During World War I, Buffalo was gripped by what one authority (quoted by the late UB sociologist Ed Powell in his Design of Discord) called “a mounting and diffuse anxiety” over “German spies and plotters.” In July 1918, a Buffalo publication advised readers: “Do not wait until you catch someone putting a bomb under a […]
Jack Bradigan Spula
Posted inNews & Opinion
School buses: take a deep breath, or not
The wonderfully named author Jerry Mander tells an anecdote about the environmental effects of air travel. A Boeing Corp. physicist told him that “the pollution from the take-off of a single 747” is like “setting the local gas station on fire and flying it over your neighborhood.’” A sobering image, especially when you consider there […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Officer down, citizen dead
Even after years of Fox TV’s Cops, an amateur video shot during an incident at a Wegmans supermarket can make an impression. The video records less than two minutes of an arrest at the market August 31. It shows Rochester Police Department officers pinning Lawrence Rogers, a northeast Rochester resident who was clad only […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Planet Rochester: How are things on the ground?
Johannesburg seems a world away, and the Earth Summit a world apart. Or so it seems to Americans, thanks to our head of state, who — unlike 100 of his peers — will not be attending. But the summit is actually the most local and immediate of events — for all localities worldwide, simultaneously. […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The next Bush war
As the Bush administration beats its chest — louder one day, softer the next — it’s necessary to remember the US is already at war with Iraq.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Interviews afield: policing and racial bias
“Field interview form.” It sounds like something a reporter might pull from a back pocket. But an “FIF” is not blank or neutral. It’s a controversial tool of neighborhood policing. It’s also an indicator of what people on the street are up to, and what the police are doing about it. That’s why […]
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Fighting the long fight: activist Clare Regan
Along the timeline of death penalty reform, 1978 was a relatively slow year. According to Amnesty International, only Denmark outlawed the practice that year. Meanwhile in the US, partly because of contradictory court decisions on the question, society was in a political and moral knot. You get a local feel for this from reading […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Bushites continue their pension attack
Sheriff Bush put on his holster after Wall Street failed to heed Preacher Bush’s sermonettes. The new disguise worked momentarily, and market indicators went up. Townsfolk cheered as three bad guys — Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas and sons — were arrested and booked for “one of the most extensive financial frauds ever to take […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Clear cut on Rundel
Seven
big trees went horizontal last week on the Rundel Park mall, victims of the
desire for a wider street.Rundel Park, a quiet non-thoroughfare just opposite the newly refurbished Atlantic-University intersection,
is being upgraded with new curbs, pavement, and street lights.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Irradiation’s food for thought
Remember “cold fusion”? It sounded too good to be true. And sure enough, say most scientists today, there was no heat or light at the end of that tunnel. Now meet “cold pasteurization.” This is one term of art — “electronic pasteurization” is another — for what’s usually called food irradiation. The concept […]
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Religious journeys in the Rochester Diocese
“Getting married?” asks a webpage hosted by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester. “The Church welcomes you and is delighted you are considering celebrating this time in your life in the presence of God…. Call your parish to begin the process.” This applies only to the laity, however. Roman Catholic priests and nuns who […]
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Allegiance to history
You have to wonder how Francis Bellamy (1855-1931) would greet today’s fracas over
the Pledge of Allegiance.
