The economic news gets more depressing each day. In the past week, just in Maine, Barber Foods announced 71 layoffs; Verso Paper, the permanent closure of a paper machine and the loss of 125 jobs; MaineToday Media, the reduction of 61 more positions; and Lowe’s, the closure of two slow-performing stores.

This last couple of weeks, I find myself taking a different route through Augusta to avoid the corner of Winthrop and State streets. It is just too hard to pass by the sad pile of rubble where the stately YMCA used to stand.

The public has so strongly and for such a long time so disapproved of the job our Congress is doing that we have lost sight of how bizarre it is that we should have a democratically elected government that regularly fails to please us.

It was my pleasure this year to serve as president of the Maine Press Assocation, which represents the state’s newspaper industry. Last weekend, we had our annual conference, awards banquet and bowling tournament, which concluded my one-year term.

Warblers arrive in the spring garbed in colorful clothing, but they head back south in the fall dressed in drab colors. There’s got to be a message there, but those of us who don’t follow the birds south are too busy getting ready for winter to recognize it.