Category Archives: Uncategorized

New York City politicians have found a familiar way to announce that they are helping working people: pass a bill that could put those people out of work. Mayor Zohran Mamdani supports the proposed Delivery Protection Act, which would require Amazon and other companies to directly employ thousands of delivery workers now hired through independentContinue reading “The Cost of “Protecting” Delivery Workers”

A Valley Viewpoint NarrativeCommentary by Ed Kowalski Albany loves the word affordability. It appears in speeches, press releases, campaign ads, and budget announcements. But New Yorkers don’t pay their bills with speeches. They pay them with money they worked hard to earn. And the numbers tell a story Albany would rather talk around. New York’sContinue reading “New York’s Affordability Crisis Was Made in Albany”

A Valley Viewpoint NarrativeBy Ed Kowalski In the only debate of New York’s governor’s race, Bruce Blakeman did what a challenger has to do: he put Kathy Hochul’s record on the table and made her answer for it. He pressed her on soaring utility costs, public safety and immigration enforcement—issues New Yorkers feel in theirContinue reading “Blakeman Made the Case. Hochul Made Excuses.”

A Valley Viewpoint NarrativeBy Ed Kowalski A political candidate can tell you a great deal about her priorities in a single sentence. In the aftermath of the Bronx ICE shooting, congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier reportedly said that Oscar Belgal’s criminal record “doesn’t matter.” Belgal was shot during an attempted arrest. He was in aContinue reading “When a Criminal Record “Doesn’t Matter””

A Valley Viewpoint NarrativeBy Ed Kowalski I believe in accountability. I believe the law has to mean something, and that people who commit terrible crimes must face the consequences. Nidal Hasan was convicted of murdering 13 people at Fort Hood. Nothing about this argument diminishes the horror of what he did or the grief carriedContinue reading “Justice Is Not a Pay-Per-View Event”

Most people who come to this country without authorization are not violent criminals. Many are working to support themselves and their families. That does not excuse breaking immigration law. And it should never require us to look away when someone here unlawfully commits a horrific crime. The victims deserve to be remembered by name. InContinue reading “The Names Behind the Immigration Debate”

A camera under a woman’s desk. A supervisor who had power over her at work. Photographs taken without her knowledge. Call it what it was: a calculated violation of a woman’s privacy by the man who was supposed to lead her department. Former Pleasant Valley Highway Superintendent John Baxter was sentenced to 60 days inContinue reading “Valley Viewpoint: Public Office Is Not a License to Abuse Trust”

There is a difference between compassion and pretending consequences do not matter. A 24-year-old Brewster man was arrested twice within 18 hours last week. He is accused of robbing a gas station and assaulting its clerk, then forcibly touching a woman aboard a Metro-North train. Those are allegations, and they must be proven in court.Continue reading “When the System Keeps Opening the Door”

Putnam County voters don’t need another campaign speech about integrity. They need to know whether the people asking for their votes follow the rules that govern everyone else—and whether the courts applying those rules can earn public confidence. A Putnam County judge has ruled that County Executive Kevin Byrne’s campaign violated state election law byContinue reading “Campaign Finance Rules—and the Politics Around Them”

A Valley Viewpoint Narrative I spent part of this morning on the radio talking about the new Supreme Court term — the cases, the constitutional questions and the decisions that could have consequences long after this term ends. And after I left the microphone, one thought stayed with me. The nine people in the blackContinue reading “The Supreme Court Is Back. And the Real Case Before It Is Power.”

There were no campaign rallies. No yard signs. No television ads. No candidates knocking on doors asking for your vote. Yet over the next nine months, those nine people may make decisions affecting immigration, gun ownership, climate policy, voting rules, religious liberty and the reach of government itself. Welcome to another Supreme Court term. AndContinue reading “The nine justices of the United States Supreme Court returned to the bench Monday.”

A Valley Viewpoint Narrative Here we go again. A New York judge issues a ruling against a Republican politician, the headlines practically write themselves, and suddenly we’re supposed to believe we’ve uncovered another great threat to democracy. This time the target is Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne. State Supreme Court Justice Victor G. Grossman ruledContinue reading “When a Campaign-Finance Dispute Becomes a Judicial Sermon”