Here's the stuff I stopped caring about during COVID : My children's grades, the condition of my house, any form of clothing, games of chance, the future of culture. It was as though somebody had stepped on the damper pedal of the world.

Emily Flake, a Brooklyn-based cartoonist, is a keen observer of quirky little social behaviors — including how we are adapting. She recalls an art event she was at this month. "A friend breathed right into my drink and I drank it anyway," she says.

A bipartisan group, composed of moderate Republicans and Democrats, is assembling a package to fund roads, bridges, pipes and Internet connections, people familiar with their negotiations told The Washington Post.

The only cancellation of free expression to which most Republican politicians object are Republican talking points, particularly Trumpy ones.

It is vital that the Maine Legislature and Gov. Janet Mills invest in the tens of thousands of Maine workers who provide older people, people with intellectual disabilities and autism, and people with mental health and substance use challenges, with vital daily supports and services to thrive in their homes and community.

In an era of political correctness, virtue signaling and woke-ness, wisdom is in such short supply that when discovered it stands out like a beacon in a storm.

We’re in for a long, hot summer, with a new kind of pandemic on the horizon — homelessness. The sooner we can collectively fight to house each other rather than jump on a juicy deal and cast people out into the streets, the better.

I believe in capitalism. I believe that when you incentivize earning, you incentivize risk-taking, innovation and hard work. But I also believe something is wrong when CEO pay rose by about 1,000% between 1978 and 2018, while worker pay edged up just 12%.

Why can't the American dream of a detached house with a family room be rented instead, like an apartment? Actually, it can. Houses have been available for rent forever, but now real estate investors are building entire subdivisions for the purpose of renting, not selling, the homes.

For now, public-power ownership breaks down into two issues. First, should Maine people vote on creating Pine Tree Power to replace Central Maine Power and Versant, Maine's two electricity distributors? Second, is publicly-owned power a good idea?

The FBI and security officials believe two criminal organizations conducted the attacks. Their names sound a bit like those of the sinister super gangs found in James Bond novels. However, these gangs aren't fiction, nor are their crimes.

Surely, the attacks on Manchin will only get more venomous. Such is the price of refusing to reverse himself on the filibuster and get on board a sprawling travesty of a voting bill.

I want to feel for the politically infantile who unnecessarily expose themselves and loved ones to a potentially deadly virus, but my feelings are running out. And it's rather late in the game to plead ignorance. Get the shot or don't. Just don't overestimate how much we who have done our personal and civic duty really care.

“The right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy,” (Sen. Joe Manchin) wrote in a Sunday op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail of West Virginia. (He) then spent a thousand words explaining why (he) will not protect this right by supporting the For The People Act, which would end partisan gerrymandering, punish those who try to intimidate voters and streamline voter registration, among other urgently needed reforms.

In his return to political campaigning last Saturday, former president Donald Trump channeled Goldwater when he claimed vindication for many of the positions he took during last year's presidential campaign and in the four years of his administration.