Ardent cycling fans are no doubt already glued to their screens, watching the excitement of the 2021 Tour de France, which began on June 26 and continues until Sunday, July 18.
Anyone who’s paying attention has noticed that when it’s Tour de France season there is an explosion of cyclists on area roads (some of them wearing yellow jerseys that bring to mind the coveted maillot jaune of the French tour).
Cyclists who want to intensify their dream of taking part in a cycling competition can take part in the 17th annual Tour of the Litchfield Hills on Sunday, Aug. 1.
The ride is open to cyclists of all abilities, but obviously there will be some serious competition in the higher-mileage categories (there are routes from 12 miles to a full century of 100 miles).
It is a fundraiser for The Cancer Care Fund of the Litchfield Hills. The registration fee after July 14 is $50. Some details of the race remain unknown at this point as the organizers keep an eye on any new COVID-19 developments and restrictions. The rides leave from Torrington, Conn.; for more information and for updates, go to www.tourofthelitchfieldhills.com and the tour’s Facebook page.
August is also the traditional month for the Harlem Valley Rail Ride, which similarly offers rides for many levels, including two century routes. The ride last year was canceled because of COVID-19. So far a date has not been announced for a 2021 ride although it’s possible it will be held the third weekend in August, with cyclists leaving from Millerton, N.Y.; keep an eye on the website and this newspaper to see if/when dates are announced, www.harlemvalleyrailride.com.
There are also occasional cycling tours in the area that combine a challenging ride with visits to working farms. Coming up Oct. 1-3 is the Farm to Fork Fondo of the Berkshires, hosted by Farm to Fork Fitness. These are self-guided cycling tours, they cost a few hundred dollars and they are not charity events.
Anyone interested in the three-day Berkshires event, which is based in Pittsfield, Mass., and includes dinners, tours and (of course) cycling, can go to www.farmtoforkfitness.com/destinations/berkshires. And although they are disgraced, cyclist Lance Armstrong and cycling coach Johan Bruyneel do an excellent Tour de France podcast (with cycle champ George Hincapie, who is not disgraced); it is called THEMOVE (or, the move).
Lakeville Journal
This Week
Some of the best places in our community aren’t the ones you’ll find on a map —they’re the quiet trails, family-owned businesses, scenic overlooks, and local favorites that residents know and love. This week, we want to celebrate the hidden gems that make our corner of the world unique.
What’s your favorite hidden gem in our community, and why should others check it out?
Send your responses to social@lakevillejournal.com by Monday, Aug. 3 at 10 a.m. or comment on Facebook or Instagram.
We’ll publish a selection in next week’s paper.
Last Week’s Question
What is one local issue or topic you wish you knew more about?
“Would love to know the status of the improvement plan for Century Boulevard in Millerton — including parking and landscaping. AND, what is the status of getting sewer system along Main Street.”
— Lori Coats, Millerton
Lakeville Journal
A crisis in affordable housing
In 1968 the world population was 3.5 billion, today it is over 8.3 billion. No wonder affordable housing is a world-wide problem. But in Washington the administration cut 13% of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Purchasing a house is the most important investment people can make, and it helps them start accumulating wealth. A homeowner becomes a part of a community and meets his neighbors. As the owner pays property tax, he becomes aware of the town government, schools, fire and ambulance service. Home ownership is an important part of the American Dream, and it is important for our towns and suburbs.
Young people used to be able to buy their first home in their twenties, now the average age of first-time buyers is thirty-eight. The medium price of a family home in the US is $440 000.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act was passed as bipartisan legislation despite the President refusing to sign it. Among its benefits is to stop institutional investors from purchasing small family homes and reselling them at a higher price. The Act gives renters credit for purchasing a home. It encourages building factory-built modular homes to reduce prices and it creates a pilot program to make available small mortgage grants to pay for down payments and closing costs. It is time for the young people working at Walmart and other low-entry jobs to afford to buy a home too.
