This week’s bouquets go to: From Bruce Tapio of North Central Area Schools: The next time you visit the North Central High School gym things will appear much brighter thanks to a Clean Energy Grant from the M&M Area Community Foundation. We were able to upgrade to energy-efficient LED ...
EDITOR: It’s no secret the city of Gladstone has inflated the cost of utility services to pay for non-utility city operations for over a decade. Each year a little more money was needed. The utility rates went up for electricity, trash and water, a dime here a quarter there. September 2016 ...
EDITOR: The (bottle) deposit law is working. The last time I was in Wisconsin, which I freely admit, was a while ago, the state looked like a garbage dump. Wisconsin at that time, and as far as I know still does not have a deposit law. I am really surprised that our state representative, from ...
NEW YORK — Struggling to find gifts to get for loved ones? How about a book? I just made a video about some books that shaped my thinking. First, Friedrich Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom” recounts how government trying to centrally plan an economy often leads to tyranny. Government ...
By The Associated Press Today in History Today is Saturday, Dec. 15, the 349th day of 2018. There are 16 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, went into effect following ratification ...
Michigan may not get the kind of killer — literally in many cases — weather events that many parts of the country often experience. But we get more than our share of blistering winter storms and the occasional flood. (Just ask the folks in the western Upper Peninsula and Copper Country ...
LANSING — I recently sponsored legislation that attempts to strike a better balance between local government authority and private-property rights around the state. Our state includes more than 1,700 local units of government — cities, townships and villages. A small handful of them, less ...
WASHINGTON — Yes, it’s true that their party just won the House majority and more House seats, 40, than in any election since 1974 (and with the increasing likelihood of a new election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District after confirmed reports of Republican election fraud ...
By The Associated Press Today in History Today is Friday, Dec. 14, the 348th day of 2018. There are 17 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 14, 2012, a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School ...
The holiday season has arrived once again and many people have been busy getting ready for all the merriment. From decorating to shopping, baking, cooking, cleaning and otherwise preparing for guests, all in the name of fun times that we can share with friends and family. While we, too, enjoy ...
TRAVERSE CITY — Some people love to sneer at examples of what they deem to be “political correctness.” My usual reaction is to wonder what’s wrong with them. Let’s use the N-word as an example. How is it not a good thing that most people don’t use that term anymore? Or how about ...
WASHINGTON — George H.W. Bush was America’s closer. Called in to pitch the final innings of the Cold War, Bush 41 presided masterfully over the fall of the Berlin Wall, the unification of Germany, the liberation of 100 million Eastern Europeans and the dissolution of the Soviet Union into ...
By The Associated Press Today in History Today is Thursday, Dec. 13, the 347th day of 2018. There are 18 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 13, 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole under a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq, near his ...
While it is hard for many people to accept, the world still runs on oil and gas. In fact, 60 percent of energy production in the United States in 2017 came from the two fossil fuels. It will be a long time before that reality changes significantly. Renewable energy sources are on the rise, ...
EDITOR: Most fans “weigh in” on each sporting event watched, which includes opinions expressed during the game as well. The fan sitting alongside endures unsolicited opinion as each game unfolds. The opinions, both during and after the game, sound something like this: ‘What’s the ...
EDITOR: Contemporary Christmas carols Silent Night: Not with kids around. To break the seasonal silence of an alone person, contact them soon. Hark the Herald Angels Sing: Oh, how we can use some additional angelic involvement, now. O Come All Ye Faithful: Faithful to our children, ...
By The Associated Press Today in History Today is Wednesday, Dec. 12, the 346th day of 2018. There are 19 days left in the year. Today’s Highlights in History: On Dec. 12, 2000, George W. Bush became president-elect as a divided U.S. Supreme Court reversed a state court decision for ...
We have lost count of the atrocities perpetrated in the current lame duck session of our state Legislature. Our lawmakers unseemly behavior can only further damage the public’s confidence in our state government, which is already the least accountable and least transparent in the ...
EDITOR: In a recent letter, I stated that Heritage Energy had moved all wind turbine sites in the Garden II project back to 1,000 feet from all non-participating property lines. I need to apologize for not properly fact checking that with Heritage. They contacted me and informed me that was ...
BERKELEY — Donald Trump’s “America first” economic nationalism is finally crashing into the reality of America’s shareholder-first global capitalism. Last week, General Motors announced it would cut about 14,000 jobs, most of them in the politically vital swing states of Michigan ...