Opinion

Perhaps the time has come for a bile holiday. Or a hatred holiday. Shortly after he was inaugurated, FDR declared a four-day bank holiday. This was after all the states declared bank holidays. The idea was to calm the turbulence caused by so many bank failures. I propose a bile holiday — to help clear […]

A basic element of well-crafted legislation is details. Well-written bills detail what parts of existing law will change, how the change will impact people, penalties if they apply, and include estimates of their fiscal impact. Such details, however, were nowhere to be found when New York’s so-called Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act passed the state

If there is one thing we’re good at in this country, it is expanding things. From our waistlines and hamburgers to the NBA season, we know how to make things bigger and longer. Please note I do not imply necessarily better. The Baseball Hall of Fame serves up a good example. In 1980, I went

The NY ABLE 529 Plan was created to help families find a better way to afford expenses related to disabilities. It is similar to the successful 529 College Savings Account program, and allows people to open a tax-advantaged savings account that individuals with disabilities and their families can use to pay for qualified expenses.  In order to

Our language police have their hands full. Lately, they have pushed the Berkeley (California) City Council to scrub supposedly sexist words like manpower and manholes — in favor of human-effort and maintenance holes. (Please imagine a worker saying “Hey Sam, pry open that maintenance hole, would ya?”) Berkeley also wants its employees to use they

I’ve been struck recently by news coverage of climate change and humans’ degradation of the planet. Two opposing themes keep appearing. One is the sense that, as individuals, there’s little we can do; the forces are too large. The other — and I think many Americans would agree with this — is that as citizens of the

Too many salespeople find themselves running on fumes when it comes to prospects. “I get up every morning and ask myself the same question: Who am I going to talk to today,” said a life-insurance salesperson who had been in the business for 30 years. He’s far from alone. Closing sales is the goal, but

Across New York state, we have many county fairs, festivals, and events taking place this summer, and the Finger Lakes Region is no exception. County fairs, in particular, are a big draw to some communities and help local businesses with economic growth and exposure, particularly in the agri-tourism sector.  I invite you and your family,

In the fall of 2013, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) announced that it would ban hunting with firearms on 5,300 acres of its property in the Adirondacks. The ban was a result of the ill-conceived SAFE Act that was enacted earlier that same year. I am pleased to report that an amendment