The administration with the legislature in Connecticut is doing its part, they built twenty-one thousand new units of housing for rentals and built ten thousand new starter homes. We need affordable housing to convince young people to stay in Connecticut. There are just not enough houses available for the demand.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition says there is no state in the country with adequate affordable rental housing.
Lizbeth Piel
Sharon
This year, how you vote matters
Starting with August’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, Connecticut’s voters will have an option they’ve never had before: to cast a mail (aka “absentee”) ballot with no excuse required. Here’s why all voters should cast a mail ballot.
Mail voting is under attack by those who want to make voting harder. Donald Trump and his allies keep insisting it can’t be trusted, even though it has been used safely and securely for decades in thousands of elections with tens of millions of ballots cast, in red and blue states alike. Mail voting is convenient and makes voting more accessible for everyone — especially people juggling work and family responsibilities, caregivers, students, older voters, younger voters, and people with disabilities. Choosing to vote by mail is a way of pushing back against Trump’s fearmongering and standing up for voting rights.
There’s a practical reason, too. Connecticut only recently gained no-excuse absentee voting, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2024 and the legislature followed up this year with the law needed to implement it. But lawmakers kept the existing schedule of in-person early voting intact — 14 days before general elections and 7 days before primaries — meaning every town, large or small, must still fully staff polling operations for that entire stretch, even on days when barely anyone shows up.
That made sense back when early voting was the only alternative to voting in person on Election Day itself. It makes little sense now. A mail ballot is, in effect, early voting, but without requiring a trip to a polling place, and it opens up a longer window: 31 days before a general election and 21 days before a primary.
It is also considerably cheaper for municipalities to administer than staffing an early-voting site. That’s why town clerks and voter registrars across the state, Republicans and Democrats alike, have pushed for the legislature to scale back early voting days. Skeptics of that idea argue we don’t yet have enough experience with the new absentee system to justify the change. The best way to prove them wrong is for voters to actually use it. Every mail ballot cast this year makes the case that Connecticut doesn’t need to keep running expensive early-voting operations alongside a mail option that does the job better.
And remember: despite the name, a “mail ballot” doesn’t have to go through the mail at all. You can drop it off in person at your town clerk’s office, use the secure drop box outside your town hall, or send it by U.S. mail — whichever is easiest. To get an application, reach out to your town clerk or visit the Secretary of the State’s online portal.
Voting is always important. But this year, how you vote matters, too.
Lee Greenhouse
Salisbury
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Kathy Herald-Marlowe
Chris Murphy, one of Connecticut’s two highly respected US Senators, on June 23, 2026, addressed the Senate focusing on the first 500 days of Trump’s “nuclear-grade” graft, corruption, and illegalities.
“This moment is exceptional.It’s a one of one moment, and if it becomes normal, if people stop being outraged at what he is doing to enrich himself, then I fear there is no going back. The White House will become a place to get rich.”
Month by month, Murphy laid out 19 of the 100’s of instances that have tripled Trump’s net worth post his election. Endlessly boasting of not taking his salary as President – $400,000-Trump speaks not of the Billion$ of personal wealth he has gleaned from multiple shenanigans to outright scandals:cryptocurrency, sale of pardons, no bid contracts, stock manipulations, bridge closures, funding sons Don Jr and Eric businesses, pay-to protect contracts in DHS. Trump has gotten immensely richer rising from $2.3 Billion in early 2024 to an estimated $6.5-7.0 Billion currently (Forbes World’s Billionaire List, Bloomberg’s Billionaire index.)
Get informed, pull up Murphy’s address as video or as text online – be aware. You will be immersed into scandals that leave Nixon and Watergate gapping as absurd amateurs.Here is a quick summary.
Cryptocurrency was deemed a “scam” by Trump until it as an industry donated to his campaign and he –with family- launched $TRUMP meme coins. Trumps cashed in, MAGA followers lost. Next a crypto company “World Liberty Financial” with deals forged with the United Arab Emirates ($500 million), Russia, North Korea and Iran.Rather than sell his businesses puttingproceeds into a blind trust as have other Presidents ad infinitum, Trump simply rachets up to maximize his take. Monetizing anything and everything.
