U.S. 50 plays a major role in the life of Jackson County.

It links us to neighbors here at home and with markets across the nation.

It’s also our Main Street, at least in spirit if not by name.

We’re not alone.

The highway, called America’s backbone in a July 7, 1997, Time magazine article that included a brief portrait of the Townhouse Cafe in Seymour (you could see hanging on a wall in the restaurant on East Fourth Street), stretches from sea to shining sea (almost). It starts in Ocean City, Md., and ending in Sacremento, Calif., and meanders hither and yon along the way.

And of course Hoosier writer Wendell Trogdon, a native of Henryville, I believe, wrote “U.S. 50: The Forgotten Highway.” The retired journalist shares his memories of living near the highway while growing up in Lawrence County and recounts a tour from Washington, D.C., to St. Louis.

Just as Time focused on life along U.S. 50 in 1997, broadcaster Tom Brokaw will focus his attention and the cameras of USA Network on the people who live and do business along the highway over much of the next year. The project will study how America reacts to the first year of President Barack Obama’s administration and the nation’s reaction to the recession.

According to The Associated Press, some of his pieces will appear on NBC News programs before “Highway 50: A Road Trip Across Obama’s America” is aired next year, around the first anniversary of Obama’s inauguration.

“I have felt for a long time that we do an inadequate job at covering Washington from the outside looking back, rather than Washington looking toward the rest of the country,” Brokaw told the AP. “If there is anything from the early stages of the Obama campaign that is, if you will, a strong theme, is that they wanted to knit the country together again. So we’re going to go out and take a look at how they’re doing.”

Should Brokaw bring his crew to Jackson County? What stories would you want him to tell from here?

Let us know, and we’ll share your ideas with other readers.

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Did you watch President Barack Obama’s speech Tuesday night to Congress?

What did you think?

Do you feel better about the nation’s economic situation and our future?

I was glad to hear him express some optimism, although I realize a wearing pink-shaded eyeglasses doesn’t make everything better in an instant.

But I still thought he remained too gloomy and doomy about things.

If buyers and sellers of stock are constantly bombarded with the president talking about the “crisis” and “worst recession since the Great Depression,” how can they beexpected to wake up to the number of bargain stocks out there just waiting to be grabbed? How can bankers feel comfortable about extending more credit to the credit-worthy?

I also was skeptical about Obama and Vice President Joe Biden’s commitment to running herd over spending bills to make sure rthere’s no pork in them.

Sorry, given the amount of lard holding the $787 billion so-called stimulus package together, I’m doubtful that Biden will have any success in being allowed to root out pork.

Again, what do you think?

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Senior writer Aubrey Woods is reporting in Friday’s edition of The Tribune and online at TribTown.com about what Hoosiers face when they find themselves unemployed.

In editing his story, I’ve learned that the unemployment office and filing process sounds nothing like the unemployment office that Pop faced many winters as a heavy equipment operator back in the late 1960s to mid ’70s.

Much of the process for filing an unemployment claim and keeping your account active is done online, Woods reports.

I can recall Pop coming home from a day at the unemployment office complaining that he’d rather have had to go to the license branch. Saying that in Marion County back then made a big statement about the place you weren’t wanting to go.

No one enjoyed going to a Marion County license branch back then.

Aubrey’s story also reports on where people confronted with a layoff can find help until unemployment benefits start being paid. That segment includes comments from two local township trustees and a suggestion that the county’s 211 information system is a good place to turn for help in figuring out who one should contact.

Check out Aubrey’s story.

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Could President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan have my name written in it somewhere?

Is there an earmark in there making me the recipient of federal pork?

Maybe so.

I ate at a Chinese joint Monday afternoon en route to Indianapolis, about the time Obama was in Elkhart, speaking to Hoosiers in an effort to gain support for his stimulus package.

My visit brought great news, in the form of a fortune cookie.

Its message?

“New financial resources will soon become available to you.”

Sounds like stimulus money to me.

Then again, I’d probably have better luck buying Hoosier Lotto ticket Wednesday with the six numbers on the back of the fortune.

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