Supreme Court Takes Up Tariffs

January 16, 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court is taking up the question of tariffs. The challengers to President Trump’s tariffs are two family-owned corporations: Learning Resources, Inc., and hand2mind, Inc. They’re headquartered in Vernon Hills, Ill., have 500 employees in the United States, and sell educational tools for younger and older children. However, they manufacture them abroad, primarily in China. Now you can begin to see why tariffs targeting China would displease Learning Resources and hand2mind. It’s tempting to ask why they manufacture their wares abroad, primarily in China. ...

China Has The Edge On Electricity

January 10, 2026

As Americans we believe that we are always the leaders when it comes to infrastructure and technology. That is not the case with electricity. China already consumes twice as much electrical energy as the United States and is way ahead of us when it comes to the efficiency and capacity of their electric grid to transport energy, including renewable energy, across their country. The most efficient way of transporting electricity anywhere is with high voltage electric lines. The higher the voltage, the more electricity that can be transported. It is hard to build such lines in the ...

Nation’s Tax Unfairness Soars Under Trump

January 10, 2026

Three incredible what-ifs, one right after the other, underscore the direction of America’s tax code over the last several decades. They appear early on in the 2021 book Tax the Rich! How Lies, Loopholes and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer. Shock after shock, here they come: “If you had worked every single day from the time Columbus sailed to America to the present and earned $5,000 per day, you would still have less money than Jeff Bezos makes in a week.” “If you had made $100,000 every single day since the year 1 A.D. and saved every penny, you would still have less ...

State Minimum Wage Increases Show State Values Work

January 10, 2026

As of January 1, New York State’s minimum wage for Upstate is $16.00 up from $15.50. New York State’s minimum wage was the same as the Federal minimum wage of $7.25 as recently as 2013, 13 years ago. Beginning in 2014, the State Legislature put in place increases in the State minimum wage that has brought us to $16 now. The United States Congress, in contrast, has not raised the $7.25 Federal minimum wage since 2009, 17 years ago. In the face of Federal inaction, at least 30 states have enacted state minimum wages above the Federal $7.25. That means, however, that 20 states, ...

A Small Frame For Life’s Big Picture

January 10, 2026

Our family has cut way back on Christmas presents in recent years. We all still enjoy filling some desires from the grandchildrens’ wishlists. Honestly, they are the only ones who really need anything. But I have a problem, and it is probably a hangup going back to my childhood. I want everyone to have a package or two under the tree. A few years ago, we set a modest limit, so the gift shouldn’t be big, fancy, or expensive. It just has to be wrapped and tagged “to and from” so everyone gets to feel special. We are such a small family that giving each other a small gift is ...

Sizing Up The Winter Of 2026

January 10, 2026

It’s a real winter—at least that’s what all my neighbors are saying. It’s not a real winter unless local people say it is. They know. And I’ll take that one step further: it’s not a real winter unless someone who was a child in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s says it is. We grew up in the Ice Age of Western New York, after all. Not only did we grow up in it, we walked to school in it, we were forced outside on Saturdays by our parents to go play in it. We took our road tests in snow storms, delivered newspapers by climbing six-foot snow banks, and walked two miles in ...