Your last-minute MAGA shopping dilemmas, solved! By former Mad magazine editor John Ficarra for @timesunion.com www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

Recognizing Lois Norder, recipient of a journalism career achievement award from the Loeb Foundation, "widely regarded as the editor behind some of the most impactful journalism in regional newsrooms." Though the honor is all hers, I too am honored -- to say I'm her daughter. tinyurl.com/fb9zc38v

We asked readers: What's the verdict on the new Thruway travel plazas? The Bronx cheer could be heard from the Hudson Valley to Buffalo. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

Why would the Albany County Pine Hills Land Authority sell off key Saint Rose buildings before the campus-wide plan is created? Why not let the strategists do what they were hired to do? The neighborhood association is right: Slow down, folks. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

"Trump’s actions must not deter those who would speak out against his abuses of our laws and norms" -- peacefully: "Protesters must not feed Mr. Trump's narrative that he's restoring law and order. It is he who is pouring gasoline on a woodpile. Protesters should not be the ones to light a match."

Get ready for the spectacle of the century! Invitations for President Trump's birthday parade are finally here -- and we're all invited! 😀 Created exclusively for @timesunion.com by John Ficarra and Sam Viviano of MAD magazine fame. (They're just as fun to work with as you think they'd be.)

"Of all the cruel and unjustifiable moves the Trump administration has made on immigration, this is one of the worst: The government is ending deportation protections for people who assisted US troops in Afghanistan. It’s a broken promise of the vilest kind," writes the Times Union Editorial Board.

"Perhaps the plan isn’t white enough, or male enough, for a president determined to cover up evidence of diversity in one of the most diverse nations in the world," writes the Times Union Editorial Board.

Capital Region residents! At the 100-day mark of President Trump's term, we want to hear from you: How have the sweeping changes enacted by his administration affected you? What have you learned about America, and what are your hopes/fears for the future? www.timesunion.com/projects/202...

Occasionally I amuse myself by asking AI programs to draw sketches of a postapocalyptic Albany. Q: How do we know this image is fake? A: Because the state Capitol steps aren't barricaded off.

This is a genuine post from the White House Twitter account.

Historians: Quibbling Over Exact Definition Of Concentration Camp Sign Of Healthy Society

From a teacher: Blaming last week's standardized test system failures on the vendor ignores problems for which NYS is to blame -- including the disproportionate focus on exams and SED's rigidity in moving to computer-based testing. How is any of this good for kids? www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

The Times Union editorial board writes that it's time to begin contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. The alternative: We become a nation where innocent people can be disappeared to a foreign dungeon with no hope of legal redress. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

From a Times Union commentary: New York ranks last among U.S. states for timely delivery of early intervention services for children with developmental delays. Wouldn't our "first mom governor" want us to do better? www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

The CEO of the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society writes that New York lawmakers have a chance right now to fight cruelty to animals by strengthening laws against animal abuse. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

"Welcome to the disappearance of human beings in America, a concept that befouls every ideal this nation is supposed to stand for. Liberty. Human rights. Due process. A government bound by the rule of law," writes the Times Union Editorial Board.

A gov't scholar writes: Most politicians are wary of institutional change since any power they take today may be used by opponents tomorrow. Not MAGA: Why's the GOP letting Trump invest so much power in the presidency? Is it because they don’t intend to give it up? www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

From the TU editorial board - CDPAP? More like CYA: With state workers asked to "volunteer" to register home care recipients - work NYS paid a vendor to do - taxpayers are paying for the same thing twice. Meanwhile, the state keeps insisting everything's fine. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

Seneca Meadows, New York state's largest landfill, is seeking to expand despite strong local resistance. Writing in @timesunion.com, a commenter argues the landfill isn't the problem -- the problem is that we make too much trash. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

The TU editorial board has two problems with Gov. Hochul's proposed mask ban: 1) It's a terrible idea that runs afoul of the First Amendment. 2) It has no business being buried in the NY budget. Present the bill openly, debate it and put lawmakers' votes on record. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

Two bills before the NYS Legislature seek to expand the number of state Supreme Court judges to ease the backlog of cases. A judge writes that one of the bills is much better, and fairer, than the other. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

Last day of March! The Times Union published *59* publicly submitted op-eds this month -- essays and commentaries you won't find anywhere else. Scroll through timesunion.com/opinion to read what your neighbors, representatives and other advocates are saying about our communities, state and nation.

