From the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to the Capitol in Albany, and through the halls of the Everson Museum in Syracuse, the cries of chief executives have been heard. The theme is the same: We must make do with less, and government must be smarter, leaner and more efficient.

President Obama’s speech in Tucson a week ago was welcome salve to a nation torn up by the bullets fired in that supermarket parking lot and the ensuing food fights that commenced in the media before the ambulance jellybeans had even stopped spinning.

Uncle Dan was the subject of a lot of family stories, but no one had ever told me that he had actually been a one-term congressman. Way back when Woodrow Wilson was president, during World War I, Uncle Dan ran successfully for the House of Representatives.

The Lake Effect EffectThe flying flakes provide an apt metaphor for the way government has been running these days—sloppy and in overabundance    It’s been snowing like a Wiki

I was a kid I had a miraculous device. It was something none of us could have imagined back in 1967, much less pictured having in your own bedroom. In the era of DVR and TiVo, iTunes and Rhapsody it may seem quaint, but as a young boy I lived in awe of a Panasonic combination AM/FM radio and cassette player.

In Focus Here’s some clarity on the issue of cameras in city neighborhoods Last Wednesday, Nov. 17, just three blocks from the spot where the police chief and the mayor were holding a press conference to talk about public safety and the placement of surveillance cameras on the West Side, a 17-year-old Syracuse boy was being stabbed by a 16-year-old acquaintance. The police announced an arrest later that same day. The arrest was not due to footage captured on a camera; it was because somebody wasn’t afraid to name the suspect. That’s community policing, and almost everyone agrees that relationships trump technology any day when it comes to keeping the public safe.

What is the greater threat to our democracy? 1. The river of money from undisclosed sources that is being funneled into political advertisements this election season? Or, 2. The fact that so many of us choose candidates based on television advertisements?.

The GOP continues to stonewall against overturning the “don’t ask, don’t tell” military mantra

If it wasn’t for the pictures of Lady Gaga addressing the protest march, I might have thought it was 1993 all over again. Or maybe we’re back in the 16th century?

In 1537 the Spanish priest Bartolome de las Casas persuaded Pope Paul III to publish Sublimis Deus, a papal decree that, for the first time since Columbus set foot in the Americas, acknowledged that the native peoples whom the conquerors were busily enslaving were actually human beings.

The Megabus tragedy highlights the inadequacies of federal oversight of motor coach operations

The bus leaving the Regional Transportation Center had just pulled its third U-turn while wandering around the North Side in search of the entrance ramp to Interstate 81. The passengers on the Megabus coach destined for New York City on that dark and snowy February night were starting to get alarmed. The driver was turning to a companion seated in the front row who was reading directions printed off from Mapquest.

Pat Driscoll brokers a deal that keeps skateboarders using a city park

Pat Driscoll acts like a big kid sometimes. And that’s a good thing. Syracuse’s commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Youth Programs who is now serving under his second mayor (the first being his first cousin, Matt Driscoll), seems to know how to get along. This summer he got called in to a situation where he was, in some minds, supposed to play the role of the heavy.

Pat Driscoll: Recognizes that recreation comes in many forms. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO