under two bucks | An article in today’s LNP – Always Lancaster states the average price for a gallon of regular gas in Lancaster County has dropped to under $2.00. Why is it in Columbia there’s no “under two dollar gas.” Gas Buddy stats show there’s “under two dollar” gas in Wrightsville and Marietta and in West Hempfield — just not in Columbia.
obituaries of note | “Elva A. Renner, Columbia • Maria Galanti, York. [NOTE: Maria Galanti was once an across-the-street neighbor in Lancaster a long time ago. Maria had such interesting stories to tell; she grew up in Italy during World War II. She told of her brother who was drafted into the Italian army and was sent to sent into battle in Russia. After saying good bye to him at the train station, she never heard from him again. Life is so fleeting, fragile and often rife with sadness and uncertainty.
online learning may not be all it’s cracked up to be | “Unimpressed by online classes, college students seek refunds.” – The Morning Call
rationing | During the Second World War, “In the spring of 1942, the Food Rationing Program was set into motion. Rationing would deeply affect the American way of life for most. The federal government needed to control supply and demand. Rationing was introduced to avoid public anger with shortages and not to allow only the wealthy to purchase commodities.” Rationing, of a sort, is back as “Costco, Giant and Wegmans among stores limiting some meat purchases due to supply issues.”
LNP – Always Lancaster‘s Editorial | makes this point: “We haven’t checked the political affiliations of those we know have succumbed to COVID-19; there’s no need. Because no matter their circumstances — Democratic, Republican, independent, rural, urban, suburban, elderly or middle-aged — they were our neighbors.”
And yet | The opinionated partisan political differences are rampant in the letters-to-the-editor.
partisan differences escalate | “Pa. lawmaker compares Gov. Wolf’s handling of COVID-19 crisis to ‘socialist playbook’ used in Nazi Germany, USSR” – Penn Live [NOTE: We wonder whether the Representative’s surname is pronounced “douche.”]
Primary election is June 2 | Any registered voter may apply to vote by a Mail-in Ballot. Specifics here.
“Nearly 1 million Pennsylvanians | have flooded county election offices with requests to vote by mail in the June 2 primary” – The Morning Call
not where it’s needed most | “Not-so-small businesses continue to benefit from PPP loans.“ – WITF
Columbia news, views & reviews 
Food rationing in WWII also occurred in other countries. A study was done of Denmark that showed how Denmark’s citiznes were affected. Meat products were cut to a minimum, and citizens had to rely on a plant-based diet. By the time the war had ended, citizens were in better health than before the rationing. But when they went back with the heavy meat products that had been a staple of their diets, their health went into decline back to the way it had been.
In a previous comment, I mentioned Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Science Journalist and suggested you go to http://www.democracnow.org to read or listen to the previous times she was on the show. Well, she’s on Demcoracy Now! again today. She is the author of several books: “The Coming Plague,” “The Plague,” and “Ebola: Story of an Outbreak.” I highly recommend you listen to what she says today, 5/6/20.