Opinion

The Caledonian Record of St. Johnsbury, (Vt.), Dec. 21, 2013:
Six months ago former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed to Americans that their government had them under constant, blanket surveillance. Since then, intelligence hardliners have dutifully maintained that spying on everyone is necessary toward keeping the nation safe from terrorists.

The Glens Falls Post-Star on the difficult process of removing incompetent teachers in New York (Dec. 5):

The great weakness of New York’s education system has been school leaders’ inability to get rid of ineffective and even incompetent teachers, so it’s news worth celebrating that recent changes in state law have made that process easier.
After decades of complaints about the unwieldy and expensive disciplinary process for tenured teachers, called 3020-a, New York last year passed reforms that streamlined the required hearings.