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Antisemitism on College Campuses is a Direct Threat to Our Democracy
Tensions on our college campuses have risen to unsustainable levels, and without targeted, immediate action, I fear what further escalation might look like. Protests over the conflict in the Middle East have created dangerous conditions, especially for our Jewish students who are fearful to go to class, visit family, or leave their dorms at all. […]
OPINION: Bridge collapse highlights importance of infrastructure
T he collapse [in late March] of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is a vivid reminder of the crucial role that infrastructure plays in our 21st century economy. It’s also an opportunity to reflect on the importance of government in maintaining our roads, bridges, and ports. The 1.6-mile-long bridge, a fixture of the
OPINION: Protect Those Who Protect Us
Two [Central New York] police officers were senselessly gunned down [on April 14] by a deranged individual following what should have been a routine traffic stop. The two heroes, Syracuse cop Michael Jensen and Onondaga County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Hoosock, died defending the communities they swore to protect. We all mourn these shining pillars of
OPINION: You’re Used to How Congress Does Budgets. You Shouldn’t Be
There was lots of drama back at the end of March, when Congress — six months behind schedule — finally funded the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year. You may remember some of the highlights: The $1.2 trillion package funded defense, homeland security, and other key agencies (others had gotten their funding
OPINION: Good-Cause Evictions Will Make Existing Housing Crisis Worse
The New York State Legislature continues to wage war on landlords, property owners, and small businesses by insisting on including policies that erode property rights and rejecting common sense. The latest salvo comes in the form of a proposal to restrict property owners’ ability to remove tenants without “good cause.” The same proposal also includes
OPINION: Americans have common sense, but too many politicians lack it
There is a widely shared belief about the current state of U.S. politics. It runs like this: We live in highly polarized times, with Americans engaging in extreme behavior and, all too often, indulging anti-democratic sentiment and behavior. Political moderation has all but disappeared. But a pair of recent studies makes clear that this is
OPINION: Squatters’ Rights: Bad Policy Leads to Bad Public Safety
I [recently] joined small property owners and my colleagues in the Assembly Minority Conference to call out New York State’s flawed and unfair squatting laws. Thanks to a perfect storm of bad lawmaking, an overflow of unvetted migrants, and unethical TikTok posts, New York homeowners have been subjected to an unprecedented assault on their private
OPINION: FDR’s Four Freedoms Speech is Still Relevant Today
President Joe Biden reached back into history in his recent State of the Union (SOTU) address, citing a January 1941 speech in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) called on America to reject isolationism and engage with the world. This was the famous “Four Freedoms” speech, when FDR laid out his idealistic vision of “four essential
OPINION: New York’s Cannabis Operation Needs a Complete Overhaul
New York State’s attempt at legalizing cannabis has been a predictable failure. Our inefficient bureaucracy is troubling enough when it comes to basic policy items like infrastructure and taxation, so a complex policy like the commercial sale of cannabis was destined to be a nightmare for this administration. For this reason, the Assembly Minority Conference
OPINION: Can We Bridge Division
Disagree better. That’s the name of an interesting initiative at the National Governors Association (NGA) this year, spearheaded by the organization’s current chair, Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox. The idea, in a nutshell, is to “reduce partisan animosity and foster healthy debate by modeling a more positive and optimistic way of working through policy problems,”
Stay up-to-date on the companies, people and issues that impact businesses in Syracuse, Central New York and beyond.