TU editorial board: Those who say “Well, noncitizens shouldn’t vote so what’s the problem?” are missing the point: Adding onerous bureaucratic requirements isn't about voter fraud; it's about disenfranchising millions of eligible voters who tend to vote Democratic. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

A writer argues: If NYS decides a homeschool co-op looks too much like traditional school, they can crush it with bureaucratic demands: fire inspections, evacuation drills and lockdown drills. This is how you kill innovation - and teachers unions like it that way. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

The Times Union editorial board writes: With so many questions swirling about America’s future, let’s start with the most basic question of all: Who’s not going to eat today? www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

Public service announcement! #Våffeldagen

Run government as a business? This writer says no: "The government ought to be focused on the commonwealth, which is to say, the wealth held in common. Wealth such as this cannot be gauged in numbers tricked up as dollars." www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

"Lawmakers' salary is 2x the state's median income and 4x the federal poverty level — not for an individual, but for a four-person household. If they feel that paycheck + the allowable outside income limit is insufficient, the Capitol's exits are clearly marked." www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

Price Chopper is taking the wine-in-supermarkets campaign to the streets! Well, the aisles.

A Nobel laureate writes: "Whoever has wondered how Gleichschaltung was achieved in the Third Reich has now a vivid demonstration of it in our country: opportunism, fear of reprisal ... and the dearth of people willing and brave enough to stand up for what they believe in." tinyurl.com/bdzauwnf

Trump’s “longstanding defiance of legal norms.” Hey, WSJ, there’s a word for that. apple.news/AU3Sm8O-sQZC...

"Somewhere along the way, the politics of exclusion stopped being satire and became policy. And that’s not just a problem; it’s a full-blown cafeteria food fight." This may be the most GenZ thing I've ever put in the Perspective section. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

From an Albany pediatrician: "Preaching healthy eating feels hollow —even absurd— when a family's only grocery store is a gas station. I can encourage ... outdoor play to build social-emotional skills but that's lofty and impractical when safety cannot be secured." www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

"I am fighting the fiercest fight I ever fought. I don’t have a job and I don’t know how to find one." Trump's aid freeze comes for yet another set of our allies: People who risked their lives to help U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Exclusive op-ed in the Times Union. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

Read what a former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam (raised in Voorheesville!) has to say about USAID: that it's an essential tool for furthering U.S. interests overseas. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

Pulitzer Feeling Increasingly Out Of Place In Washington Post Office

Ahead of the coming storm, here's a Corning-era @timesunion.com cartoon about Albany's Bad Old Days of "God put it there, God'll take it away" snowplow services. ...

"I was asked to certify my allegiance to the U.S. before I was allowed to pass. I’ll never forget my parents' sadness when I told them. ... 'I'm upset when they treat you this way. You were born here.'" @timesunion.com op-ed: Who is "American"? And who gets to decide?https://tinyurl.com/59h58795

January comes to an end at last! This month, we published 39 exclusive op-eds in the @timesunion.com opinion section - content you can't get anywhere else. Here's one from this week: A federal judge argues state judges need power to give some felons a second chance www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

SED's argument: Rosa HAS to make more $ than school superintendents or it "undermines the perception of the commissioner as the head of the public education system." Extend that logic: If Rosa makes so much more than the governor does, is the gov REALLY in charge? www.timesunion.com/news/article...

A Capital Region mother who lost her son to a kratom addiction asks: Why is this substance legal in New York? www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

A Dutchess County man wondered: Are our polling places really safe from vote tampering? So he signed up to be a poll worker to find out. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

The seven New York congressional districts represented by Republicans receive a combined $170,718,372 from the National Institutes of Health, according to reporter.nih.gov. How will these representatives justify the economic impact of the NIH grant freeze to their constituents?

Ram Will Stop Headbutting Things When Headbutting Things Stops Working theonion.com/ram-wil...

This one was also a contender. Three (different) Men in a Room. Rex Babin for the @timesunion, 1999.

Pulled this late '80s Hy Rosen cartoon from the @timesunion.com archives to use as art with an op-ed we're running tomorrow -- bad old days of "Big Ugly" budgets and Three Men in a Room

Thought up a new word for that feeling where your immediate personal circumstances are normal but everything seems unsettled and angsty anyway, and your brain feels like it's being squeezed from both sides: "2025."