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Almanac for Aug. 17, 2026

Today is Monday, Aug. 17, the 229th day of 2026. There are 136 days left in the year. Today in history: On Aug. 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton gave grand jury testimony via closed-circuit television from the White House concerning his relationship with Monica Lewinsky; he then delivered a TV address in which he admitted his relationship with Lewinsky was "wrong" but denied previously committing perjury (Clinton was subsequently impeached by the House of Representatives, but acquitted in the Senate). Also on this date: In 1807, Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat made its first ...

The Right to Be Left Alone

"The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. ... They conferred against the Government the right to be let alone — most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men." — Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) The ...

Almanac for Aug. 15, 2026

Today is Saturday, Aug. 15, the 227th day of 2026. There are 138 days left in the year. Today in history: On Aug. 15, 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York; more than 460,000 people attended the three-day festival, which would become a watershed event in American music and culture. Also on this date: In 1057, Macbeth, King of Scots, was killed in battle by Malcolm, the eldest son of King Duncan, whom Macbeth had killed 17 years earlier. In 1914, the Panama Canal officially opened as the SS Ancon crossed the just-completed waterway between the Pacific ...

Are Mainstream Democrats Taking Back the Wheel?

You couldn't find a wackier candidate than Francesca Hong, the Democratic Socialist vying to become the governor of Wisconsin. She wanted to defund police and abolish ICE, topping it all off with a call to end Thanksgiving. "Saturday Night Live" couldn't have made her up. Hong lost the ...

Fair week farmers

ESCANABA — Fair week brings out the farmer in all of us! Corn fields, country roads, and cotton candy are all in vogue right now. Sunflowers stand tall, tomatoes ripen and cucumbers are kings on everyone’s kitchen cupboards. The annual U.P. State Fair creeps up on us like a barn cat on a mouse. Summer slips into the harvest season faster than a flash of lightening on the horizon. Fair week (August 17-23) is full of fantastic smells and sentiments. Food trucks, French fries, elephant ears, and roasting chickens, mixed with the smell of hay and a hint of manure are the hallmarks ...

Almanac for Aug. 14, 2026

Today is Friday, Aug. 14, the 226th day of 2026. There are 139 days left in the year. Today in history: On Aug. 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, ensuring income for elderly Americans and creating a federal unemployment insurance program. Also on this date: In 1936, in front of an estimated 20,000 spectators, Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, in the last public execution in the United States. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, which ...