The most salient omission from this letter to the editor (”Do we need a wall at the southern border?”, published Jan. 12) is a critical analysis of what is presented by the author as factual data. The illicit drugs seized at legal U.S. ports of entry, for example, are quantifiable because ...
With reference to this year’s March for Life, noting 46 years since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by our Supreme Court legalizing abortion, syndicated columnist Star Parker writes in her article printed on the Commentary page of The Alpena News for Jan. 18, 2019: “There is little doubt in ...
As a Michigan teacher, I remember migrants coming every fall to pick produce. They were welcomed and schools provided bilingual services to their children. “Illegal” or legal wasn’t discussed. We needed these good workers. A friend was the accountant for a landscaping company. Their ...
A local family in Alpena is devastated this week after being told by multiple vets that seizures are not fatal to dogs. The family called the early morning of Jan. 2 after their young dog, Keno age 2, had five seizures. The on-call doctor seemed unconcerned and said the seizures were not ...
What to make of the most recent offering from Joe Bastow and Anne Bastow Heraghty (more colloquially, “Siblings Anne and Joe”)? To begin, I cannot recall the last time someone opened with a quote from John C. Calhoun. Were other slavery apologists unavailable for comment? Did Google not ...
Reading articles in The Alpena News regarding the resident of Presque Isle County’s concern on installation of wind turbines prompted me to write. The first time I encountered a “wind farm” was in Michigan’s beautiful Thumb area. It is no longer beautiful. The farm consists of ...
Are you happy with your taxes? I feel once you become a senior, 65, you should not have to pay school taxes or college taxes, you paid them all your life. Now you pay for young people with kids that live off the state, and keep having kids, for the state and us to pay for. They need a ...
As the 2018 lame-duck session of our state legislature winds down, I see that our state Sen. James Stamas continues his sponsorship of corporate polluter-friendly bills. He recently introduced Senate Bill 1244, a big Christmas gift to our Michigan polluters. This is a last-ditch effort for Sen. ...
Linke’s Flowers was established in 1907 by Alfred Linke. Margaret Linke Knechtel ran the business on Mirre and Fifth Street until it was destroyed by fire in 1997. The business then moved to M-32, where she ran the business unitl her death in 1999. In the early days of fall, Margaret and ...
Gov. Snyder, I read that you will decide the fate of the lame-duck bills passed by the Republican majority based on what you perceive are the wishes of the citizens of Michigan. I hope that is true. With this last election, voters told you they want change. Hear them. Let that be your ...
I read in today’s Alpena News, Dec. 13, 2018 edition, about the Alpena Library wanting to float a millage issue vote this spring. Together with the millage issue of the Alpena Public Schools, both of these millage requests are for noble causes in my opinion. What could be more worthy an ...
Our tax dollars should be used to improve our schools, childcare and health care, not to finance the Trump administration’s heartless, anti-immigrant policies. For example, Congress could use the $5 billion requested for a border wall to instead fund a 30-percent increase in federal aid ...
We’ve all heard the expression “I had a Monday.” Well, Monday, Nov. 26 was a Monday I’ll never forget. It all began around 8:30 a.m., when I had received a call that my sister in-law of 25 years had lost her fight with cancer. She was 56. Family needs family in a time of grief, so I ...
On Sunday, Nov. 25, our mother, Marian Gennrich, died following complications from replacement hip surgery. There are two institutions in Alpena that merit special recognition for their part in taking care of Marian and our family. First is the Long Rapids Road MediLodge and Rehab Center. The ...
Alpena Township’s Board of Trustees is going to vote on whether Alpena will allow recreational marijuana businesses in the township. Rogers City already turned it down (803 nays, 544 yeas). Alpena Township voted 2,342 nays, 2,015 yeas. Supervisor Nathan Skibbe already said to the board, “We ...
State Sen. Jim Stamas and state Rep. Sue Allor should be ashamed of themselves. Just when we thought we could breathe a sigh of relief after yet another contentious and divisive election, Stamas and Allor, not liking the statewide outcome, are colluding with their GOP peers to destroy what ...
Our lame-duck Legislature in Lansing is considering a back-room deal between Enbridge Inc. and Gov. Rick Snyder. Introduced two days after the election, Senate Bill 1197 would guarantee the 65-year-old, damaged Line 5 pipelines remain operative in the Straits of Mackinac for up to another ...
First, kudos to Anne Gentry for a wonderfully thoughtful piece on the loss attendant in new construction (I’m a sucker for anyone quoting Joseph Mitchell. Or Jane Jacobs). Second, I don’t know that there is an answer to the dilemma of a disappearing past. On the one hand, we see our past ...
One of our greatest flaws in our system of Democracy is the denial of responsibility of any matter by authorities spreading it. I am referring to the story about a Detroit federal judge dismissing charges against eight people, including two doctors, in the genital mutilation of nine girls, with ...
I am a person worried about climate change. As a parent and grandmother, I fear for what my children and grandchildren will have to face because we are too set in our ways to do what needs to be done to save our planet for future generations. We need to look at renewable sources of ...