. It's not in her nature to go gently into that good night. Council voted this week to give the vice presidency to longtime Council member Dana Miller. Lovely Warren remains president. It's not like the vice
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I like Bob Duffy. Really, I do. I just don't think he was a particularly good mayor. That becomes increasingly clear to me with the passage of time. I think Duffy's belief in his own core goodness cast a weird spell on the city. His sunny optimism and expertly
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If the next year follows the last few, one major story will break early in 2012 and become the dominant theme of the year. Last year it was mayoral succession. The year before that was mayoral control. So what will be 2012's signature story? It may very well be something no
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I know what a meme is and how it applies to the Internet. I remember that Rick Astley thing a few years ago, and the LOLcats. Is there such a thing as a Twitter meme? I follow "Rochester NY," and the past few days I've noticed quite a few Tweets that
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What do you do when an organization is accused by a respected source of "compounded failures," mismanagement, and neglect? Why, you give the person responsible for overseeing that organization a big, fat raise, of course! Welcome to Republican Land, Monroe County, USA, where consistently burying your
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I don't remember the context, but during a job interview many years ago, my interviewer remarked that "Rochester is a river town, not a lake town." What struck my young ears then as incredibly profound now seems a crack about small-mindedness. The river's on my mind because it seems
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Members of Occupy Rochester stormed the Rochester Riverside Convention Center today (see video), where the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation was holding a program on the city's economy. Featured guests were Mayor Tom Richards and County Executive Maggie Brooks. Occupiers stormed the lobby just as the luncheon was
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District attorney-elect Sandra Doorley's decision to dismiss five prosecutors doesn't bother me that much, beyond the remorse I feel for anyone out for work, or soon to be. Doorley's allowed to make the office her own, and personnel changes are certainly not unheard of when new leadership comes in. Republicans are
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I got a glimpse yesterday into the technological heart of the Rochester Police Department and came away wide-eyed at the level of sophistication. The command center is on the first floor of the Public Safety Building on Exchange Boulevard. There are several large, flat-screen monitors on a
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Several social-justice groups will protest an impending Rochester eviction on Monday, November 14. The action is being undertaken, the groups say, by Wells Fargo Bank against the Steidel Family of Rochester. "In 2008, due in part to the economic collapse, (Steidel's) business closed. Now, after repeated attempts to work