Trump pardons were highlighted by Murphy not for an excess in their number but their scandalous procedures. 1500 January 6 invaders of the Capitol with Congress in session were pardoned – solely by Trump on a whim – included were those convicted by juries of violence - causing injury and death to police. 200 more were pardoned for various “fake election” convictions.Of the individual 310 pardons and 144 commutations granted, Murphy cited in particular two nursing home executives convicted for fraud of millions of dollars on their employees and patients.Each of these two executives was indicted, convicted, incarcerated several months then a relative accompanied by $1M dined with Trump - each received a pardon. In the Trump presidency, pardons are no longer earned clemency (to counter severe sentences or reward for rehabilitation) but akin to a bribe. The DOJ’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, formerly an independent advisor reviewing backgrounds, forwarding recommendations, is gone. Everything for sale.
In December of 2025 Trump issued a rule withdrawing Biden-era standards establishing minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes under Medicare and Medicaid. This withdrawal offered a vast boon for the nursing home industry just as earlier rescinding of cryptocurrency Investigations set a new hands-off regulatory framework for Trump’s major investment, cryptocurrency. Additionally, the USPS overturned a long-standing law restricting guns sent by mail – this change to accommodate Don Jr’s large investment in a mail-order gun dealer. Make us all richer- pay-to-play.
The Reflection Pool along with two fountain renovations were contracted to a ”no bid “White House Ballroom construction firm.The estimated bid for the fountain and reflection pool renovations when pursued by the National Parks Service was for $3M. The replacement “no bid” contractor via Trump was paid 17M$: fountains working, reflecting pool a disaster (with bogus vandal charges). It is just taxpayer money.
Half of the 130 donors attending a White House dinner in October 2025 that contributed $250M for Trump’s Ballroom walked away with US government contracts totaling $50 B.
Currently, a White House teleprompter operator is being investigated for using insider information to make bets related to Trump’s announcements regarding Iran. Peculiarly, this instance is less than a peanut, $100,000, as $2 Billion in trading volumes have been tracked across platforms with perfectly timed bets for geopolitical intelligence and military action.Trump’s solution to this scandal on national security is to offer Truth API, a paid Trump data service, subscribers early assess to Trump’s Truth Social announcements – paid betting tips for profit – of course.
The US Coast Guard was told to stock Trump products at all its bases–to sell his wine and cider. There is so much more – monetizing the presidency, the White House, DC.Think what you like but be informed/aware.
“As citizens of this great nation, it is kindness, love, and compassion for each other that will bring us together- keep us together.These are values Donald and I will bring to the White House.”Melania Trump.
Kathy Herald-Marlowe lives in Sharon.
James Speyer
On January 6, 2021, I watched the television in horror and disbelief as a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters, hopped up on his lies about a stolen election, ransacked the Capitol, viciously attacked Capitol police, and forced members of Congress of both parties to hide in fear for their lives. Congress had gathered that day to perform its Constitutionally-mandated duty of certifying Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. The attack forced the postponement of the certification.
I grew up understanding that one of the things that made our democracy the envy of the world was our unbroken string of peaceful transfers of power — a string that began with George Washington ceding authority to John Adams in 1797 and going home to Mount Vernon as a private citizen.
The attack on the Capitol ended that unparalleled 224-year streak.
Like many, I wept for our country that day.
The peaceful transfer of power was not something that I or anyone I knew had previously given much thought to. It was just assumed that we would always have peaceful transfers — that’s how it worked in America. It always had happened and always would. How could it be any other way?
January 6 violently disabused me of that notion. But that awful day made me appreciate how precious, fragile, and remarkable that streak really was. It represented a centuries-old collective commitment to resolving our political differences peacefully – an essential element of a functioning democracy. So in a weird but quite direct way, I have Trump to thank for that appreciation.
