A Run for the Sunday Papers

A Run for the Sunday Papers

One of the blessings of living in rural West Virginia is the difficulty of getting newspaper delivery.  I can get daily delivery of Cumberland Times-News, and the weekly Hampshire Review is delivered by mail, one day late.  If I want to subscribe to the daily Martinsburg Journal, which I have done intermittently, it would have to be by mail, arriving one day late.

But Sunday papers require a run to the store, and you have to hope you make it there before they run out.  The most convenient place if I want only the Washington Post is Slanesville General Store, which is just 8 miles away.  Or I could make the trip to Mountain Top Truck Stop, which is about 11 miles.  The first couple of years after I moved here, I made it a Sunday ritual to do my weekly grocery shopping at the Food Lion, just east of Mountain Top, pick up a donut and coffee there (I know, I know, I can make coffee at home), and the Washington Post.  But they quit carrying the Post, and then the coffee, and then the donuts.  Now, although they reinstated the coffee pot, they still don’t have single donuts or pastries, and still don’t carry the paper, so if I do go shopping there, I still have to make a stop at Mountain Top to get the paper.

More recently, because I also want to pick up the New York Times, I have been making the run to Sheetz in Romney, which is another couple of miles.  And I have to go really, really early, like by 7 a.m., if I want to be sure to get a copy.  They don’t get more than three copies, so they disappear quickly, which makes me puzzle over why they don’t get more.  So my run culminates in a charge of $11.02, for the Post, the NYT, and Journal, and a doughnut.  Preferably a chocolate covered, custard-filled one.  One recent Sunday when I arrived there at 7:15 they were out of the NYT and the custard-filled donut.  Bummer.  I might as well have gone to Slanesville.  Two weeks ago they posted a notice that they were no longer going to carry the daily Post and NYT, that the number of copies taken was not worth the stop.  And this is on Route 50, for Pete’s Sake. 

But this morning I didn’t make the run at all.  Hard to justify sometimes, a gallon at least of gas just to pick up the papers.  And donut.  I could buy a book for that total.  After all, I can read the papers online.  But it’s just not the same as holding the real, honest-to-gosh newspapers in my hands.  Sigh.

We are creatures of nurture, perhaps.  I remember long ago, when I was a child and we lived in Prince George’s County Maryland, about 30 miles from DC.  My dad, a Marine, was stationed at Navy Department in Arlington.  At that time, we got home delivery of Washington Post, and every day on the way home from work Dad stopped and picked up the Times-Herald, the Evening Star, and the Daily News.   This was really, really important to him, so it is not surprising that it should still be really, really important to his daughter.   

About CFPB

Bill Arnold, of Romney WV, wrote this letter to the editor elucidating what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is all about.  He also follows up with some suggestions of other consumer protections that should be in place.  Since he wrote this, we have learned that President Obama, instead of appointing Elizabeth Warren to the post of director of CFPB, has appointed her deputy, Richard Cordray; the GOP has already promised to fight that nomination; indeed, they had previously said they would fight any nomination unless rules are changed to weaken the function of the agency.  As well, theyhave an upcoming bill, which you can google to find more details: 

Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act of 2011 - H.R.1315

This House bill would make it easier to overturn rules and regulations issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Here is Bill's letter:

To the Editor

On July 21 the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) becomes law.  It will inherit consumer protection responsibilities from seven federal agencies and assume powers to police "unfair, deceptive, or abusive" financial services products which rob our pockets, lessening our economy's ability to sustain a demand that can grow us (JOBWISE) out of this Wall Street induced recession.

It will write new rules and enforce existing ones for banks with assets of $10 billion-plus  and the tens of thousands of companies in the “shadow” banking industry who charge outrageous interest (e.g.: payday lenders, student Ioan companies, mortgage brokers, debt collectors and credit card companies). Smaller banks will be subject to CFPB rules, but other regulators like the FDIC will enforce them.

CFPB has authority to write rules affecting mortgage down payments and disclosures, loan modifications, credit card rates and fees, bank overdraft charges, credit score usage, and eligibility for student loans, credit cards, pre-paid cards and more. 

They can impose fines on companies, require restitution to aggrieved consumers, rescind consumer contracts and/or file lawsuits against firms that violate its rules. The intention is to make it easier for consumers to understand the often indecipherable fine print that financial firms throw at us.

It should be no surprise that entrenched financial interests, whose huge incomes depend upon our ignorance, are heavily lobbying inside-the-beltway captives (such as Congress) to disintegrate the CFPB.

Anytime you hear Elizabeth Warren's name (the intended head of CFPB) in the headlines you can expect controversial diatribes to accompany the· entrenched financial establishment's crusade to delegitimize the CFPB, CFPB will cover our back. We've needed it for a long time.

CFPB is only a first step in recreationalizing a new way of life that keeps America's prom­ise valid for our future generations.

Here are others. 

"Benefit Corporations" commit to treating their employees, customers, communities and local environments with the same respect as their shareholders.

Put an independent public director on every board who would advocate for the public's interest.

Tax the short-term speculative activities that dominate/distort financial markets.

Eliminate monopoly protections.

Incorporate state banks to increase avail­ability of public money to local businesses, farmers, homeowners, and college students.

Restrict the doctrine of "limited liability" so investors are liable for bad things their busi­nesses do.

Reward money-managers for "long-term" growth. Make the payout from pension divi­dends tax-free for low/middle income wage-­earners.

Require that publicly traded corporations use only cash surpluses for growth investments.

Bill Arnold

Romney, WVa.

Where two or three gathered together...

[On Tuesday there were 11 intrepid souls gathered in the rain, displaying limp bedraggled posters and waving at passersby, at the Court House in Romney, to express solidarity with unions and public sector workers in Madison, Wisconsin and other states where their very existence is being threatened.  We know that what they do, and what their senators who protest administrative and legislative actions against their fellow citizens do, is not just for them, but for us all.  And so our little rally was not for us, but for them.   And that is what inspired me to write the following comment.]

Although we were few, and not seen by many, and didn’t make the news, we know it has been said, “Where two or three gather together…”  We were there in solidarity for unions everywhere, in Madison and Ohio and Michigan and Maine and, yes, of course in West Virginia.  In Egypt and Japan and Brazil.  Whether they know it or not, we know it.  Whether or not we believe in prayer, we are there because we believe that, in some way, our actions and our presence will be felt by all of those whom we support, that we are kindred spirits.  Know that they know that we were there.  Thank you to all of you for being there.

Windy