Today, Republicans and Democrats stood at separate podiums and claimed that they're not playing politics with the Robutrad scandal.
Of course they are.
Are we really to believe that Republicans aren't using the situation to cast themselves as...

The public's heard a lot about the important bills that the State Senate is holding hostage - sales-tax extensions, for example.
One that's gone unnoticed, however, is Timothy's Law: the legislation that requires health insurance providers to...

Representative Eric Massa might vote yes on a House climate bill, and he might vote no.
Some media reports, like this one on Politico.com or this one from WXXI, give the impression that Massa's already decided on the bill. He hasn't, says...

I'm going to put this as simply as I can: the time has come for our state senators to knock off the silliness and get to work.
It's bad enough that the Senate has been at a standstill, held hostage by a leadership dispute, for the past two...

Two bond ratings agencies have downgraded Monroe County's rank.
The analyses were prepared ahead of the county's plans to bond about $81 million. Fitch now gives the county a BBB with a stable outlook, while Moody's gives it a Baa2 with a...

This week, the Obama White House released its first major climate report, and let me say that it's nice to see the federal government acknowledge global warming.
The report outlines the impacts of climate change nationally and on different...

When the Rochester School Board hired interim Superintendent Bill Cala, it was with one condition, say some board members: clean house at Central Office immediately. But when Cala went to terminate some of the district's highest-paid...

The Democrats had a tenuous hold on the State Senate majority anyway, so it's only a small shock that they were toppled from leadership, in a traditional sense.
Now, there's a sort of power-sharing agreement where Democratic Senator Pedro...

Governor David Paterson has a funny definition of clean energy.
Just last week he rolled out a legislative package that he said would invest in clean energy technologies, protect the environment, and so on. The problem is, he included a...

After calling Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a racist, Newt Gingrich, it seems, has had a change of heart and has publicly apologized for his choice of words.
The apology seemed to come after many conservatives began to distance...

If the state had just called the lengthy report it released today "ideas to make money or save money," more people would read it. But instead, they called it the "Final Report of the New York State Commission on Asset Maximization" - boo for...

The county's extra penny of sales tax will stay - was there any serious doubt that it wouldn't?
During a special meeting last night, the County Legislature passed a home-rule message to the State Legislature, asking them to authorize the tax....

After Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele basically told a group of conservatives that the gloves were off, and the party shouldn't be afraid of challenging President Barack Obama just because he is popular, conservatives have...

The Democrat and Chronicle has enough problems. It's hard to kick a dog when it's down, but the daily's editorial board couldn't have gotten it more wrong in its May 17 Op-ed endorsing civil unions instead of marriage for same-sex couples.
It...

A friend of New York Times columnist David Brooks has completed a rigorous assessment of charter schools operated by the Children's Zone, the Harlem educational enterprise founded by Geoffrey Canada.
Canada tackled the problems of low student...

A jury got to hear Latasha Shaw's 911 call for the first time yesterday.
So did the public
Shaw was allegedly killed by an angry mob on Dewey Avenue near Driving Park in 2007. Apparently she was there because her 13-year-old daughter was...

I hesitated writing this because I was afraid that it might encourage Glenn Beck to come cry on my doorstep. (Flash back 40 years and tell me that nub wasn't getting creamed for his milk money on a daily basis.)
The same network that promoted...

Barack Obama's pre-election speeches, often playing to themes of hope and change, seemed like clever marketing at the time.
His words, 100 days into his presidency, seem to hold even more meaning than before.
As conservatives lob every attack...

The American Lung Association has released its annual State of the Air report, which measures how metro areas across the country fare with things like ground-level ozone and particle pollution.
Monroe County got an F in the ground-level ozone...

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter is moving from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party.
That's good news for the Democrats, who are now only one shy of the 60 votes they need to prevent a filibuster in the Senate. (And assuming that Al...