WATERTOWN — The COVID-19 pandemic is a critical public health issue generating proportionate government response due to the nature of the spread of the virus. Read More ⇒

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE — Look, I know it’s hard to do when the coronavirus is coming after us, but stand up and cheer. Read More ⇒

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE — You’re still reeling from how botched the federal government’s response to COVID-19 has been. You won’t believe how messed up the census is. Read More ⇒

FORT WORTH, Texas (Tribune News Service) — In February — a lifetime ago — columnist David Brooks declared the nuclear family “a mistake” in a much debated piece for The Atlantic. Read More ⇒

EVANS MILLS — The news lately and understandably has been focused on one word: coronavirus. COVID-19 is a viral pandemic affecting the whole world and causing emergency medical crises as never before. Read More ⇒

The date at the top of the page today is April 1. It is the beginning of a new month, a month that we anticipate will be filled with the marvelous signs of springtime and hope. Read More ⇒

GEORGETOWN, Texas (Tribune News Service) — At some point — certainly not by Easter and maybe not by Easter 2021 — we will have enough space to look back and consider what we learned from the coronavirus crisis. Read More ⇒

When Rev. Jay Vorhees, pastor of City Road Chapel just outside Nashville, Tenn., saw dozens of people in his community laid off as restaurants and bars were forced to close because of COVID-19, he started a fund to buy grocery store gift cards to help them get through the crisis. Read More ⇒

A few words on the quiet death of an Italian priest. Read More ⇒

WATERTOWN — Here we sit on the precipice of the unknown. Up here in the north country, we are in the lull before the COVID-19 storm. Read More ⇒

WATERTOWN — I just got back from dinner at a friend’s house in these times of no restaurants and limited social interaction. Read More ⇒

FORT WORTH, Texas (Tribune News Service) — Remember that iconic BBC interview of professor Robert E. Kelly on Skype from his home office? He was trying to speak soberly about the political upheaval in South Korea when his toddler-aged daughter burst in, followed by his infant son in a rollin… Read More ⇒

KINGSTON, Ontario, Canada — In the past, I have often written in this newspaper’s pages (and in the Kingston Whig-Standard on my side of the border) of the historic importance of the inspiring visit to our joint area by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1938. Read More ⇒

Is having a chip on your shoulder good, bad or maybe both? Read More ⇒

WASHINGTON — As public funding for higher education has declined, institutions such as SUNY have begun to heavily rely on graduate students to teach much of its coursework. It also has dramatically increased the fees they impose on graduate students, many for the sake of giving them “access”… Read More ⇒

A few years ago, my friend Ruth told me about a website from Cornell University where we can watch nesting red-tailed hawks. Read More ⇒

Since school closures swept the north country last week as a result of the nationwide coronavirus pandemic, many parents have spent hours scrambling to find websites and other educational resources for their children. Read More ⇒

By the time the urgent text message warning that the U.S. military was about to deploy soldiers across the country to enforce a nationwide quarantine landed on Pamela Chelin’s phone this week, it had already made its way to an untold number of people. Read More ⇒

A fracking phaseout is both wise and necessary. Read More ⇒

There has been a lot of political chatter lately about banning safe hydraulic fracturing — better known as “fracking — and ending natural gas and oil leasing on federal land. Read More ⇒

ALBANY — On behalf of the Association on Aging in New York, we would like to strongly encourage the public to consider the breadth of impact that COVID-19 will have on the aging population and their caregivers. Read More ⇒

FORT WORTH, Texas (Tribune News Service) — When social distancing was first suggested as a means of reducing the spread of the new coronavirus, several of my friends joked how great it is to have public health experts affirm their antisocial tendencies. Read More ⇒

We have learned new words and terminology these past few weeks. Read More ⇒

Sexism did it. Read More ⇒

Hidden from public view, the fossil fuel industry and a complicit federal government are aggressively working to make America’s shared public lands a primary engine for unregulated climate pollution, when instead these lands can be a critical part of addressing the climate crisis. Read More ⇒

There are many uncertainties in life, but there are at least three things of which we can be certain: Read More ⇒

ALBANY — New York state has some of the most ambitious climate and clean energy policies and job development strategies in the nation. Read More ⇒

WATERTOWN — In 2018, I was running for this office and I knocked on a man’s door in Redwood. Meeting people where they’re at is not just something I think makes for a good campaign effort, it’s an important part of being a good representative — constantly reaching out to listen to the people… Read More ⇒

When we first moved to the north country, now more than 50 years ago, a favorite place to be was the old Montreal Forum. Read More ⇒

All Americans, regardless of political party, want access to timely, high-quality health care. The question is how to get there. Do we harness the power and innovation of the private sector, or do we hand it to the government and hope for the best? Read More ⇒

Last week the U.S. stock market suffered its largest weekly loss since 2008. A health crisis is rapidly morphing into an economic crisis. Read More ⇒

WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — Don’t blow it, Joe. Read More ⇒

DES MOINES, Iowa (Tribune News Service) — Roseanna Otto was 23 and had been separated from her boyfriend five years when she was shot to death last May 27 in her Winterset, Iowa, home — as their two daughters slept in the next room. Read More ⇒

Corporations these days aren’t trusted any more than Congress, elites or media, even though they provide us with jobs, food, clothing, computers, you name it. Read More ⇒

HARTFORD, Conn. (Tribune News Service) — I’m trying to figure out how nervous to get about the new coronavirus. Read More ⇒

PHILADELPHIA (Tribune News Service) — A few years ago, an LGBTQ couple approached Bethany Christian Services and expressed an interest in becoming foster parents. Read More ⇒

Today has been designated as National Grammar Day. Read More ⇒

You’d have thought she had thrown Bernie Sanders to his death from a tower of million-dollar bills. Read More ⇒

FORT WORTH, Texas (Tribune News Service) — It’s been about four months since an ethics committee at Cook Children’s Medical Center, in accordance with the Texas Advance Directives Act, determined that the ventilator sustaining little Tinslee Lewis, should be removed — and longer still since … Read More ⇒

HARTFORD, Conn. (Tribune News Service) — “I’m fine but, wow, thanks for asking! Very few people ask how Mom is doing; we usually get asked how baby is doing, and that’s that.” Read More ⇒

It is a sign of our times that Attorney General William Barr tried to do something right and some illiberal liberals, including not a few in the media, decided that it was wrong on the basis of mindless presidential squawks, factual ignorance and in some cases political opportunity. Read More ⇒