To those of us who want to contain suburban sprawl, Portland, Oregon, has been a model. Now there's another city to watch: Sacramento, California. This morning's Wall Street Journal reports on Sacramento's increasingly successful effort to encourage denser development and contain sprawl. Even developers have bought into the six-county Sacramento movement. One result, says the Journal: construction of apartments, condominiums, and town houses in developed areas has increased dramatically, and the development of large-lot subdivisions has dropped. There are numerous differences between Sacramento and Greater Rochester. And California's state government seems more interested in controlling sprawl than New York's does.

It may seem fitting to some that Jesse Helms died on Independence Day. The five-time Republican senator from North Carolina obviously had nothing to do with the colonies gaining independence from the British. But the ultra-conservative Helms built his public image around southern-style patriotism and fierce protection of the homeland. Somewhere early in his political career, Helms learned how to whip white Christian values into foaming fear and anger.His campaign battles have become legendary, sometimes defeating his opponents with stinging, race-baiting ads.He opposed both affirmative action and honoring Dr. Martin Luther King with a national holiday. He also opposed abortion

Those Christian conservatives can be such a plucky group, saving the world and all. God love ‘em. But Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay might be wishing they would find something better to do with their time.It seems the mavericks at the American Family Association, who operate the Christian conservative site OneNewsNow.com, changed their filter to auto-search the AP stories they wanted to run and replace the word "gay" with "homosexual."But the IT folks at American Family hadn't thought this through.And last week headlines on OneNewsNow began replacing Tyson's last name with "homosexual.""Homosexual eases into 100 final," reads the headline on one

As tension over Iran heats up, I sure do wish a more rational, level-headed administration were in charge in Washington.Iran is bragging that it has test-launched nine missiles, and that it's capable of launching missiles that could reach Israel. Is Iran doing this out of fear that the US or Israel is preparing an attack? Is it doing it because it plans to attack Israel? Is it simply trying to look tough in discussions over its uranium enrichment?Even the administration is divided on those questions, apparently. But Bush and Cheney still believe in pre-emption. And there's no question what would happen if the

Few things really set my blood boiling these days. But Dan Quatro's comments in the D&C this morning did the trick. Quatro is majority leader in the Monroe County Legislature. The Lej picked a new trustee for MCC last night. That is to say, the Republicans did. The GOP deigned to share John Bartolotta's name with the rest of the world - including their Democratic counterparts - one whole day before the vote, then introduced it as a "matter of urgency" the next night. In GOP-speak, that means "We don't want to give anyone a chance to really think about

Is this the new face of the Republican Party?The county won't appeal the court's ruling that killed the FAIR Plan, and the suburban school districts will get their share of the county's sales tax. That puts the county's finances into massive trouble, but it erases the conflict between the county and the suburbs. If we had a chart tracking developments that are "New Maggie" and those that are "Old Maggie," this one would get a checkmark under "New." (The last-minute nomination of a new MCC board member is, obviously, "Old." OK: Brooks doesn't select the board members. So that was "Old Republican County Legislature.") Still, Brooks is going to have to

As US Representative Randy Kuhl makes his rounds pushing the Republican energy agenda - you know, drilling in ANWR - he's been trying to tie high gas prices to the woes of American automakers like General Motors. Sadly, Kuhl's got it backward. American automakers have been slow to increase their vehicles' fuel efficiency and that's been helping drive up fuel costs. GM's problem isn't high gas prices; it's poor judgment. The same goes for other American auto manufacturers. They were slow to catch on that Americans want, and the planet needs, fuel-efficient vehicles. Kuhl's own vehicle is part of the

I assume that our political leaders saw the latest bad news from the Census Bureau: Monroe County's population is down. Wayne County: down. Genesee County: down. Livingston County: down. Orleans County: down. In the entire six-county region, the population has grown in only one county: Ontario. And Ontario's has grown because people have moved there from neighboring counties. Overall, while there's a population boom in some parts of the nation, here in the Greater Rochester area, we're shrinking. Same thing's happening inside Monroe County. The city and all but one of its contiguous suburbs are losing population. Greece, Gates, Brighton, Irondequoit:

What happened to the presidential campaign? After the Hillary-Obama slugfest it has become as dull as dirt. Even the floods in the Midwest and the perennial California fires, though tragic, have been more interesting. We've watched Obama skateboard to the political center.His yes vote on FISA in favor of shielding telecommunications firms from litigation as a result of illegal wiretapping was a major disappointment to some of his core supporters. He was not the Obama they supported in the primary.For his part, McCain is trying to keep attention on his military experience and away from anything having to do with

