I guess it was predictable: Hillary Clinton has joined John McCain in pushing for a gas-tax holiday. She insists that it would help poor and working-class Americans save money. Some analysts disagree, saying that at best, the savings wouldn't be much - and that there's no guarantee that retailers won't keep prices at the same level and hang on to the money themselves. A larger issue, of course, is that rising gas prices may at last force Americans to conserve. Clinton's and McCain's proposals - and the proposals of the Republicans in the New York State Legislature - encourage more consumption.

Abortion, to put it mildly, is an issue about which people of good conscience can disagree. And I understand the depth of the concern of people who oppose abortion rights. But I'm appalled by the current campaign against a reasonable state bill called the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act.Despite reports by City and other media, anti-choice activists continue to insist that the bill will allow dentists, podiatrists - even social workers and school nurses - to perform abortions. This is patently false.A YouTube video being circulated by New Yorkers for Parental Rights contains that claim and other untruths. And

I've become increasingly depressed by the slog that is the Democratic primary season - not because of the length, but because of the Clinton campaign's gains and the reason for them.I'm very much afraid that Hillary Clinton will win both the Indiana and the North Carolina primaries tomorrow - or will come extremely close in North Carolina, where she has wiped out Barack Obama's double-digit lead. The change has nothing to do with either candidate's stands on issues. There's little difference on most of them. My hunch is that people are gravitating to Clinton because she's the personality they want. Because she's

This community often seems to be in search of itself. Are we a sports town? A high-tech town? An arts center? A medical center? Conservative? Liberal? Stodgy? Cutting edge? We can be several of those things at once, of course. But our persona is often defined by community leaders. And right now, some of those community leaders are defining us as a backwater town - a place where we thumb our noses at the LGBT community, let politicians pick college presidents, and think the arts don't matter.I've mentioned this before, and I don't mean to harp on it. But we've

City Schools Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard met with the press last week and gave an update on his plans to reduce central office staff by 100 full-time employees over the course of 12 to 24 months. A reduction of 32 jobs held by central office employees has already saved the district $2.7 million, he said. And he will launch his "Dream Schools" in the fall, a program that will support six low-performing schools by concentrating "experience and resources," he said, where they are needed most. The Dream Schools program is modeled after two similar programs, Brizard said, that have been extremely

Obama supporters can breathe a little easier this morning. His margin in North Carolina was much bigger than the latest polls had predicted, and Clinton's margin in Indiana was much smaller. Still, Clinton seems determined to - as she puts it - fight on. And she's expected to win two of the next Democratic primaries, in West Virginia (May 13) and Kentucky (May 20). News reports for the past two weeks have focused on Obama's negatives; that'll change now, thanks to yesterday's results, but the mood of those reports could swing back to Clinton's favor in just a week.CNN was

What happened to Senator Hillary Clinton after her victory in Pennsylvania? Clinton's image of raw toughness and resilience was about as close to sexual energy as Clinton gets. Husband Bill was wowing the rural crowds in Indiana and North Carolina by just showing up and shaking hands. And her empathy for working-class Americans resonated, while Senator Barack Obama's seemed to drift as questions about his relationship to Rev. Wright lingered.Yes, it's the economy. Exit polls are confirming the economy is once again what's top of mind for voters.But this time it was the gas tax, stupid.Clinton and Obama sparred for

It didn't work for Hillary Clinton, but the Republicans and Democrats in the State Senate must think that proposing a gas-tax holiday will help them in next fall's election. Yesterday they approved suspending state gas taxes for the summer, with only 15 senators voting against it. The Assembly, dominated by Democrats, opposes the holiday, as does Governor David Paterson, so we're likely to keep on paying the tax.That's a good thing. The high gas prices are painful, but they're necessary. And hundreds of economists are saying that cutting the taxes on gas will make things worse, not better. In a

Though there have been fits and starts along the way, Americans have, generally speaking, become more accepting of the gay community. Consider that homosexuality, until the 1970's, was viewed in the psychiatric world as a mental illness. And there continue to be moments when our views about gender and sexual orientation are tested.The sexual identity of children is still an evolving topic, and the boundaries of what's acceptable and what is intolerable are shifting."Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Preferences," a piece that NPR ran yesterday, is a compelling look at how two families are handling their sons' natural inclination

We chose Highland Park as the site of our early-morning walk this morning, to give us one last chance to enjoy the beauty and peace of this spectacular place before the festival hordes descend. And it was early-morning perfect. The lilacs are just a nudge pre-peak, thanks to this week's cool weather. Many of the daffodils, remarkably, have hung on and are still putting on a show in a few spots. The redbuds' flowers are beginning to fade, and there are more magnolia petals on the ground than on the trees, but the folks who go to the festival will

