Just when we really needed a feel-good diversion from the extremely upsetting difficulties of our times, the one thing we normally could count on to unite our communities and give us something to cheer about has fallen victim to covid-19. To borrow from “Casey at the Bat,” there will be no baseball joy in Berlin… Read more »

As Berlin Town Councilman Thom Gulyas confessed in this week’s story about his resignation from the council, he thought he knew a great deal more about the workings of town government before he became a part of it in 2014. That’s when he realized how much he didn’t know and how much he had to… Read more »

(Excerpted from an American Legion speech) Every crisis has new heroes. During the 9/11 attacks, they were the first responders running into burning and crumbling buildings as others ran out.  Now, during the Coronavirus pandemic, the most visible heroes are the health care professionals, who are saving others and risking their own lives while doing… Read more »

With the arrival of every new year and the government budget planning process that begins shortly thereafter, we hear the term “Constant Yield Rate.” Unfortunately, it’s frequently misrepresented as the gold ring that every budget planner should aim for, even though that is not the case. The constant yield rate is more of a budgetary… Read more »

Let’s face it: every revenue-dependent entity in this country, from penny-scrapers to industrial giants, are facing serious shortages of cash this year, and most of them are looking for help from the federal government. As of this week, the automobile industry is being considered for another federal relief package, the airline industry took a $25… Read more »

As politicians, businesspeople, some economists and libertarian-minded individuals agitate for an end to the covid-19 lockdowns, the argument invariably brings up the relatively small percentage of virus-related deaths versus the economic ruin these restrictions will cause. But the question that’s seldom discussed, as we argue over whether the exercise of common sense might negate the… Read more »

Democrat or Republican, you have to hand it to Gov. Larry Hogan for the way he has handled the coronavirus outbreak in this state. An almost accidental governor after winning his first term over weak Democratic competition, Hogan, a Republican, has demonstrated leadership qualities that many voters hoped for, but were unaware of at the… Read more »

Welcome to the dystopian future, when government officials are ephemeral figures that appear only on computer screens, finding food entails risk and the few souls who do venture out into an uncertain world do so with covered faces. The hottest commodity is toilet paper, so much so that it could become the preferred medium of… Read more »

Our current stay-at-home circumstances, along with the other government restrictions on public movement, are as close to martial law as most of us ever hope to see. All that is missing from the current scene is the military patrolling the streets to ensure compliance with the various executive orders that have been issued to stem… Read more »

Some of us are working from home, some of us are working at our offices and job sites, and some of us aren’t working at all. Such is the new abnormal in a world turned outside-in by the spread of the novel corona virus. As of early Wednesday morning, no cases of COVID-19, as the… Read more »