The Democrat and Chronicle editorial writers may yet drive me nuts.Again this morning, they insisted that Maggie Brooks didn't speak out on the search for a new MCC president until "a few weeks ago."The speak-out "a few weeks ago" was her late-May lecturing of the MCC board after it became deadlocked. In a press conference, Brooks said that the search process had become a mess, that board members who couldn't put aside their personal agendas should resign, and that the board should hire former MCC President Peter Spina as interim president.But Brooks had, in fact, spoken out earlier - on

When will the gas shenanigans stop? For four hours yesterday, millionaire Congressional candidate Jack Davis bought people gas at a Greece Sunoco. As part of his stunt, he paid $2.70 a gallon out of his own pocket so voters - whoops, drivers - only had to pay $1.50, say media reports. Evan Dawson's report at 13wham.com quotes Davis, a Democrat running for Tom Reynolds' seat, as saying that he wants to raise attention about gas prices. And that he wants more domestic oil drilling - including in ANWR - and more nuclear power.Ugh.If this is what's going to pass as

I guess it was predictable: No sooner does Barack Obama get the nomination sewed up than the complaints start that he's not liberal enough.As the Times' Gail Collins noted last week, the critics seem to have forgotten something that was obvious during that long primary campaign: On the issues, there was scarcely a hair's breadth between Obama and Hillary Clinton.Now, though, some on the left are insisting that Obama has moved to the center.I never did think Obama was the most liberal Democrat around. He supports the death penalty in some cases. His health-care plan is a long, long way from single-payer

Good grief!The New Yorker's current cover has brought the magazine plenty of publicity, but I'd love to be a fly on the wall in those offices right now.The cover - Barack Obama in Muslim attire; Michelle Obama in an Afro, an AK47 slung over her shoulder; an American flag burning in the fireplace - has been big news in media around the country. Critics are noting that while the magazine has a liberal bent, this week's cover reinforces the lies that the right wing has been spreading about Obama.But it was satire, the New York insists. Or parody. Or something.The

   The Rochester Children's Zone changed its name last week to the Rochester Surround Care Community Corporation.The name change is a little bothersome. It's taken several years to build name recognition for RCZ. A lot of that effort will be lost.It was also a child-centered name and seemed more focused and easier for the general public to understand.But some type of name change was necessary, says City Council member Adam McFadden, RSCCC board of trustees chair. RSCCC was inspired by the Harlem Children's Zone, which was founded by Geoffrey Canada in the mid 1990's. Canada was struck by the number

Only in Monroe County could higher than expected sales tax revenues be bad news. The State Comptroller's Office released a report yesterday that showed Monroe County had a 4.38 percent increase in sales tax revenues between 2006 and 2007 - from $384.1 million in 2006 to $400.9 million in 2007. The growth for the first quarter of this year is even higher, the report says. So why is this bad news for Monroe? County officials opted into a plan - the sales tax intercept - where the state keeps a percentage of the county's sales tax money in exchange for

Yikes! No one is jumping out of windows, yet, but the news about IndyMac is frightening. Customers made a run on the bank last week and into Monday. They were trying to withdraw their funds out of "It's A Wonderful Life"-style fears that they may end up with nothing. The feds have already closed and reopened IndyMac, and they're telling us that there's nothing to worry about unless you have more than $100,000 in the bank. The FDIC will cover up to that amount. The run on IndyMac put the spotlight on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two institutions

The Jib Jab guys are at again in time for the campaign season. Enjoy.

New York could take a cue from its neighbor to the east. The Massachusetts Senate unanimously voted to repeal the state's 1913 law that blocks out-of-state gay and lesbian from coming to Massachusetts to get married. The state already legalized same-sex marriage for residents.It was a major victory for advocates of same-sex couples and they are hoping that the bill will be approved in the House and signed into law by Governor Deval Patrick. According to reports in the Boston Globe, the bill to repeal the 95-year-old law flew through the Senate without any resistance, and there were no protestors

Look out. The term "lame duck" is a misnomer. And misleading.You might think that with approval ratings somewhere near the bottom of Hannibal, Missouri's legendary bottomless sinkhole, George Bush and one of the most incompetent, dangerous administrations in American history are safely neutered. Wrong. They don't care what you or I think. They've said as much. The latest: Reuters, on the ABC News Web site, says that the Bush administration is trying to classify "several widely used contraception methods," including birth control pills and intrauterine devices, as abortion. Philosophers, scientists, and religious thinkers have always struggled with the question of

Executive privilege is running rampant in Washington, DC. President Bush is evoking it over CIA leaks that led to the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame.Vice President Cheney doesn't want to talk about that, either. And he feels he doesn't need to share what happened when he met with energy industry executives.And Darth Karl Rove says he has executive privilege with regards to Justice Department firings of attorneys who were not Republicans. He has told Congress to go jump in the lake. He won't appear to testify.Catchy and convenient this thing called executive privilege. The political elite seem to