Author: Luke Parsnow

Rash of imitation threats following Parkland tragedy means we need to better teach our youth

On Feb. 9, 1950, a relatively unknown Republican senator from Wisconsin managed to leap to the front of a post-war paranoia movement that forever turned his name into a definition for exploiting fear without basis, all for political purposes. Standing before the Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, W.V., Sen. Joseph McCarthy announced that he had a list of 205 men employed by the U.S. State Department who he claimed were “members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring” for the Soviet Union. That pivotal moment in history was eerily echoed in the last few weeks by, interestingly…

Two months ago, they were both brought together in Albany to talk politics: two longtime Central New York politicians with two different political ideologies representing two different constituencies, but who soon may seek the same office. Former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner and state Sen. John DeFrancisco dropped hints last year about their possible ambitions to challenge Andrew Cuomo in the 2018 race for New York governor. Within the same week, one of those hints became stronger and the other became reality. On Jan. 30 Republican Sen. DeFrancisco, the Senate’s deputy majority leader who has represented the Syracuse area in the…

Decision to take down controversial signs ends a feud that never needed to happen

We would really like to think of Congress as the best of us. As the upholders of law and order, we expect them to meet high standards. We also expect them to be treated no more favorably than the voters who sent them to Washington. Last week, our representatives managed to fail us on both accounts. For the second time in less than five years, the federal government was shut down for three days, the result of the same old political gridlock. During these shutdowns, federal employees aren’t able to work, national parks are closed and some members of the…

Former president’s wake in national policy, White House politics continues

You only claim victory if you come out of it with your demands met. Sen. Schumer didn’t

Within the same week, two significantly different proposals for new offshore energy production were unveiled by two different governments in two different cities by two different leaders who hold two vastly different opinions on the industry’s future. In his 2018 State of the State address on Jan. 3, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo formally announced his plan to seek 800 megawatts of new offshore wind projects in 2018 and 2019, enough wind power to generate electricity for 400,000 households. This comes nearly a year after the governor announced that a Norway-based company is planning to build an offshore wind farm…

In a recent interview with CNYCentral, New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, “We have young people coming back.” Well, sort of. The more serious truth is that an alarming number of people, young and old, are still moving out of New York to live in other states. According to United Van Lines, a St. Louis, Mo.-based moving company, the Empire State ranked as the third most- moved-out-of state in the country in 2017, finishing ahead of Illinois and New Jersey. That is a gradual improvement from the post-recession years when it ranked second from 2012 to 2015. Still, it’s…

Railing Against Using The Adirondacks As A Junkyard

If the president fires Robert Mueller, it won’t be because of advice from associates or advisers in the White House

Another new year means a new legislative session in the state capitol in Albany, a new fight over the state budget and a new legislative agenda proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In the coming days, the governor will detail his plans for gun ownership in regards to domestic violence, outlawing revenge porn and overhauling the state’s antiquated voting laws, among other new things. The only thing not new that he will most likely address is ethics reform measures to combat out-of-control state corruption. Sure, Cuomo will probably say something like, “We must take action to show the people of this…

I believe it’s a natural nugget of our humanity to use historical context in order to help explain or analyze events of the current day, and to also try to chart what the future may hold. As another year comes to a close, many journalists and historians have produced some interesting speculation about where 2017, and the time period surrounding it, falls in comparison to other eras. Some have noticed the parallels between now and the late 1800s and early 1900s. The transformation from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy (now an industrial economy to a technological economy) left…

Last summer I struck up a conversation with a stranger who eventually asked what I did for a living. A journalist, I told him, working in the media. He nodded his head, then asked me a question I was not prepared for: “So why do you guys there just make stuff up?” I was incredibly taken aback. This guy didn’t know me, didn’t know where I worked, what role I had in that work or my personal record of accuracy in that work. It’s more telling that he’s not the only one who thinks that way. It is true that…

Governor should acknowledge it’s happening under his watch and provide solutions to stop it