My first memory of an American mass shooting goes back nearly 60 years with an Alpena connection. It was Monday, August 1, 1966, at the University of Texas/Austin campus. Charles Whitman, a former U.S. Marine and one-time U of T student, ascended the 27 floor, 307-foot campus tower to the ...

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson went to court Monday to stop President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops to the Windy City, calling mob violence against immigration officials a "flimsy pretext." Follow this closely, New Yorkers and residents of ...

At some point when I was growing up, I saved a copy of “Golden Rules for Living” which can be applied to any chapter of our lives. There are many versions of it when I looked it up, but no one knows where it originated. Here is one version: If you open it, close it. If you turn it on, ...

Representative Cam Cavitt says he is “not anti-fishery” ("Cavitt explains his DNR vote" in The Alpena News, Sept. 18, 2025). We hope he is right, but he agreed to a budget plan that would force a $5.4 million dollar cut on the Fisheries Division. The DNR has been strangled financially by ...

When President Donald Trump dropped the bizarre suggestion last week that the military should use American cities as "training grounds" to fight what he called "an enemy within," it sounded almost like old news. After all, Trump has talked like this for years. "Don't take him literally," some ...

Trust: "Reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence." Polls and simple observations show that Americans are placing less trust in institutions and individuals. A Wall Street Journal story notes that the current government "shutdown" has raised ...