Gathering students' data turns invasive
The data mining the state Education Department has in mind with inBloom is extensive, bordering on invasive.The company touts the need for such data mining as beneficial to streamlining education....
View ArticleSmith: Sidestepping to redefine leadership
Only in one other brief season over the past seven decades has Albany been able to call someone "mayor-elect." So there's a stature already attached to Kathy Sheehan, one that Jerry Jennings enjoyed...
View ArticleEditorial: Long Story Short
Troy needs a snow planUsing old kitchen chairs to hold a shoveled-out parking place is a decades-old tradition of sorts for those living along the narrow streets of South Troy. That it continues to...
View ArticleReport fails to 'fix' Common Core
Sen. John Flanagan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, released his report on the Regents' Reform Agenda following months of hearings on the Common Core, testing and student privacy....
View ArticleThe many casualties of War between the States
The year 1863 was a difficult one for the people of the Capital Region and across upstate New York. Church bells chimed in almost continuous remembrance of lives lost on distant battlefields.The year...
View ArticleEditorial: Licenses for immigrants
THE ISSUE:Driver's licenses are again proposed for undocumented immigrants in New York.THE STAKES:The time is right to take this reasonable step toward immigration reform. Perhaps it was too soon...
View ArticleRobinson: Making the right call on NSA is tough
Washington Blue-ribbon panels are often toothless and useless. But the eminences appointed by President Barack Obama to review the out-of-control National Security Agency have produced a surprisingly...
View ArticleMarcus: Metadata questions left to us all
In policymaking, as in life, there is an important difference between can and should. Whether a particular practice is constitutional does not make it sound. Whether the government is permitted to do...
View ArticleSeiler: Escape from Biff Tannen's
If you could sum up in a word the anxieties of those who oppose the possible expansion of the Saratoga Casino & Raceway into the Capital Region's first full-tilt gambling hall, it might be...
View ArticleFriedman: Sharing the benefits of a 'sharing economy'
I interviewed Brian Chesky, the co-founder of Airbnb, in July about the "sharing economy." While I was researching Chesky's company, I got a call from an entrepreneur, Tracy DiNunzio. She had heard...
View ArticleWeather keeps Empire State Plaza rink closed through weekend
ALBANY — Warm temperatures and rain will keep the Empire State Plaza Ice Rink closed at least through Monday, according to the state Office of General Services.Ice conditions will be re-evaluated on...
View ArticleMuch more can be done to curb deadly diseases globally
The following is from an editorial in The New York Times:International health agencies at the United Nations have documented enormous gains the past decade to curb three devastating diseases: AIDS,...
View ArticleThe economy according to Curly
There was, I'm pretty sure, an episode of "The Three Stooges" in which Curly kept banging his head against a wall. When Moe asked him why, he replied, "Because it feels so good when I stop."Well, I...
View ArticleEditorial: Hardly very neighborly
THE ISSUE:A federal petition and a Supreme Court case will decide whether cleaner air is coming for Northeastern states.THE STAKES:Smog contributes to untimely deaths and many illnesses, and costs us...
View ArticleA good education model
Many factors enter into a family's school choice, if they are lucky enough to have a choice. In urban districts, a family can often choose among public neighborhood, magnet or charter schools. Some...
View ArticleScience's Sputnik moment
The vocabulary of our national debate has been dominated by a pair of fiscal S-words: sequestration and shutdown. University presidents like to use another S-word, Sputnik, to explain the great fear...
View Article'Duck Dynasty' quackery
I must admit that I'm not a watcher of "Duck Dynasty," but I'm very much aware of it. I, too, am from Louisiana, and the family on the show lives outside the town of Monroe, which is a little more...
View ArticleIdeas from a manger
Pause for a moment, in the last leg of your holiday shopping, to glance at one of the manger scenes you pass along the way. Cast your eyes across the shepherds and animals, the infant and the kings....
View ArticleKrauthammer: Obamacare is the big lie
Washington The lie of the year, according to Politifact, is "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it." But the story of the year is a nation waking up to just how radical Obamacare is —...
View ArticleAnnual holiday letter from 2009
Every December, I think about sending out our annual holiday letter. I say "think about" because we haven't actually sent out a holiday letter in decades. I know this because we still have some...
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