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Child pornography is high on everyone’s list of the most wicked crimes. So, when New York’s Court of Appeals reversed part of a former college professor’s conviction for having child porn on a computer, it should come as no surprise that senior Albany lawmakers acted at warp speed.

The case involved James D. Kent, who taught public administration at Marist College. His computer needed repair...

Here we go again. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) declared Monday that the GOP will roll the dice on the nation's credit rating again by refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless Democrats agree to more big spending cuts, entitlement reform and, of course, no tax hikes.

Brinksmanship like that was destructive when the GOP used it last July. The nation’s credit rating took the hit....

Showing political savvy far beyond his limited experience in the public arena, Mark Schimel came right out and blamed the media.

Schimel, for a few days at least, was the Republican candidate running against Assemb. Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck), who happens to have been his wife for 32 years.

Mark Schimel's campaign might have been enough to sink the marriage, except the couple was...

The federal government won’t restore $12 million in grants to Westchester County as a result of the affordable housing impasse, but a not-for-profit that is supposed to help market the plan will get nearly $750,000 for its work against housing discrimination – apparently without the middle man. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced that Westchester Residential Opportunities...

Editorial cartoonists from around the country have been commenting on President Barack Obama's evolving position on same-sex marriage.

Click here to see a gallery of editorial cartoons reflecting on President Obama's support for same-sex marriage....

Joe Biden gave same sex marriage an unexpected boost Sunday.

The Vice President told a national television audience he is “absolutely comfortable” with gay marriage and is heartened by its growing public acceptance.

Biden is famous for foot in mouth disease so you had to wonder if he was just off the farm again. But one day later when Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave clear voice...

The future of medicine centers on studying molecules that make us sick, then finding ways to make them start behaving. That future will include designing medicines that will instruct the errant molecules, in effect: “You know the way you always are? Don’t be that way.”  What’s going on at Stony Brook University this week will help get us there.

To reach that goal, science has to be able...

The affordable housing settlement between Westchester County and President Barack Obama’s administration is complicated. This much we know. And the politics of this deal are downright ugly, especially in election years. Congressman Bob Turner, a Republican trying to beat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, proved this again when he recently called on the president to “call off his dogs,” a reference to the...

How can educators deliver more bang for the buck?

Join Newsday Opinion columnist E.J. McMahon for a Q & A on his latest column, ‘The biggest expenses in education,’ Monday May 7 at 1:00 p.m. on Newsday's Facebook page.

McMahon, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and its Albany-based Empire Center for New York State Policy, argues that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's commission studying...