Little did I know that in the following years, in the same back-handed way, Trump would be responsible for an invigorated understanding of much of what makes our country special and worth fighting for.
Take the rule of law – the principle that we are a nation of laws, not men, and no man is above the law. It is the cornerstone of our democracy, and is what separates us from dictatorship.
The rule of law is so fundamental to the American enterprise, so ingrained in our society, that most people never gave it a second thought. Thinking about it would be like wondering if the sun would come up tomorrow. It was just…there, a given, an immutable fact of living in the United States.
Until, suddenly and jarringly, it wasn’t. In Trump’s second term, the rule of law is under the gravest, most comprehensive attack in the history of our country. In countless ways, Trump has shown his contempt for the rule of law and his belief that he is not subject to it.
He has declared his right to “terminate” the Constitution and announced that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” The masked thugs of ICE murder people in broad daylight with no accountability. His administration imprisons people and deports them without the due process guaranteed by the Constitution. He has sought to grab for himself powers that are vested by the Constitution exclusively in Congress, such as the power to wage war and impose tariffs. He has issued unconstitutional executive orders aimed at preventing lawyers – the traditional guardians of the rule of law – from challenging his conduct. As a federal judge recently wrote, his administration has “likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.” He had his attorney general purport to grant him and his family total immunity for all past misconduct – the very definition of being above the law.
I could go on (and on), but you get the point.
As a result, the rule of law is no longer an abstract concept that we can afford to take for granted. It is instead urgently top of mind for those who care about our democracy. As Samuel Johnson said, “when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” We now viscerally understand the importance of the rule of law in a way we didn’t before.
Also in jeopardy is our understanding of the United States as a force for good in the world. Our country certainly wasn’t perfect before Trump, but it regularly tried to do the right thing. The assistance provided by the United States Agency for International Development saved hundreds of thousands of lives every year; the Trump administration dismantled it. The Centers for Disease Control was the international gold standard in public health; its reputation and credibility are now in tatters. Our armed forces were famously a pure meritocracy; now blacks and women are routinely passed over for promotions. Again, I could go on and on.
Most people never spent much time thinking about the benevolent and fair-minded things our government used to do. Now they mourn what we have lost.
Ironically, Trump’s depredations have given us a deeper regard for what really makes America great. In Joni Mitchell’s fitting words, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?”
James Speyer is a lawyer and a volunteer for Lawyers Defending American Democracy. He lives in Sharon.
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Comments on Proposed OMB Uniform Grant Regulations
G. Warfield Hobbs
On May 29th the Trump Administration Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published the text of a new Uniform Grants Regulation that will fundamentally change the way federal financial grant applications are reviewed and awarded by over 30 federal agencies. These include the National Science Foundation, which provides grants to cover the research of nearly every graduate student in the physical sciences; the National Institute of Health, which funds much of the nation’s leading edge medical research; the national laboratories such as Los Alamos, which develop advanced technologies which help give the USA its global technological advantage; and agencies such as DARPA, DOE, NOAA, EPA, USGS, and many others,which provide grants for military innovation, environmental, climate, strategic minerals, naturalhazard and other research that is critical to the nation’s health and prosperity.
The proposed OMB rules are justified to “improve oversight of federal grantmaking”, and are designed to strengthen “transparency, accountability and oversight while reducing certain administrative burdens”.All future grant applications and discretionary awards must be reviewed by senior federal agency department heads who are political appointees. This is to ensure that federal awards have clear goals that are aligned with presidential policy and priorities. Peer review by scientific specialty experts no longer applies as the leading determinant in making an award to a grant applicant.The justification for the elimination of peer review is that it will make the grant process “more efficient”.Scientists working on research that is not deemed in “the national interest” need not apply.Any proposals regarding diversity, equity and inclusion, or gender studies will not be eligible for federal grants. The government will no longer cover the expenses of researchers to attend scientific meetings, pay for subscriptions to scientific journals, or pay research paper publication fees.
