The Editorial Board of The Journal News and LoHud.com wants to hear from candidates vying in the March 18 elections for village office. A campaign database is being assembled for voters. It will contain information about the races, including what is at stake, who is running, and what the candidates have to say — in their [...]

Then watch our Opinion pages and this Web site under “Opinion’’ in coming weeks for instructions on how to access a questionnaire about your candidacy and have it posted on our “Village Elections ‘09’’ Web site.

Whether you’re running for mayor, board trustee or village justice, we, and the voters, are going to want to hear [...]

What do Lehigh Acres, Fla., and the counties of the Lower Hudson Valley have in common? Hopefully, not too much.

The Florida “exhurb’’ of Fort Myers in Florida, Lehigh Acres has two claims to fame this week: It was featured as the Sunday centerpiece on page one of The New York Times, and it was a [...]

In all the gloom about the economy and who will likely get hurt despite the efforts of government, the business sector and advocacy groups, it’s worth remembering that Westchester County is fortunate to have activists organizations that mean business about their missions. In fact, county residents have two “WCAs.’’

Take the Westchester County Association, which has [...]

I took a few days earlier this week to visit our state capital, to do two things:

1) Accept a “Public Education/Media Award’’ award for The Journal News from the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services for our editorial work on behalf of people with mental illness, both in the public policy and funding arenas. [...]

Gov. David Paterson is expected to announce in a few hours that he has chosen Democratic U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, whose district sprawls from the mid-Hudson Valley to north of Albany, to fill New York’s U.S. Senate seat. It was vacated this week by Hillary Clinton of Chappaqua, now secretary of state.

Wondering what to do about property tax relief in New York? Hear some ideas — including the benefits of a tax “cap’’ — from Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, chairman of the state Commission on Property Tax Relief, tomorrow night. Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining, longtime member of Assembly tax committees, will host Suozzi at a [...]

Anyone fortunate enough to attend the 144 graduation ceremonies of Manhattanville College, Purchase, in May 1995 heard one of the most powerful—and atypical—commencement speeches ever. While the speaker, playwright August Wilson, gave the obligatory congratulations to the graduates, his exhortation to go forth and conquer was anything but typical. In his unmistakable gravelly voice, Wilson, [...]

(Editor’s note: The following commencement speech was given May 13, 1995, at the 144th commencement of Manhattanville College, Purchase.)
‘We must ask: Is this who we want to be?’
By August Wilson
Mr. President (Richard Berman) distinguished faculty, Board of Trustees and members of the graduating class:
I am honored to join you today. I salute you and your [...]

Among animals, birds are considered the sentinels of nature, watching, screeching alerts to danger, sometimes seeming to laugh at human foibles. Among New York watchdogs, Blair Horner is a top sentinel of Albany, alerting the rest of us to the dangers of a democracy that is not running as one, of elected officials run amok. [...]