Opinion Exchange

Do you have a question for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand?

She’ll be in our studio at 10:30 a.m. Monday to talk to the editorial board, and we’ll include many of your questions. Submit them by email to me, Anjanette Delgado, at adelgado@lohud.com, via Twitter at @LoHudOpinion or in the comments below.

On Monday, we’ll be broadcasting the interview live at LoHud.com/EditorialSpotlight. We’ll also take your questions then during a simultaneous live chat.

Recent news on Gillibrand:

Insider trading bill faces key Senate vote Monday

Wide-ranging, bipartisan campaign aims to get more women into politics

Gillibrand accuses state Senate GOP of ‘outright censorship’

Poll: Gillibrand looks formidable in re-election bid

Gillibrand’s bio.

File photo by The Associated Press.

State Sen. David Carlucci, D-New City, talked about mandate reform, pension reform, the Tappan Zee Bridge and Rockland’s financial future when he met with our editorial board Thursday. Listen in:

At 11 a.m. Thursday, state Sen. David Carlucci, D-New City, appears on Editorial Spotlight. You can join in the discussion by sending in your comments or questions via CoverItLive during the discussion. Also, if you want to email some ideas ahead of time, send your comments, questions, observations to ncutler@lohud.com.

JOURNAL NEWS FILE PHOTO: David Carlucci, then 29, after winning the 38th Senate District seat in November 2010.

President Obama’s State of the Union address begins at 9 ET tonight on most networks.

Watch it online instead at WhiteHouse.gov, where it’ll stream along with charts, stats and data, or on other sites.

If you’d prefer to do more than just watch his speech, however, get involved with social media.

Here’s how:

Start with Twitter. Include the hashtag #SOTU with your tweets, and search for other tweets with that hashtag. Websites such as TweetChat make it easy to follow hashtags.

Add the hashtag #WHchat to ask questions of senior White House advisers after the speech.

Other Twitter accounts to watch:
@whitehouse, the official White House account.
@BarackObama, the account run by Obama’s re-election campaign. The president tweets from this sometimes, and you can tell which are his because he’ll sign them –BO.
@TheDemocrats, the Democratic Party.
@RNC, the Republican National Committee.
@ReincePriebus, chairman of the RNC.
@mymanmitch, the official account for the campaign of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who’s giving the Republican rebuttal to the president’s address.

You can ask questions over on Facebook, too. White House advisers are expected to be standing by at Facebook.com/WhiteHouse.

You can like the GOP there as well.

On YouTube, the White House is using the site’s Moderator tool to gather questions for a live interview with the president at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30. Ask Obama about “the direction of the country” there and vote on other questions to ask. Some who ask questions will be invited to join a Google+ hangout with the president during the interview. The deadline for questions is midnight Saturday.

If you’d prefer to discuss the address IRL (in real life), log on to the president’s campaign website and enter your ZIP code to find a watch party near you.

To prep for the address, here’s our editorial on what Congress needs to do.

How would you rate the state of the union? Before the address, vote in our poll.

Suggest other Twitter accounts, hashtags and Facebook accounts to watch in the comments below.

State Sen. David Carlucci, D-New City, backs raising the minimum wage in a Community View published Sunday. He joins, among others, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, heavy hitters who also favor boosting the $7.25 New York minimum. But there is push back from other quarters. Carlucci discusses the minimum wage, Rockland County’s financial situation and other matters in a LIVE Editorial Spotlight interview 11 a.m. Thursday on LoHud.com.

Expect the economy to take center stage when President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday.

During his chat with the Editorial Board, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., points out the push and pull of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act (which he co-sponsored). New York benefits from jobs in the media industry, the movie industry and traditional publishers, but also has one of the fastest growing hi-tech sectors.  during an Editorial Spotlight interview Wednesday. The content side, he said, “correctly point out that piracy is hurting them very badly … on the other hand, a vibrant thriving internet is essential.” He says the fix needs to find a way to “go after the perpetrator without going after the medium. … I think that the language … could be signifcantly tightened up so it goes after illegal speech without going after illegal activity.” Such retrospective came the same day Wikipedia went dark and protesters rallied outside his Manhattan offices.
Schumer also talks about the payroll tax debate in Washington; income inequality and the Occupy Wall Street movement; the need for infrastructure investment, including the Tappan Zee Bridge; the end to political gridlock; Indian Point and energy; fracking and jobs; gambling and much more. See it at lohud.com/editorialspotlight.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., appears in a LIVE Editorial Spotlight interview 10 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18 on LoHud.com.