As a past president of the American Geoscience Institute, the federation that represents 60 earth science professional societies of every discipline with a combined membership of over 250,000; as a former national secretary of the then 35,000 member American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), and former president of the AAPG Division of Professional Affairs; and as a former board member of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP), an organization which at one time represented over one million scientists and educators in the physical sciences, I feel professionally obligated to comment on the scientific grant regulations proposed by the Office of Management and Budget. The regulations as proposed by the OMB will destroy America’s competitive advantage in global science, engineering and medicine.
The focus and direction of applied and theoretical science must not be mandated by current political policy. A technology that is considered a “priority” today, may be obsolete in a decade. Conversely, topics considered “not in the national interest” today, might develop into a leading “must have” technology in the future. Where would we be today if some political commissar had decided that federal sponsorship of early research into, for example, computer chips, recombinant DNA, GPS, or horizontal drilling and oilfield fracking was a “waste of time”? Peer review by subject experts assures that grant awards have scientific merit. Grant review, approval or rejection by political appointees is only “efficient” in the sense that the officials can quickly determine if the proposal is in the current “national interest” as defined by the president. Such political analysis does not assess the scientific merit of the proposal, nor how it might complement and benefit other research.Peer review also assures that the scientific studies supported by the awards, and the published results, are sound and reproducible.
The Trump Administration has made every effort to eliminate “climate change” as a national priority. If political appointees are put in charge of grant application review, most climate and related environmental studies will likely be rejected as “not in the national interest. The Trump administration’s description of climate change as a “hoax” and its efforts to end climate research by the nation’s scientific agencies is a national tragedy. OMB’s proposals will likely eliminate or severely reduce grants for climate research and will leave the country unprepared to deal with the ecological, financial, social, and geopolitical impacts of global warming.
The OMB prohibition of expense payments at professional society meetings is incredibly short-sighted.Attendance at scientific society meetings exposes scientists to new ideas, technologies and methodologies; provides a venue for feedback from peers when presenting papers and poster sessions on their research.Meetings are the best venue for networking and finding out who is doing what research. Professional scientific society meetings typically include representatives from industry, academia and government.Attendees learn from their counterparts in other sectors about technological trends of interest and the future direction of research, societal needs, workforce issues, and the regulatory framework governing their work.
Participation in international scientific collaboration and attendance at international scientific meetings will be significantly limited by the proposed rules. Inviting foreign scientists to meetings in the United States, and attendance at international events exposes American scientists to what other nations are researching and the results. It also exposes US scientists to global best practices.
OMB has proposed rules that will severely limit scientific communication. No longer paying for subscriptions to scientific journals and no longer providing financial support to publish scientific papers is counterproductive.Reading about the research of others in peer-reviewed scientific journals is very important for staying current in one’s scientific discipline, and being able to publish research is essential to the scientific enterprise.
The new OMB proposals prohibit any consideration of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in grant awards. African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are significantly under-represented in engineering and the physical and health sciences. Over the next ten to fifteen years the population of the United States will approach 40% non-white citizens.Efforts must be made to reach out to the minority population in universities, high school, and even in middle school, to interest them in pursuing careers in engineering and the sciences. The National Science Foundation has previously supported DEI programs to promote recruitment of minority students into the sciences.This has now come to a grinding halt. The Trump Administration’s aversion to diversity is going to have significant future scientific workforce consequences.Unless we actively try to recruit “diverse” scientists, the United States can expect a serious shortage of qualified engineers and scientists to keep our economy running and innovative, and to keep us healthy.
The changes that OMB is proposing for the federal grant making process are not in the nation’s best interests.Representations that the proposals will improve transparency and efficiency have absolutely no merit. Any budget savings realized through cutting travel and publication expenses are insignificant when compared to the total budgets of the agencies affected. Exceptional science has made America great. Implementation of the OMB proposals will seriously damage the American scientific enterprise.They must be rejected by Congress.
Mr. Hobbs is an independent consulting geologist for global petroleum, mineral and geothermal exploration and production. He also manages a farm in Sheffield, MA.