A nasty week comes to a end.

Helped close the doors of a sister newspaper company in Columbia County. Horrible feeling. Employees - all good people - put on the street. Community loses an important lifeline. Nothing good about it.

Meanwhile, the nation's economy continues to tank and politicians of both parties fail to hear the clarion call for change that produced an Obama presidency. Obama is right: He won. The old ways didn't work. It's his turn at the plate. Let him (and us) sink or swim on his terms.

Americans are scared. They have a right to be. The handful of loyal employees whose newspaper folded in a tiny part of Upstate New York represent a sliver of what's occurring around this country. The unemployment statistics are staggering. And Washington moves at a painfully slow pace.

A nasty week.