Archive - Jun 2010 - Editorial

In a story in today’s paper, Monkton resident Velissa Harris reminds all Americans that unemployment benefits are for those people who have lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet as they search for another job. And in this era of the Great Recession — which started the year before George W. Bush left office (2007) — most Americans are sympathetic to how difficult it has been to find work and are grateful the country has a national unemployment insurance fund.

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New Haven’s planning commission is asking good questions and hedging bets on an uncertain energy future by asking the developers of a proposed 40-acre, 178-panel solar installation — which would be one of the state’s largest — to provide guarantees of its good intentions.

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A year ago, The New York Times reported on the growing number of idealistic college students who spend summers working on organic farms.

The article described a few different members of my generation. An English major from Kenyon College declared that, after his summer farming, he was finally comfortable with not having been born in the ’60s.

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Vermont’s primary election is just two months away. Whichever of the five Democratic gubernatorial candidates wins the primary will face a challenging campaign against Republican Brian Dubie. Dubie can start his general election campaign over the summer, while the Democrats battle each other in the primary. With more than $800,000 already on hand, Dubie should be able to raise $1.5 million. The eventual Democratic nominee will need to catch up to Dubie in fund-raising.

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Last Thursday, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, dropped a bomb of a comment that we’re sure he wishes he could take back. What he said wasn’t a major event; rather, it was a single comment during a day-long hearing as the House grilled BP oil chief Tony Haywood over his role in the environmental disaster. His comments were among dozens — most of which took the side of those Americans whose lives had been upended by the obscene about of oil gushing from the bottom of the Gulf each day.

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In the race for governor, Democratic candidate Matt Dunne stands alone in the crowd for one clear reason: He is outside the political beltway — the other four Democrats and Republican Brian Dubie are entrenched in state politics and have been for a long time. The question is whether that’s a help or hindrance, and many analysts, as well as Dunne himself, see it as a major plus.

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News this week that Exxon-Mobil not only paid no U.S. taxes last year, but also a received $156 million tax refund from the federal government, won’t go over well with the average American taxpayer.

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A friend asked me the other day how long it has been since I graduated from high school. I did the quick math in my head (I graduated in 1982), and came up with 28 years. I hesitated saying the number out loud because it didn’t seem possible. Twenty-eight years? I did the math again and, darn it, I still came up with 28.

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