Things have to be pretty bad for Democrats. President Obama's speech last night on ending combat operations in Iraq has already turned into a Republican narrative about giving former President Bush the credit he deserves.
I give him plenty of...

Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh's book "Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor," should be required reading for all city police departments, social service agencies, and elected officials.
Venkatesh, now a professor of sociology and...

Last night, to mark a major new phase in our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama gave a somber, thoughtful, sometimes eloquent speech.
Based on what I read online this morning, though, few media commentators liked...

Amid the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from politicians, media figures, and ordinary Americans, it's interesting to see that illegal immigration may actually be decreasing.
The Pew Hispanic Center today released a report that says the...

Steve Inskeep's NPR interview with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair this morning was fascinating - and dismaying.
I guess I had bought into the myth that Blair was persuaded against his will, or trapped, somehow, into supporting the Bush...

RGRTA is apparently hitting all its marks on its way to getting final approval from the city for a Mortimer Street transit center.
"I'm very impressed and pleased with their level of responsiveness," says City Council member Carla ...

I've been waiting to get a look at David Byrne's "Bicycle Diaries" for a while, for a very specific reason that I'll get to momentarily.
The book came out last year, but the paperback is about to hit the shelves, which explains why the...

September is national prostate cancer awareness month. And I've been thinking about it for days.
Prostate cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer after skin cancer, and it is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men in the...

(Thud.) Pardon my body hitting the floor after reading the results of the Rochester Business Journal's weekly Snap Poll.
The RBJ asked respondents if they support the Tea Party. A shocking 51 percent said they do. And 45 percent said they'd be...

In a little over a week, Sweden residents will have a chance to speak out formally about the town's proposed wind-energy regulations.
The Town Board has scheduled a public hearing on the law for 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday, September 14. It'll be...

A conservative action group is coming after a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program organized by northeastern states.
The group is Americans for Prosperity, and the program in questions is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. RGGI - "reggie,"...

David Brooks' column in today's Times, "The Gospel of Wealth," had me chuckling.
He was writing about the excesses of the past few years, as consumers bought huge houses and "bulbous vehicles like Hummers and Suburbans. ("The rule was, The...

On the one hand, maybe we should simply ignore Terry Jones. His Gainesville, Florida, congregation is said to have 50 or fewer members. He's done hateful, radical things before, he'll obviously keep doing them, and so far, he has the...

I couldn't let go of the remote control last weekend. I kept flicking back and forth between C-SPAN, MSNBC, and CNN trying to get some answers.
Do tax cuts really stimulate the economy and create jobs?
The theory that reducing taxes on the...

The American Institute for Economic Research ranks Rochester as the 8th best mid-size city in the country as an area in which to attend college.
Rochester jumped eight points from last year in AIER's "2010-2011 College Destinations Index"...

Just about everyone knows that the collapse of the housing market is partly to blame for the recession. Since real-estate markets have historically been cyclical, many economic and real-estate analysts were hoping housing would rebound...

It's difficult to suss out where and really if things went wrong with the Erie Harbor project in the South Wedge. I'm inclined to think it's just the push-pull of the democratic process.
Questions and complaints about design are common with...

Pollution from coal power plants has been linked to all kinds of health effects, particularly respiratory and cardiac problems.
A new report from the Clean Air Task Force quantifies those effects at local levels. For example, the report projects...

It's anybody's guess, I guess, as to whether Florida pastor Terry Jones and his flock will mark 9/11 by burning Korans.
Regardless of what happens, though, his threat has created a fascinating - and serious - media discussion.
According to a...

Lately I've found myself talking to a few folks about legislative redistricting and reading a couple of old reports about it.
This is a really important issue, especially since the state legislators who get elected in November, along with the...