Breaking News

Local columns

Almanac for July 31, 2026

Today is Friday, July 31, the 212th day of 2026. There are 153 days left in the year. Today in history: In 2012, at the Summer Olympics in London, swimmer Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic medal, becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time. (He would finish his career with 28 total Olympic medals, 23 of them gold.) Also on this date: In 1715, a fleet of Spanish ships carrying gold, silver and jewelry sank during a hurricane off the east Florida coast; more than 1,000 of the roughly 2,500 crew members died. In 1777, the 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette received a commission as ...

August guests — family reunion time

ESCANABA — It’s almost August and that means company is coming! Pack up the picnic basket, bake up a raspberry pie, it’s family reunion time. Fair week is fast approaching, crickets chirp louder at night now, and the short Upper Peninsula summertime is starting to wane. So go for a ride! It’s time to visit the relatives back home. Great Aunt Erma and Uncle Fred are on their way to your house. The old homestead, family farm, camp or cottage are good gathering places. Part of the day will be spent at the cemetery viewing gravestones of kinfolk long passed. An afternoon will ...

Socialists v. the Senate

Political parties tend to harshly reject the idea that they are a threat to the constitutional order, but the Democratic Socialists of America are making it part of their brand. The DSA has released a new program that, besides contemplating the advent of a classless society, calls for ...

Senate panel delays vote on Blanche’s AG nomination

WASHINGTON (AP) — Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general stalled Wednesday as lawmakers scrapped a planned committee vote after key Republicans demanded more assurances about the settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. The ...

Almanac for July 30, 2026

Today is Thursday, July 30, the 211th day of 2026. There are 154 days left in the year. Today in history: In 1976, Bruce Jenner, now known as Caitlyn Jenner, set a world record of 8,618 points and won the gold medal in the Olympic decathlon at the Montreal Summer Games. Also on this date: In 1619, the first representative assembly in colonial America convened in Jamestown in the Virginia Colony. In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces tried to take Petersburg, Virginia, by exploding a gunpowder-laden mine shaft beneath Confederate defense lines; the attack failed. In 1916, ...

Bring back ‘nattering nabobs’

President Trump’s performance at last Friday’s retooled White House Correspondents’ Dinner made me nostalgic for the days of Vice President Spiro Agnew, President Richard Nixon’s media attack dog. In a speech, Agnew called politicians critical of Nixon administration policies ...