Monday, July 30 The plight of the state's bridges, as outlined in Hillary Chabot's Transcript story Saturday, is all the more pitiful because so many governors and legislatures have ignored the problem over a period of decades. The coffers always seem to be bare when it comes to fixing infrastructure, yet our current governor can find $10 million to subsidize a condominium project in   Full Story

Saturday, July 28 Whether Mayor John Barrett III's tirade against high gas prices and his threats to go to the attorney general for help has caused gas prices to fall over the past few weeks is open to question. But who cares? The bottom line is that North Adams residents are paying about 20 cents less per gallon than they were in June, and no one is going to argue about those results   Full Story

Friday, July 27 It's good to hear about a commercial proposal for the Mohawk Trail in Florida that doesn't involve nude dancing or windmills, and here's hoping Eric Rudd, Jae Chung and Jim and Carolina Drummond can make a success of the new resort proposed for Whitcomb Summit (Transcript story, July 26).   Full Story

Thursday, July 26 Three cheers and more for the North Adams City Council for creating a new ordinance designed to crack down on illegal dumping — and more importantly, for establishing hefty fines for offenders. For too long the lazy or cheap among us have gotten away with abandoning shopping carts (often on city streets and sidewalks, sometimes in our rivers and streams), dumping   Full Story