Obama's focus on young minorities confronts a problem
The following appeared in a Miami Herald editorial:President Obama rarely refers to his race and has gotten some criticism from minority groups for not doing enough to help African-Americans during...
View ArticleState needs to combat inequality
New York state leads the nation in income inequality, and this extreme inequality has become a moral and economic crisis.Bonuses, pay and profits are up at the Wall Street banks. At the same time,...
View ArticleThomas Friedman: All talk, no action in facing Putin
Just as we've turned the coverage of politics into sports, we're doing the same with geopolitics. There is much nonsense being written about how Vladimir Putin showed how he is "tougher" than Barack...
View ArticleEditorial: Don't force casinos on us
THE ISSUE:Saratoga Springs leaders pan a state law on siting casinos.THE STAKES:The state should make it clear that communities still control their destiny. In true gambling style, the Saratoga...
View ArticleGetting by with a little help from my friends
Americans recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of one national icon's debut and mourned the passing of another. I was riveted to our TV that Sunday night in February 1964 when the Beatles first...
View ArticleRex Smith: Growth rises from sturdy local seeds
You must have felt the warmer and stronger sun over the past couple of days. It won't be long now before the snow melts, and then some little green shoots will emerge, those hopeful signals of...
View ArticleNotable quotes of the week
"We are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders."— President Barack Obama, on an upcoming vote in Crimea to break away from Ukraine following Russia's...
View ArticleEditorials: Long story short
Heat and eatTo some, it's a scheme to circumvent the will of Congress. Others say it's a perfectly legitimate way to help the extraordinarily needy.States, including ours, have raised home heating...
View ArticleEditorial: Will the military get it?
THE ISSUE:A bill to take sexual assault cases out of commanders' hands fails.THE STAKES:The debate surely isn't over if recent reforms don't dramatically improve the situation. The failure of Sen....
View ArticleUnderstanding the selfie generation
A fascinating new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that millennials (defined by Pew as Americans ages 18 to 33) are drifting away from traditional institutions — political, religious and...
View ArticleCasey Seiler: Rivera: He's no Spielberg
Because it had been almost three whole months since the resignation of Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak, we all knew the chamber was due for another episode of seedy misbehavior.This time, the malefactor...
View ArticleKathleen Parker: Making SAT easier no way to fix problem
Washington When the going gets tough, well, why not just make the going easier?This seems to be the conclusion of the College Board, which administers the dreaded SAT college entrance exam. Recently...
View ArticleMaureen Dowd: In need of swag, home and abroad
If you can't spell it, you can't get it.President Barack Obama pulled a Quayle on Thursday night at a White House performance by the women of soul and muffed the title of Aretha Franklin's anthem....
View ArticleQuality early child care needs help from state
Just as quality day care programs can be a powerful force in shaping our children's lives, inferior ones can threaten their development and safety. Unfortunately, there is too much evidence to suggest...
View ArticlePaul Bray: Consider a press club for Albany
Moving the future location of the Albany Convention Center closer to Empire State Plaza and the Capitol, along with other state and local governmental sites like the Court of Appeals and City Hall,...
View ArticleEditorial: Insecurity, uncertainty
THE ISSUE:Yet another report regarding the state's Superstorm Sandy response raises questions about the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.THE STAKES:Confidence in a critical agency...
View ArticleCharles Krauthammer: Wages of weakness over Russia
WashingtonVladimir Putin is a lucky man. And he has three more years of luck to come.He takes Crimea, and President Obama says it's not in Russia's interest, not even strategically clever. Indeed,...
View ArticleCommentary: Activists help highlight the cause of immigrant women
As we celebrate Women's History Month, two women are on my mind: Grace Lee Boggs and Yuri Kochiyama. Both came from immigrant families, like mine, and helped advance the movement to empower women and...
View ArticlePrivately fund cost of college
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's plan to reduce recidivism by giving taxpayer-funded college educations to convicts is an awful idea but, there is a taxpayer-friendly way to achieve the same goal.With scarce...
View ArticleAmerican press still a laudable freedom 50 years later
The following appeared in a New York Times editorial:Perhaps no one understood both the necessity and the costs of a free press better than Thomas Jefferson. In a 1787 letter to a friend, he wrote,...
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