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Letters to the Editor

Forget Jack’s bayou bias; focus on his character

Almost all my friends say they want Jack Bergman voted out of Congress because he is a carpetbagger who refuses to appear at town halls. Not me. Bobby Kennedy and Hillary Clinton were carpetbaggers in New York. Most Republicans avoid town halls if a Democrat can be found within 50 miles. More important, neither issue has dented Bergman’s landslide hold on voters in Michigan’s First District. I have a better, more compelling reason for sending Jack home from Washington, wherever that might take him. Jack Bergman has refused for six years to denounce the Big Lie, Donald Trump’s ...

A dangerous precedent

I'm a member of this community who cares deeply about the health of our public institutions, the tone of our civic life, & the kind of example set for people watching all this unfold. What concerns me about this recall effort being inflicted on members of this board & on the people of this community is not merely the politics of it. It's the precedent it sets. The petitions themselves list some votes. Not illegal actions or policy violations or corruption. Simply votes. Votes about a rain garden project, legal counsel, & a paving contract. Reasonable people can disagree ...

Recall effort moves forward

On March 2nd school board members Eric Lawson, Sarah Costain and Monica Dziesinski attended a hearing for a determination of the factuality and clarity of the proposed language on the petitions for recalling these three from their school board positions. Due to space limitation, the petition lists only three of the many reasons these board members are facing a recall. The 3-member panel reviewing the language were Alpena County Clerk Keri Bertrand, Probate Court Judge Alan Curtis and Alpena County Treasurer Cindy Cebula. It was interesting to note that not one person at the hearing ...

HOPE

Hope. This simple four-letter word has dominated my thought patterns in recent weeks. Often finding myself one of the oldest in any room these days, I believe hope is a desire of mine born from maturity and life’s experiences. I must admit, however, there also is a lot of the unknown ...

The speculation game

One of the most popular indoor sports in this town requires no physical training. Any number of folks can play and generally nobody gets injured although at times playing the game has damaged some political careers. We're talking about the "who is running for what office? or if you prefer ...

Want to save grassland birds? Start with prairie dogs.

Last fall, I fell in love with prairie dogs on the American Prairie in Montana even though the hype for America's Great Plains pointed me to bison. As impressive as North America's largest land mammal is, the pipsqueak of the prairie piqued my interest and stole my heart, and I'm not the only ...