Memorial Day. The unofficial kickoff to summer. Barbecues sizzling. Lawn sprinklers hissing. Local marching bands tooting out Sousa. Red, white, and blue bunting hanging from the porch railings, and on T.V., someone begins a recitation of Lt. Col. John McCrae’s classic poem: “In Flanders field, the poppies blow. Between the crosses row on row …”In the run-up to every Memorial Day weekend, for the past several years, a certain photo takes top spot in those most circulated among my fellow military and veteran wives. On blogs, on social media sites, it is shared and “liked” over and over. Taken by the photographer Todd Heisler, from his 2005 award-winning series for the Rocky Mountain News, “Jim Comes Home,” which documents the return and burial of Marine ... Continue reading →

2 Minutes with Rochester’s Roadside Guitar Guy The song is Patience by Guns N’ Roses. The man behind the guitar is Dave. I’ve seen Dave playing on the side of this I-490 service road in downtown Rochester for years. Today I finally got out of my car and spent a few minutes with him. He’s a real good guy. Stop and say hello if you see him… (Sorry about all the background noise.) Oh, speaking of getting out of the car… check out ROC Transit Day , a fun opportunity to break free on June 21. This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2012 at 7:47 am and is filed under Interviews, Rochester News, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through ... Continue reading →

Advance Publications, owned by the Newhouse family, said Thursday it would scale back the printed edition to three days a week and impose staff cuts as a way to reduce costs as well as shift its emphasis to expanded online coverage. The decision will leave New Orleans as the most prominent American city without a newspaper that is printed every day. But it also reflects the declining lure of the paper as a printed product. In 2005, before Katrina struck, the paper had a daily circulation of 261,000; in March of this year, the circulation was 132,000. The developments were the latest instance of reorganization in a rapidly changing industry, which continues to struggle with declining advertising revenue and the changing preferences of readers for ... Continue reading →

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For more than 100 years, the Rochester Public Library, N.Y. (RPL) has made some of the world's greatest stories available to its patrons. Now, we asked our community to return the favor and "Lend Us Your Story!" The RPL and the City of Rochester are co-sponsors of this social-media video contest in which library patrons submitted a short (no longer than 90 seconds) video that expresses their favorite aspects of the Library. Here are a few examples of what we received.The videos were uploaded on YouTube then posted on the City of Rochester website where the general public could view and vote for their favorite stories. The three winning videos who received the most votes will be announced at press conference/award ceremony on May 24. ... Continue reading →

Monthly parking rates in most downtown city-owned garages could jump more than 10 percent beginning this summer � a $9 change adding up to $108 a year.The new rates are part of Mayor Thomas Richards� proposed budget, generating an estimated $1.2 million in additional parking revenue. Also in the works: higher fines for expired meters and illegal parking as well as all-day parking with graduated hourly rates on downtown bridges and angled parking on the Broad Street bridge.Pushback on the proposed $88 monthly garage rates � affecting the High Falls, Crossroads, Washington Square, Sister Cities and Court Street garages � has been immediate from the downtown development community. Daily rates would increase from $6.75 to $8 at these garages.�It�s too much in one year, and ... Continue reading →