Activist filmmaker and artist Mara Ahmed is returning to Rochester next week for the local premiere of her new documentary, “Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation.”. In a visually and narratively evocative way, “Return to Sender” raises questions of power, personhood,...

In a “Pact with the People,” a majority of City Council members Thursday agreed to renew the Council’s focus on issues that matter to residents—safer neighborhoods, quality housing and equitable access to opportunity. President Miguel Meléndez, Vice President LaShay Harris and Councilmembers Mike Patterson, Mitch Gruber...

As the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester’s bankruptcy nears its fifth year and continues to rack up costs that now top $13 million, a break signaling the first big step in resolving the hard-fought case occurred last week. It came in the form of Bankruptcy Judge Paul Warren’s announcement...

On April 20th, the Penfield Community Center hosted the largest Drive Electric Earth Month event in the state. The event was also a combination Arbor Day and Earth Day celebration, with organizations on site to give away native plants and seed packets. Drive Electric Month is a national campaign to share information about electric vehicles. Over 200 events have been scheduled nationwide throughout the month of April, with a dozen taking place in New York State.

The people you see along our highways, often in an orange and yellow vest and hard hat, are people just like you. We need your help to keep everyone safe. Read the letter. Here at the Department of Transportation, we often talk about our “crews” or our “team” because of the strong ties we have with one another. But what we really need to talk about right now is our “people.”

David Munson, credited with transforming creativity, innovation and academics at Rochester Institute of Technology, has decided to step down as president. His last day will be June 30, 2025. Munson announced his plans to retire Tuesday. The search for a new president will engage students, faculty and staff, officials say.

With nearly 10 percent of architectural paints going unused each year, there is a clear risk of harmful chemicals and heavy metals being discharged into the soil. The nonprofit PaintCare, now in its second year in New York, and its local Rochester partners are working to change that. “It’s been...

If Rochester Institute of Technology has its way, tens of thousands of visitors will experience wonder on Saturday. The university is gearing up for the 16th edition of Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival. With nearly 400 exhibits, up roughly 50 from last year, the campus-wide fest once again caters...

We ask politely. Please stop, Governor Hochul. Tell your budget division to stop defunding indigent legal services in your annual budget proposal. Legal services for indigent New Yorkers should not be a bargaining chip in state budget negotiations. Or as an offset to increasing taxes for New York’s highest income...

An event at Visual Studies Workshop aims to break past the perception that video games are used purely for entertainment or commercialization and instead explore their place in the art world. “People will ask me, ‘Oh, you deal with video games’ and be thinking of Mario or Pokemon or Zelda,”...

Sheldon Cox first realized how significant career and technical education was while teaching at Edison Career & Technology High School. One year, Edison’s applied technology program had a house construction project down the street from the school. “The culture of building the house with the kids being part of...

The Rochester Beacon has made significant progress toward a key financial goal: increasing institutional support for its nonprofit mission. The ESL Charitable Foundation has approved the Beacon’s $30,000 grant request for Community Chronicles: A Solutions-Based Storytelling Project. The project is designed address the challenge of strengthening communities. In collaboration with ESL’s Community Impact team, the Beacon will harness the potential of solution-based storytelling to “bridge divides, inspire collective action, and foster a sense of belonging” in Rochester.

Microplastics is the focus of a new research hub backed by $7.3 million in federal funding. A collaboration between the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology, the center will examine the lifecycle of microplastics in the Great Lakes freshwater ecosystem, human exposure and health impact. The Lake Ontario...

The Board of Education wants to get the Rochester City School District’s next interim superintendent in as quickly as possible. “We’ve got to right this ship, we’ve got to make this ship sail right now, because we do not have the time,” Commissioner Camille Simmons said at a board meeting last night.

One can only imagine the journey we experience as we travel from the protection and covering of the womb; thus, surfacing in this existence called Earth. The birthing day for the mom is a transformative and revolutionary experience. The Earth day, often regarded as the birthday, is the day the child makes their appearance. And the unimaginable pause the parents yearn for—waiting with bated breath—is the cry from the tiny human.

Barry Childs believes “poverty is created by humans and can be eradicated by humans. Its eradication is not a gesture of charity but an act of justice.”. A native of Tanzania, Childs has worked for nearly a quarter-century to solve the problem of extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. He is founder of Africa Bridge, a sustainable, cooperative agricultural model for transforming rural villages.

I have been involved with Rochester schools for a long time and never before have I seen the need for drastic, public educational change to be greater. Put simply, dramatically improving city schools seems hopeless and the students and their parents feel this. No one questions the need for serious...

There is no dispute that New York urgently needs more housing—and that need is especially felt here in the Rochester area. Upstate housing needs must not be ignored as state lawmakers continue negotiations on a final state budget. As REALTORS®, we are urging state lawmakers to enact balanced housing policies that address the needs of our region by incentivizing the construction of more affordable housing statewide, providing rental assistance to lower-income families and individuals through the proposed state Housing Access Voucher Program, and establishing a statewide housing right to counsel in eviction proceedings. These measures will provide tangible, lasting results to help stabilize the housing market and protect tenants at risk of eviction or becoming homeless.

A few weeks after I was hired at the Democrat and Chronicle in the spring of 2012, the leaders of the Newspaper Guild of Rochester took me out for lunch to lay out the benefits of union membership. It didn’t take long. Through several rounds of one-sided contract settlements,...

High-quality, factual journalism—delivered by locally based journalists—has slowly declined across the nation and here in New York for the past 25 years. As of this writing, local journalists at the Democrat and Chronicle are on strike, asking Gannett to come to the bargaining table in good faith and pay its journalists another $1 per hour. Mike Reed, its CEO, received a $3.9 million compensation package last year while the median annual Gannett employee’s salary is about $50,000.