It was good to read on Friday's front page that the Harmony Inn finally has a timeline for opening.

The green light came after owner Bob McCafferty and officials at the state Department of Revenue reached an agreement over missing revenue information related to the liquor license. The core of the problem that kept the Harmony Inn from opening and forced McCafferty to lay off 50 employees, had to do with the liquor license from 2009-2013 — when it was owned by someone else. The state had a problem with the previous owner, but seemed to take it out on McCafferty.

The runaround from state government frustrated McCafferty for nearly a year, causing uncertainty, adding costs and forcing layoffs of new employees. It also hurt Harmony borough because many customers of the restaurant and bar stroll around town and shop before or after dinner.

When McCafferty reached his limit in dealing with the state, he reached out to his elected officials in Harrisburg, as well as Jack Cohen, head of the county tourism agency, to help resolve his dispute. He also told his story to the Butler Eagle to get the word out to a wider audience.

Those efforts apparently paid off and McCafferty says that after months of delays and setbacks caused by state officials, the Harmony Inn is now looking to open in about four weeks.

It's good news that McCafferty's dispute with the state has been cleared up and the Harmony Inn will soon be opening. But the extensive holdup never should have happened.

Yes, state officials have a job to do and past-due taxes should be collected, but state bureaucrats should not be such an obstacle to local businesses. So, while resolution of the problem earns a cheer, the fact that state officials created such a headache for McCafferty earns the state Department of Revenue a jeer.

Friday's front-page report of a drug arrest was almost comical: it reads like the script of a dark comedy. But it's no laughing matter when a suspected murderer and drug dealer kicks in the front door of a Butler home looking for someone who doesn't even live there.It appears that Glen Ray Carwell and two accomplices were collecting on a drug debt Thursday afternoon when they targeted the wrong house on Wyle Avenue. The couple living there called police and said two men were trying to kick in the front door. One of the intruders was yelling a name that the couple did not recognize.The suspects managed to break down the door — at about the same time they realized they had the wrong house, and just before police arrived to apprehend them.Police identified Carwell, 29, as a suspected drug dealer wanted on a homicide charge in New York City. He apparently was taking refuge in the home of one of the other suspects. All three are now in Butler County Prison facing a number of felony and misdemeanor charges.The incident raises obvious questions about public safety. Are there other suspected murderers taking refuge in Butler, or just drug dealers? Will the front doors of other innocent residents be kicked in by violent drug dealers? Are criminal enterprises increasing here, and can our police forces alone wage a winning battle?Unless these crime issues are addressed as matters of public policy, they are not likely to go away on their own.

Butler County's employment kettle is approaching a slow rolling boil. April's 4.7 percent jobless rate was the lowest for the county in more than five years.The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry reports there are 101,300 civilian workers, 96,500 of whom are working.That's great news. Every new person drawing a paycheck is one less person drawing income from the government.Of course, the improving employment picture presents new challenges. For instance, the pool of available employees is dwindling, and high-caliber, diligent, well-trained employees are harder than ever to find and keep. Employers say that especially hard to find are employees who can pass a drug test and show up consistently, on time and ready to work.It's noteworthy that many of the new jobs are related to the Marcellus Shale gas boom — new prosperity from an enterprise that didn't exist a decade ago.Let's hope such problems work themselves out according to the free-market tradition: Let wages and other compensation increase for diligent workers who earn their keep; let Butler County Community College and others train workers in anticipating of growing demand for skilled labor; let business leaders engage and inspire young people with information about career opportunities and planning.We've been dealing with too few jobs since the Great Recession began in 2008. Now we're dealing with too few workers. The latter is a far better problem than the former.