Reports from the New York Times, SCOTUSblog, and MSNBC say that the Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote has upheld the Affordable Care Act. The law, which has become known as Obamacare, is President Obama’s signature piece of first-term legislation. The court’s decision appears to interpret the law’s requirement to purchase health insurance as a […]
Tim Louis Macaluso
I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but I lived in California and Florida before returning home about 12 years ago. I'm a vegetarian and live with my husband and our three pugs. I cover education, health care, and local politics for City.
Posted inNews & Opinion
NEWS BLOG: FMP project to break ground on Thursday
The first time I heard about the city school district’s facilities modernization project was during a meeting with former Superintendent Manny Rivera. He was so enthusiastic and spoke with such urgency that it seemed like it would be only months before the mammoth $325 million project to renovate and modernize Rochester’s schools would break ground. […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The march of the charters
PULLQUOTE: “We believe that learning should be fun, but that doesn’t mean it’s a laugh riot.” PULLQUOTE: “I absolutely believe in celebrations for achievement. And I tell [parents], ‘When I celebrate your child’s success, you need to be here and do it with me.’” BOX: This is the first in an occasional series on charter […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
New York’s teacher evaluations go public
Imagine having your next work performance review made public. Thankfully, most of us don’t have to worry about that. But New York’s teachers do. Lawmakers wrestled for weeks over how to give parents useful information about the competency of their children’s teachers and principals. Some lawmakers wanted everything about the evaluations out in the open, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
NEWS BLOG: Wall Street’s lesson – Take the money and run
A real estate broker friend of mine used to jokingly refer to some roofers and contractors with a couple of favorite prefixes. “You know, fly by night [roofer’s name],” he would say. Or “Take the money and run [contractor].” As investigators looked into the country’s financial meltdown, they found that corruption in the banking and […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
NEWS BLOG: Romney’s Obamacare scare
Even before the Republican primary season was underway, Mitt Romney was promising to slay the Obamacare beast on his first day in office. Earlier this week, while campaigning in Florida, Romney talked about the reforms he would put in place after repealing the Affordable Care Act. As the Nation’s Ben Adler writes, “Romney gave a […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
NEWS BLOG: Vandals and valedictorians: the School of the Arts incident
Hearing about the vandalism at School of the Arts, handiwork by mostly school seniors, many of people probably shook their heads and thought, “What can you do? Kids will be kids.” SOTA’s principal, Brenda Pacheco, said she was saddened by what appeared to begin as a prank escalated to damaging the school. But I couldn’t […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Pathways stops street work
Pathways to Peace, the youth gang and violence intervention arm of city government, has stopped much of its street-level outreach services due to a lack of resources. But a lower street presence for the four-person agency has some City Council members worried and confused, since Rochester’s problem with youth violence is well-documented. And the situation […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Vargas proposeslonger days at schools
Superintendent Bolgen Vargas is focusing on extended school hours and a longer academic year in his attempt to reform the Rochester school district. The new All City High School, which opens in September, will have a longer, more flexible school day. And it will be open on Saturdays. Now Vargas says he wants longer hours […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
City Newspaper News Arts & Ent. Music Events Movies Restaurants Classifieds Rochester’s Alternative Newsweekly NEWS BLOG: Economy’s good old days of the 1990’s
Although the Occupy Movement helped focus attention on income inequality in the US, the reality of just how wide the gap has grown sometimes got lost in tax-policy arguments about Warren Buffett’s secretary. But the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances released yesterday showed that the recent financial crisis left median American families in 2010 […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
EDUCATION: Mandatory kindergarten for Rochester?
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas says he expects the State Legislature to pass a bill that would let the Rochester school board make kindergarten mandatory. The school board would have to follow up with its own legislation. Kindergarten attendance is mandatory for 5 year olds in 11 states, but not New York. New York State […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
[UPDATED] Vargas says no excuses for grad rate drop
UPDATE: (Monday, June 11) At a press conference earlier today, Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas did not make excuses for the district’s anemic 2011 graduation rate. The State Education Department has released data showing that the rate was 45.5 percent for those students who entered ninth grade in September 2007 and graduated in June 2011. […]
