By Shawn Dell Joyce
Traditional gas-powered lawn mowers are responsible for 5 percent of the nation’s air pollution according to the Environmental Protection Agency. One gas mower running for an hour emits the same amount of pollutants as eight new cars driving 55 mph for the same amount of time, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

By Jeffrey Page
Taking a truly gutless position, she supports a woman’s right to choose — except when she doesn’t.

In 1777, Kingston, N.Y. became the first capital of the state. The senate first met here in the house that today remains a historic site and museum. It was here that Governor George Clinton was inaugurated and is buried in the city’s Old Dutch churchyard.

By Bob Gaydos
Mets fans, I am told, hate the Yankees and Yankee fans. Yankee fans don’t care. We have enough to do wondering when Derek Jeter will get his 3,000th hit.

By Michael Kaufman
Pulaski Highway, which splits the Black Dirt area, ranks among the top three “dream drives” in New York state, according to an article in the latest issue of Car & Travel magazine.

By Shawn Dell Joyce
Since Thomas Crapper invented the water closet (yes, that’s where the word came from), many experts have come to view our sanitation system as the worst idea of all time. We use 3.5 gallons (per flush) of our best drinking water to dilute a few ounces of “excellent fertilizer and soil conditioner” to create an expensive, wasteful disposal problem.

When you find what you’re meant to do in life, the feeling is extraordinary.

El Capitan is a 3,000-foot vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park.

By Michael Kaufman
On Tuesday we had a choice of voting for a budget that would slightly increase taxes while cutting back on staff and educational programs, or rejecting the budget and having even more devastating cuts. Talk about voting for the lesser evil.

By Bob Gaydos
There’s a new kind of “fan” at Yankee Stadium: Young, well-off and apparently wholly uninterested in baseball. Who are these people?