Should Hillary Clinton quit?I'm pretty much fed up with her at this point. The pandering, the threats against Iran have worn me out. But I agree with the editorial in this morning's New York Times: neither candidate has won yet, so she has every right to stay in the race.She ought to campaign with dignity and honor, though. And she should stop yammering about counting the votes from Florida and Michigan. Theirs were not legitimate primaries. The candidates did not campaign in either state, and Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan.The Democratic parties in Florida and Michigan knew what

The Rochester city school district suspended 11,000 students during the 2006-2007 school year. The situation has grown so bad that some teachers are afraid of going to work. And some students and their parents are equally apprehensive.The district held a public hearing on its code of conduct policy last night at the central office. Suspensions and school safety were part of the discussion. The meeting should have been well-attended, but it wasn't.Board members Tom Brennan, Cynthia Elliott, and Willa Powell listened to recommendations from a handful of concerned parents and community leaders. And, not surprisingly, there was little consensus.Increasing the

John Edwards' endorsement of Barack Obama came late in the campaign, but the timing seemed as fitting as his opening tribute to Hillary Clinton. It has been a tough campaign, with two strong candidates, both of whom are highly qualified for the presidency.Maybe Edwards wanted to let the remaining voters have their say before he jumped in. Or maybe he himself was having a hard time making up his mind. Now, he was saying, it's time to wrap this thing up and focus on the general election.Edwards' endorsement isn't likely to influence many voters in the last handful of primaries.

Recent events indirectly point to the need for a community safety, health, and education wraparound program envisioned with the Rochester Children's Zone. It's been several years now since former city schools Superintendent Manny Rivera introduced the idea based the Harlem Children's Zone in New York City. The RCZ is searching for an executive director. Some possible candidates have been identified, but the program has sputtered along and needs a more permanent funding source if it is ever to going to be effective.A successful RCZ can't happen a moment too soon. The city school district is once again being asked to

The news about Senator Ted Kennedy's brain tumor is, as West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd put it, heartbreaking. The Senate, and the country, have benefited greatly from Kennedy's years in office. And service like his will be desperately needed in the future, regardless of who is elected president in November, and regardless of which party controls Congress. The news left senators in both parties in tears. And both conservatives and liberals were heaping praise on Kennedy. John McCain called him the Senate's "single most effective member.""We just don't feel like going on," The Washington Post quotes New York's Chuck Schumer

She's the last person you'd expect to be singing the praises of Senator Hillary Clinton. Arianna Huffington made the case on her website yesterday that Clinton's increasingly probable defeat is a historic win.No other woman in US history has come so close to winning her party's nomination for president. And no other woman has had such a realistic chance of winning the presidency. And she has done so in spite of celebrity endorsements and a fawning press favoring her opponent, Senator Barack Obama. And Clinton herself came into the race with her own baggage. But from the beginning, Clinton has

Today's announcement of $10 million for the county's new crime lab will likely become fodder for this year's State Senate campaign.The lab isn't controversial: local politicians agree that the current facility, located in the county's Public Safety Building, is cramped and out of date. During the announcement, District Attorney Mike Green gave an example: if a technician wants to test fire a gun, he or she must flash a light to warn the workers in the neighboring DNA section so they can get out of the room and gun can be discharged.But the Republican state senators who secured the grant

If you weren't paying attention, you might think that the late Senator Bobby Kennedy was running for president. His name comes up so often in references to his speeches or his ideology, that it hardly seems possible that he was making his run for the White House 40 years ago. There are some similarities between Senator Barack Obama and Bobby Kennedy. Obama's ability to move people emotionally is the most obvious. But some of the comparisons are a bit lavish. Kennedy was not a terribly deft politician. At least some of his celebrity came from the Kennedy name and his

It's disappointing - and baffling, frankly - to see Jim Walsh endorse oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Walsh has been one of the few Republicans in Congress to oppose drilling in ANWR. And since he's not running again, I'd have thought he had the freedom to stick by his principles. But yesterday, he announced that the current "emergency" of high gas prices has convinced him to change his mind.It's time for this country to grow up. Drilling in ANWR might lessen our dependence on oil from the Middle East, but that's just part of our problem. We need

Whether or not you agreed with the message, this president's communications team has been amazingly artful at strategy and delivery. In the beginning, everyone was on point - from talk radio to cable news to print editorials - there was hardly a kink in the armor. But you sort of knew you weren't getting the real story. Now, former Bush insider and White House press secretary Scott McClellan is telling all in his memoir "What Happened." Poor, poor Scott. What happened, indeed?Politico.com was one of the first websites to post excerpts from the book. And what a hot mess it's