"The Pentagon presented a grim portrait of the Afghanistan war Thursday, offering no assurances about how long Americans will be fighting there or how many U.S. combat troops it will take to win."

That's how an Associated Press...

Today, Kenny Nava, Cathy Jones, Jorge Flores, Samantha Bonilla and about 70 other Bronx high school students will "graduate" from a new, innovative school program called "GreenFab." They will know more about science and technology than me (that's for sure) and maybe you too. Without the kind of fanfare that...

It was just a little after 9am at Bullet's Sports Bar in New Orleans' seventh ward. Even now, you can still see "Katrina" stamped in various ways all over this neighborhood.

The morning crew, about a dozen of them, mostly older men of various hues, was already well into...

Today in Brooklyn, the Center for the Urban Environment will celebrate its 30th anniversary. There will be a "green tie" gala, locally grown food, and a party in the organization's brand new, totally "green," LEEDS certified space. Hundreds will attend. It's a terrific accomplishment. But it's more than that....

A bunch of us are gathered here in Park Slope, Brooklyn to watch the debate.

Some comments as we go along: (first half hour)

"Is McCain storing up something for the winter in those cheeks?"

"Fannie Mae caused the entire mortgage crisis?"

"McCain just said not to spread the wealth...

"And home sings me of sweet things. My life there has its own wings." - Bonnie Raitt

Home. The very concept generally brings good feelings - childhood, family, etc. It is also a concept that is central to the life and history of this country. The defense of the...

A new report just issued by Consumers Union (CU) - and promptly ignored by the mainstream media - says that recalls of toys and other consumer products, which have reached nearly ten million so far this year, are on pace to exceed last year's record number of...

Today, as she has done countless times over the last 35 years, actor Blythe Danner stood up for the environment. Not the newly-sexy environment, but the real, every day environment that affects you, me and everyone else, especially in a crowded urban place.

She attended a media event...

That's right. 143 million pounds of tainted beef from Westland/Hallmark has been recalled, but if you ate any of it, chances are you don't know it.

But you could. The USDA knows which stores and locations got the potentially malignant meat but the info is supposedly confidential. However, the...

The current mortgage crisis is not only destroying individual families, but whole neighborhoods too. And the neighborhoods that are being destroyed, at least in NYC, are the very neighborhoods that try so hard to "make it," but can't seem to catch a break for long.

That's the very important message...

I have a daughter who attends a private school for learning disabled children in New York City.

So I was really interested when a client of ours, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), called yesterday to tell us about a victory in US Supreme Court for...

If anyone had any doubts about the changing face of labor, literally and otherwise, one need look no further than the two union leaders currently in the news in NYC -- Ed Ott, Executive Director of the NYC Central Labor Council and Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of the New...

Tomorrow marks the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

And, as many news and grassroots reports have made more than clear, New Orleans remains a city in major distress, in both big and small ways.

One "small" recent example: my friend, NOLA musician Esquizito, told me that many houses...

Until yesterday, any sentence with the words "Brooklyn" and "cyclone" in it generally referred to Brooklyn's local minor league baseball team, the Brooklyn Cyclones. All that was blown away yesterday, literally.

In a parody of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, here in Brooklyn we closed our eyes tight...

At about 10 pm this past Saturday, most of the tennis players from the Spanish Davis Cup team were drowning their sorrows, one way or another, in the bar at the Marriott in downtown Winston-Salem. Some were engaged in quiet conversation, some played cards, while others sipped drinks. Despite...

Today, March 22nd, has been declared World Water Day by the United Nations. This year's focus is coping with water scarcity, an increasing and scary phenomenon. One report estimates that as much as 1/3 of the population, mostly in the "developing" world, is now short of water.

In this...

Who could have imagined that the return of one furry mammal to the Bronx would be the winning story of the week?

"Bronx José," as the new Bronx River beaver has been dubbed, has gotten more press than the Anna Nicole Smith debacle this past week, and that's saying a...

Last night, when Grace Bauer, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, a tiny wisp of a woman, reluctantly stepped forward to speak, you already knew that what she would say would break your heart.

In a very soft voice, she told the roomful of very quiet people assembled at the midtown headquarters...

From NYC: A year ago, Esquizito, my musician"guest" from New Orleans, spent his Thanksgiving with me here in Brooklyn. Having fled NOLA right before the storm hit, he'd been with us since September 11, 2005. We celebrated Thanksgiving that year at the home of our friend, Susan Loeb. This...

Many New Yorkers who blog here have told their tales of that horrible day and I think that most of us will never forget exactly where we were and what we were doing when we found out what happened.

The urge to "do something" was actually palpable. So many New...