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Applause, Applause

Columns

Each Saturday, The Express community newspaper highlights people, groups and activities our readers deem worthy of applause. The Lock Haven Area Shoe Bank would like to THANK these donors: New Hope Fellowship Church, Woolrich Community Church, Caldwell United Methodist Church, M&T Charitable Foundation and The Stephen Poorman Trust. I would like to thank everyone that helped with the cleanup at Romola Cemetery in Marsh Creek after the flooding in early September. A special thanks to Andrew Noll of Clinton County Memorials and a nearby neighbor, Tim Rickert, for resetting the head ...

Trump’s populist image is dead

Columns

As predictions of a blue wave swell, it’s worthwhile to remember that polls are sometimes wrong, that surveys have tended to undercount Trump voters (though they have been better in midterms), that professional prognosticators can err, and that Allan Lichtman is only right when he’s lucky. And yet, if there has ever been a politician who has invited electoral repudiation by more thoroughly betraying his own voters than Trump has, I can’t think of one. Trump had the most zealous followers of anyone this side of Osama bin Laden, and in his first term, he did a certain amount of fan ...

Dear Annie: A Cold War over the thermostat

Columns

Dear Annie: I’m 28 and live in a two-bedroom apartment in Washington state with my friend “Jess.” She’s an excellent roommate — clean, considerate, quiet. I know I’m lucky. But there’s one thing driving me crazy: the thermostat. She works from home and keeps the heat cranked to nearly 80 degrees! When I get home from the office, I start sweating before I’ve even taken my shoes off. I run hot and prefer the apartment on the chillier side, especially at night. Jess and I get along on almost everything else, but this has become a daily annoyance. We haven’t talked about ...

How to report that a patient’s license needs to be revoked

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: A former neighbor who’s experiencing a gradual cognitive decline from dementia recently received a letter from our state’s DMV saying that her driver’s license was being revoked because of a letter she received from her neurologist. She steadfastly maintains that she’s fine and there’s nothing wrong with her, although those of us who know her are very aware of her diminished capacities. Fortunately, she reluctantly moved into assisted living a few months ago and will be able to get rides provided by the facility to doctor’s appointments, for shopping, ...

‘When will markets react to debt?’ Is the wrong question

Columns

Is the federal government’s history of enormous deficits proof that it can keep up the borrowing? Some people think so, and legislators sure act that way. Federal debt held by the public now equals the size of the annual economy — and is growing. Yet investors continue buying Treasury securities. No government bond sale has really failed, no one has suddenly refused to finance Washington’s spending, and no unmistakable moment has forced Congress to change course. That leads some people I cross paths with in academic life to conclude that despite decades of dire warnings, ...

The tyranny of one man’s opinion

Columns

Thomas Cromwell was the Lord Chancellor of England for much of the reign of King Henry VIII. He engineered the convictions and executions of many whom Henry wanted out of the way, including his two predecessors in office — one of whom was St. Thomas More — and even the king’s second wife, Queen Anne. When Cromwell’s son Gregory, who became sickened as he watched his father devolving from counselor to monster, learned that an executioner for the queen had been sent for from France a week before her trial, he asked his father what the purpose of her trial was if the king had ...