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Americans can’t afford another lockdown

With COVID-19 slashing through populations throughout the world, some nations are preparing for lockdowns of the type employed last spring to curb the virus’ spread. Americans can’t afford to do that. Another business slowdown/shutdown of the type we experienced for a few months could well send the economic plunging into a depression. In France, where the epidemic death toll topped 36,000 during the weekend, another lockdown — this one to last four weeks — was ordered. All 67 million people in the country have been told to stay at home, or face criminal charges. The only ...

Greatest generation must be remembered

Before long, the last American military veteran of World War II will be gone from among us. We can never thank and honor them adequately — but President Donald Trump is being asked to do something special that would provide an appropriate formal and national expression of gratitude. In our country, state funerals are reserved for very high-ranking people such as ex-presidents. Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from West Virginia want President Donald Trump to order that the last surviving Medal of Honor winner from World War II be honored in that way. There ...

We must question Census officials’ claims

By March or April, it was clear the 2020 Census would be much more of a guessing game than in decennial population counts. COVID-19 has seen to that. Our whole society has been disrupted in multiple ways. Responding to Census questionnaires has been the last thing on the minds of millions of Americans. Doing all that is possible to obtain an accurate count of the people living in our country clearly has not been uppermost on the minds of many federal officials, either. The decision to stop information collecting a month early makes that plain. Evidence is mounting that this ...

Relief fund change must be rescinded

How is it possible for Congress to approve as much as $3.3 trillion in epidemic-related aid to Americans ?— the amount already provided ?— without ensuring at least that the health care network was made whole? It is, apparently. Nearly 240 members of Congress have signed a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar regarding a change made in one aspect of the relief funding program. It is the Provider Relief Fund. The idea behind the PRF was just what the name implies — aiding the health care network to keep providers safe and to ensure they ...

Postal service needs cleaning up

Told in school that a really, really big test was coming up and that passing it was critical not just to you but also to your entire school, you’d probably do all you could to be prepared. Were you told that no expense would be spared in providing resources for you to prepare for the exam and you probably would be confident of earning an A. But then, you aren’t the U.S. Postal Service. If this year’s presidential election is proving anything to Americans, it is that the USPS is a wreck. From rank-and-file mail sorters to the agency’s top brass, it has been clear for months ...

Russian influence is happening again

If last week’s announcement that Russian and Iranian operatives are using technology once again to influence U.S. politics came as a surprise, you clearly have not been paying attention. That makes you preferred prey, by the way. We were warned in advance of the 2016 election of how the internet was being used against us by mischief-makers in Moscow. Attempts to hack into states’ election computers were almost always unsuccessful — but that was not their only strategy. They used “social media” to pit Americans against one another, even employing operatives here in this ...