I was heartened last week by another sterling example of the Vermont tradition of people stepping up to help neighbors in need, in this case neighbors whose driveway was washed out by the flooding in Middlesex.

Last week Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, recently reported as dropping to his knees on the Senate floor to implore his colleagues to abridge our right to keep and bear arms, came up with another liberal brainstorm. 

It’s always more comfortable to ignore troublesome information but forgive me for bringing you the national debt projections from the ever-watchful Peter G. Peterson Foundation. They just reported “The Congressional Budget Office released long-term projections in June, showing that [federal government] debt held by the public would climb from 98 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023 to 181 percent in 2053 if no changes to current law are made.”

I received a nice packet the other day celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Pacific Legal Foundation, based in Sacramento, California. I’ve been aware of their good works for most of those 50 years, but their recent legal victories are truly remarkable.

Roger Pielke Jr. is a PhD Professor of environmental science at the University of Colorado and has been involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for 30 years.

Two months ago I read a column by Don Feder in the Washington Times which has stuck with me ever since. It was titled “Crisis of Character”. Here’s an excerpt:

My favorite columnist is George Will of the Washington Post, who was the featured speaker at the Ethan Allen Institute’s thirtieth anniversary gala on May 31.

Columnist Tom Evslin recently quoted The New York Times report of the partial end of Vermont’s Emergency Hotel Program for the homeless.:

“In the first year of the expanded hotel program, the number of Vermonters counted as homeless more than doubled, to 2,590 in 2021 from 1,110 in 2020. In the total jumped again, to 3,295.

A July 7 editorial in the New York Post highlighted the educational performance of 7^th and 8^th grade kids – mostly low income black and Hispanic – in New York city’s charter school called Success Academy.

Last week the Wall Street Journal compared blue state California with Red state Florida on government finances.