Commentary: Emphasis on Polling Hurts Public Confidence in Process Opinion piece in Albany Times-Union, Wednesday, November 18, 2020 https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Commentary-Emphasis-on-polling-hurts-public-15734913.php
Persistent Errors by Pollsters Favored Democrats in the 2020 Election Pollsters consistently overestimated the share of votes for President-Elect Joe Biden and Democratic Senatorial candidates in the 2020 election. While polls correctly predicted Biden’s victory, polling averages overestimated his margins in states he won and underestimated Donald Trump’s margins in states that Trump won. The errors were not the result of random variations in sampling. […]
Positive COVID Tests and Hospitalizations More than Doubled In New York After September 1st The number of COVID-19 positive tests and hospitalizations in New York State has sharply increased since September 1st. The number of daily positive tests identified on October 28th was 1,739, compared with 677 on September 1st – an increase of 157%. Current hospitalizations increased from 457 to 1,042 during the same period – an increase […]
New York State Gave $2.6 Million to Build a Food Greenhouse that Pays One Dollar Above the Minimum Wage In April of this year, Green Empire Farms in the central New York city of Oneida became notorious as the location of more than 170 Covid-19 cases. The facility is a massive 2.8 million square foot greenhouse where vegetables and fruit, including strawberries and cucumbers, are produced. County health officials believe that the outbreak occurred […]
Covid-19 Cases Increase Unevenly in New York Through this Summer, Covid-19 case numbers remained low in New York State. Though the numbers remain far below the levels of March and April, the rate of infection statewide is increasing. In July and August, the state averaged between three and four cases per 100,000 residents per day. By October the number had increased to […]
President Trump’s Economic Renaissance – Fact or Fiction? During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump claimed that his policies would “Make America Great Again,” creating jobs by redressing trade imbalances. He argued that “We will make America the best place in the world to start a business, hire workers, and open a factory,” Trump claimed that he would change policies that “allowed foreign countries […]
Don’t Make Poor Districts Shoulder the Burden An opinion piece written for the Albany Times-Union: https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Viewpoint-Don-t-make-poor-districts-shoulder-the-15573324.php
Covid-19: The Cost in Lost Jobs With more than 190,000 lives lost and millions infected, Covid-19 has imposed a tragic toll on residents of the United States. New York State was hit hard early on, and has lost 32,600 residents to the disease as of early September But strong controls that shut down much of the state’s economy for weeks during […]
New York’s School Aid Cuts Will Disproportionately Harm Poor Districts A recent Albany Times-Union report “recently warned officials they should expect state aid payments to be reduced by 20 percent.” The source of the report was the Questar III Board of Cooperative Educational Services State Aid and Financial Planning. The Times-Union article went on to report that “Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the state budget […]
Covid-19 Cases Reach New Highs: What Have We Learned? As I write in late July, Covid-19 cases continue to reach new highs at the national level. The number of new cases reached more than 66,000 a day in the week ending July 18th, using a seven day rolling average. That number is about two and one half times the 24,000 new cases that were […]
