Opinion

The coronavirus pandemic has laid much of the American economy on its back — but a bright spot made the disaster less crippling than it might have been. That is the Paycheck Protection Program, which funneled money to workers through small businesses. More than five million small businesses took the PPP loans, representing 50 million jobs, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress in June.

“I’m going to bake bread!” my husband, Peter, announced. Inwardly, I said, “Oh, no.” Baking bread is not easy—until it is. Every person I know who bakes bread will agree. If there’s someone out there who tried baking bread for the first time and it was a great success, I would like to hear about it because, in my experience, you have to bake a lot of bad bread before you bake anything close to edible.

Dear Editor, This is a continuation of expressing my opinion to a very big problem I see among us. The assault on Truth has brought about so much of the vitriol and division in our nation, it only stands to reason that we understand how, where, when and why it is happening.

Susan Hamm is a friend of mine, and she is a wonderful citizen in our community. However, in her letter to the editor last week she wrote, “...the Stars and Stripes military newspaper ... was canceled by Presidential Order”. This is a false statement. According to an article by National Public Radio, it was the Pentagon that ordered the closure.

I have recently become alarmed as two USA institutions have been attacked. First, the Stars & Stripes military newspaper, which published originally during the Civil War, was cancelled by Presidential Order with the last issue being September’s. It is written by the military and is an independent voice. Last week with Presidential turmoil over ‘words’ used by the President to describe military men and women; the order was rescinded for now. Next, Voice of America has always been an in ...

I was struck last week by Keith McClellan’s column fearing for the Constitution. I agree with him that international banks and corporations should not be trusted. Wall Street is given far too much leeway for abuse and too much power in our political system. I also agree that politicians should not be allowed to use corporate money to buy votes.

Submitted on behalf of the Johnson City Record Courier As if things weren’t hard enough for Texas’s small businesses, news comes that the Trump administration plans to claw back a chunk of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds legitimate businesses have used as a lifeline to keep their employees on the payroll. When Congress passed PPP, the legislation made it clear that these loans would ultimately be forgiven if businesses used them for approved purposes, mostly payroll.

I’ve been reading to Lori. Lori is my husband, Peter’s, older sister. She has cancer and has been battling it for a while now. She uses oxygen to help out and catching this virus would be terrible for her, so Peter and I are extra careful, in large part because I’d like to keep reading to Lori. I’ve been writing a novel.

I noticed my wrists were sticking to my desk. This was a gradual awareness. I spend almost all day at my desk and I don’t know precisely when it started, but I finally looked down because my wrists were undeniably sticky. I had used the wrist rest in front of my keyboard for… well, forever, and I’d noticed there were a few rips in the fabric.

My husband, Peter, is fascinated by hummingbirds. This year has been a difficult year for hummingbird watching as there has been a lot of competition at the feeder. First, the ants wouldn’t leave it alone. Then a bear smashed the feeder to bits. Right after Peter replaced the feeder, wasps found it.