Opinion

The new mayor of the Big Apple, Bill de Blasio, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are duking it out. The mayor wants to slap his city’s millionaires with extra taxes — to fund the pre-K program the teachers’ unions want. (Note: pre-K is not for the kiddies. It is for more jobs for dues-paying […]

The New York State Board of Regents approved changes to Common Core recently, including delaying full implementation of the graduation requirements by five years — from 2017 to 2022. This means that instead of ninth graders being the first class to graduate with a Regents degree aligned with Common Core standards, it will now be

How many times have you heard people wish we had high-speed trains? Like those in Europe. Imagine Buffalo to the Big Apple in less than two hours, at 200 mph. That is not far off the average speed of the fastest Japanese and European trains. Imagine zipping between cities: Utica to NYC in an hour

Our Democratic officials are all reading from the same hymnal. Another State of the Union address; another call for the federal funding of universal pre-kindergarten. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has chimed in with his call for phasing in pre-k. The mayor of Syracuse has added her voice, and the Big Apple’s new mayor rode

Have you ever wondered why Big Apple mayors rarely move up to other offices? We have seen why in the past few weeks. Think about it. How many mayors of New York City have become governor of the state? How many have gone onto Congress, as senators for instance? How many have become president of

Getting to the table. We all want to be there. To have the opportunity to sit with senior management and be part of key discussions involving our organization, and to have our ideas heard. Better yet, we hope to have those ideas taken seriously enough to become part of the ultimate implementation plan. There is

Recently, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave his State of the State address, and there are many aspects of it that I would like to discuss over the coming weeks. The issues include tax relief, economic development and many others, but this week I would like to discuss education. There are exciting opportunities developing here

The unemployment numbers are staggering. While the Obama Administration touts the official unemployment number, which shows a decline from 10 percent in October 2009 to 6.7 percent in the latest month (December 2013), the “real” numbers are substantially higher. If we include those workers who want to convert their part-time jobs into full-time positions and

“While I would love to see 1,000 jobs created in Johnson City as a result of Traditions at the Glen getting a casino license, the simple fact that is that there are not enough people in the area to support a casino and a racino 25 miles apart.  At Tioga [Downs Casino], we currently do

In August 2005, I wrote an op-ed, entitled, “What Are You Selling?” (Subhead: Be like Bob, sell yourself). In the column, I told the story a successful local salesperson, whom I called Bob. The full column is below in italics. Read through it and check back with me on the other side:   Here’s a