A shortage of mechanics is weighing heavily on the minds of executives in the aviation sector, according to this Reuters article, which includes comments from the chief safety officer at Cleveland-based Constant Aviation.

The news service says that more than two years after lockdowns "nearly grounded the airline industry, repair shops and suppliers are scrambling" to fill positions.

"The hiring rush is evidence of a sharper than expected recovery in air travel, but also signals a looming labor shortage that is raising costs and could push up repair times as the industry stages an awkward recovery from its worst crisis," Reuters says.

It says the shortages are expected to be one of the issues discussed by executives at the Farnborough Airshow near London, this year's largest aerospace expo, which started Monday, July 18.

One major problem, Reuters notes, is that COVID-19 job cuts "sped up a pre-pandemic trend of workers retiring or switching to other industries like automotive, and schools are not producing enough graduates to replace them."

Constant Aviation, which services private jets, "recently hiked technician pay by 10%, and introduced $15,000 signing bonuses for qualified veterans to meet soaring demand," according to the article.

Booking maintenance slots, which once required a few weeks' notice, must now be made six months in advance, said Kent Stauffer, the company's chief safety officer.

He tells Reuters that the industry hurt itself by not paying more. "Now it's all catching up with us," he says.

For Cleveland homebuyers, "the typical energy utility bill is equal to 31% of mortgage costs," which is "a higher percentage than any other major metro" in the U.S., according to this analysis produced by Redfin, the real estate brokerage company.

Using MLS mortgage-cost data in the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas and state-level energy cost data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Redfin reports that the typical U.S. household "spent an estimated $2,127 on energy utility bills in 2021, equal to 14.8% of the annual mortgage payment for homebuyers." That compares with $1,986, or 15.8%, a year earlier and $1,906, or 23.4%, a decade earlier.

In Cleveland, though, the typical household "spent an average of $2,065 on energy expenses in 2021, equal to 30.7% of the $6,719 median annual mortgage payment for homebuyers." No. 2 on this list was Oklahoma City, at 30.2%, following by Birmingham, Alabama (28.8%), Pittsburgh (28.2%) and Buffalo (28.2%).

"Even though energy costs rose in 2021, they represented a smaller share of mortgage costs than in the past. That's because they increased at a much slower rate than home prices, which skyrocketed during the pandemic due to record-low mortgage rates and a wave of relocations made possible by remote work," said Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari in a statement. "This may start to level out now that home prices are no longer growing as quickly and energy costs are surging due to rising natural gas prices."

The Wall Street Journal runs a strong review of "Good Medicine, Hard Times: Memoir of a Combat Physician in Iraq," by Dr. Edward Horvath, a Vietnam-era Navy medical officer, who in early 2004 "felt compelled to leave his home and career in Cleveland and rejoin the military."

The review starts this way:

"They need doctors," he explained to his wife. On April 19, he writes in his memoir "Good Medicine, Hard Times," he raised his right hand to take the oath of service for a second time, then shipped out to the U.S. Army's 256th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq. He was 57 years old. He would stay on for two more deployments, through August 2014, leaving only when forced to do so, on his mandatory removal date — namely, his 68th birthday.

The spring of 2008 found Dr. Horvath, now an Army colonel, as chief physician in an emergency medical treatment center near Tikrit. His beds were filled with "wounded of all ages — men, women, and children, mostly Iraqi citizens intermixed with a few soldiers." It was his duty to care for them all, including a loud-mouthed young terrorist — "AQI, Al Qaeda in Iraq"— being treated for minor wounds before being turned over, as the Iraqis required, to the local police. Dr. Horvath was unnerved by this hateful person, and by the strength of their visceral contempt for each other: "I felt relief when he was gone." It includes this summary of an encounter Horvath recounts from a meeting at Cleveland's airport in late 2008.

Seeing him in combat uniform, a Delta ticket agent mentioned that her son had suffered a ruptured spleen in Iraq. "No one knew the extent of his injuries," she said, "until an older doctor examined him and sent him for emergency surgery." After asking her a few questions, Dr. Horvath realized that he was the doctor she was talking about. "For a brief moment, she looked at me in astonishment — then she darted from behind the counter, embraced me like she'd never let go, and began to cry." The review concludes that the world "would be a better place if we all treated each another with the concern, compassion and caring that Dr. Horvath prescribes."

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