Columns

I wanted to share with your readers a blessing that was received this past weekend as I was able to share a Valentine program at our two nursing homes and our assisted living facility.

I would hope that this would encourage others to visit the residents in these facilities. This is different from a hospital visit, because a hospital visit usually needs to be brief since the patients need rest more than they need an extended visit. But it is different in a nursing home or an assisted living facility.

Bailouts. Rescues. Loan guarantees. We've heard a lot lately about the need to "save" the large banks and automakers from economic disaster, but here in Kentucky, we've heard next to nothing about helping the state's top employer - small business.

Time and again, small business, the nation's largest employer, has led America out of economic problems. It provides most of the nation's net new jobs. Unlike some big corporations, which are closing stores and slashing jobs to satisfy Wall Street, small businesses are worried about what's happening on Main Street.

My cell phone rang just after 7 Sunday evening. By habit, I glanced at the screen, but I didn't recognize the number.

"Hello?"

The voice on the phone was one I hadn't heard in nine years. It belonged to a high school friend with whom I had lost touch. For the next hour, we caught up with one another's lives. We hung up with a promise to not lose touch again.

How did she find me?

Facebook.

With less than two weeks to go before the switch, Congress has voted to delay the transition to digital TV until June.

Whew!

It's nice to see that our federal government is still tackling the big issues. Sure, people are losing their jobs, families are being forced out of homes they can't pay for and businesses are shutting their doors, but we all know nothing is more important than TV.

The rationale is that people haven't had time to prepare and that the federally funded coupon program has run short of cash.