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There's a negotiating tactic where one side in the discussion makes an outlandish proposal, knowing full well the other side will reject it. The proposers are really interested in a different offering, which will look much more appealing to the other side in comparison. I have to wonder if
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According to the League of Conservation Voters, Republican Ann Marie Buerkle has the worst environmental voting record of Rochester's House delegation. And she has the second worst record of all of New York's representatives. Today, the organization released its environmental scorecard, which ranks Senators and House members based on their
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At approximately 2 a.m. Thursday, Rochester police officers walked into Washington Square Park and asked a group of seven Occupiers for identification. That much is not in dispute. But several other details about the evening are. Occupy Rochester and its allies say the police were harassing the protesters, but
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Over the last 50 years, Lake Ontario's coastal wetlands have been knocked out of balance, strangely enough, by a plan to balance lake levels. The plan, which dates back to 1963, tries to balance the needs of hydropower facilities, commercial shipping, recreational boating, and waterside property owners. All are significantly affected
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A state task force released its proposed Assembly and Senate district lines today. I've only had a chance to examine the Senate districts so far, but this much is clear: Monroe County is facing some changes in its representation. The county will be divided up among six Senate districts,
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President Barack Obama took a muddled approach to energy issues in last night's State of the Union address. Obama led that part of his speech with a fact: American oil production is at the highest it's been in eight years. His administration, he said, has opened millions of new acres
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One of the driving factors behind shale gas exploration has been economics. Energy companies started drilling and fracking deep, horizontal wells because the natural gas price was high enough that they'd get a good return. It appears that those economics aren't so favorable anymore. The website for The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register in
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The House seats held by Kathy Hochul and Tom Reed are increasingly likely to survive redistricting. As part of the once-a-decade redistricting process, New York has to eliminate two Congressional seats. That much was made clear by Census results released in late December 2010. Conventional wisdom was that a Republican
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The way Monroe County pays its share of Medicaid costs could soon change. Governor Andrew Cuomo released his 2012-13 budget proposal today, and it includes changes meant to lessen counties' Medicaid costs. Specifically, Cuomo wants the state to pay for any growth in counties' Medicaid obligations. He also wants
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Governor Andrew Cuomo is taking a hard line on teacher evaluations. During his budget address this afternoon, Cuomo said that a 2010 state law requiring a statewide system of teacher evaluations hasn't worked out. The law was enacted to help New York qualify for the Obama administration's Race
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Today's the day: at 5 p.m., the state's Department of Environmental Conservation is closing off comments for its draft regulations and environmental statement on high-volume hydraulic fracturing. Next, the DEC staff will spend months responding to those comments. The DEC has a lot of work ahead. As of this morning,
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A well-known brewery in the Cooperstown area says that fracking may force it to relocate or fold. Brewery Ommegang lays out its case in a friend of the court brief, which it submitted in support of a Town of Middlefield zoning law. That law bans heavy industry, including gas and
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Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposal for an all-crimes DNA database, which he made in yesterday's State of the State address, isn't getting the attention it deserves. Cuomo wants legislation that will require anyone convicted of a felony or penal-law misdemeanor to submit a DNA sample for the state database. Thomson Reuters says
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In his State of the State address today, Governor Andrew Cuomo laid out an economic agenda that calls for a convention center in Manhattan, another round of competitive economic development awards, and casino gaming. Rochester never came up in the speech. Cuomo singled out Buffalo for $1 billion in
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In New York, some communities have made creative use of zoning laws to ban hydraulic fracturing. In the broader sense, these communities - the Southern Tier town of Dryden is a prominent one - have enacted zoning laws that ban heavy industry within municipal limits. Then they've drafted definitions of heavy
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Governor Andrew Cuomo will deliver his State of the State address at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Traditionally, governors use the address to lay out their agendas for the year. The official announcement didn't mention what topics Cuomo will address. But some lawmakers and reporters have done plenty of informed speculating while
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Going into this morning I knew Congressional approval ratings were low. I didn't realize, however, that approval ratings had slipped to single digits in some polls, that is until I read this article on the NPR website: "Congress Really Is as Bad as You Think, Scholars Say." The whole point
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Brighton officials say they want to ban hydraulic fracturing and related activities within town limits for one year. Wednesday night, the Town Board will hold a public hearing on a proposed law that will do just that. The law is largely symbolic, since Brighton is not within the Marcellus
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The payroll tax-cut extension passed by the Senate and, this morning, by the House is not a clean deal. It does extend the current payroll tax rates, which essentially determine how much a worker pays in Social Security taxes. But the legislation also includes a provision requiring President Barack Obama to
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Mercury's damaging effects are well known. It can cause developmental or neurological problems or even kidney damage. For that reason, it's about time the federal government is acting to rein in mercury pollution from power plants, particularly coal-powered plants. Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a new rule governing mercury emissions
