It’s a great time of year, the colder weather notwithstanding, because it’s officially the start of the holiday season. Some big-box stores would have you believe the holiday shopping season began back around Aug. 17, but we still were slathering on the sunscreen back then. No, it’s on now, and this Saturday brings a special opportunity for you and those who own enterprises in our midst. It’s Small Business Saturday, something of its own national holiday in our circle, a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for our communities. Please join us as we support the local shopkeepers by buying local; it is exactly that which will fuel our own holiday season. Many of our advertising partners are smaller businesses, and many of those are represented in Gifts 2012 in today’s paper. Help us help them make a difference – and their cash registers ring – on Saturday. Besides, you’ll find unique gifts that may only be discovered this way. That’s what also makes Small Business Saturday special. And when you shop those establishments, please thank the owners for doing all they do in participating in the local economy, for they are the backbone of it. For more information, visit www.shopsmall.com. You’ll be glad you did.
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President Barack Obama and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives are doing battle on the “fiscal cliff” that confronts all of us. We’re saddened to tell you we believe we’ll get from the GOP anything but a steadfast refusal to play along with tax increases and certain budget cuts. It is stunning to us how much backbone the GOP doesn’t display in times like this (and, for the record, we’re conservative independents).