Town Disappears, One Small Business Remains.

This is the real human side of this recession. This is the side of the story that in my opinion, the Republicans don't get. Real people are struggling to make it and Congress is too busy playing games to notice. Or in this case. too busy protecting their own interests to care.

Coming out of the recession, many small businesses are trying to lure back customers. But in the case of the Empire Store, a convenience grocer and gas station, the effort has been a lot tougher.

That’s because the customers are, quite simply, gone.

The town of Empire, Nev., and its few hundred residents all but vanished after the United States Gypsum Corp., a drywall manufacturer, shuttered its Empire location this past January, as the housing slump dragged on. Even the ZIP code has been discontinued. (See coverage of the story on NPR and The Christian Science Monitor .)

When the real-estate bubble burst, it sent shock waves through similar towns across the country. In some cases, they became bankrupt and deserted ghost communities – shadows of towns that once held the promise of prosperity.

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