A shining moment for our student

We gathered at Kelley’s 15 strong Wednesday night to break bread for Elisabeth, to show this amazing young woman how proud we all are of what she’s accomplished these past two years. The food was good. The smiles were better. We were thrilled to then head down the road apiece to Onondaga Community College. My…

Bad news in black and white makes me look inside again

A New York State Attorney General’s report carried discouraging statistics about discipline and the Syracuse City School District, I discovered when I read a story by James T. Mulder, a friend and former colleague of mine at the big daily. Included was the statistic that black students are disciplined at twice the rate of white…

Bernie Williams, at the park and in the theater

Bernie Williams would rather talk about his current pursuit as a guitar player than his past career as an all-star center fielder with the New York Yankees, publicist Steve Fortunato said while setting up my phone interview two days ago. I can respect that. During a very invigorating phone conversation yesterday, Bernie Williams told me…

Lesson learned

The students from the middle school in Utica picked their spots carefully on the floor on a high story in the refurbished building on the west side of Syracuse that houses the offices, studios, everything that makes public television station WCNY. It was the start of the program called Enterprise America. Mrs. Straub announced herself…

You taught your students well, and we still appreciate it

Neal and Carol Bandlow laughed when I brought up how a car full of us Morrisville Agricultural and Technical College journalism students would pull into their driveway just a couple miles east of the campus and think nothing about knocking on the door and being welcomed in. That was back in what I consider my…