We’ve written about this before, but it’s important in this charitable season to make sure you’re giving smartly. Outright scams are just one of the worries. It’s also important to make sure you give to charities that truly serve the mission you wish to support, that spend most of ...

In September, Michigan’s Certificate of Need Commission voted to restrict access to a new, potentially lifesaving cancer treatment. Known as “CAR-T,” the Food and Drug Administration-approved procedure programs the body’s own T-cells to attack and kill cancerous cells, allowing ...

We’re sure your holiday shopping is already roaring fully, with just three weeks left till Christmas and both Black Friday and Cyber Monday already behind us. But we hope you’ll pause in the coming days and ponder ways you can shop local this Christmas. We know there are deals all over ...

What’s your quality of life like without kidneys? How long will your car run without spark plugs or a fuel pump? How much more difficult does it become to cook a holiday meal if someone steals your stove? The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Remove any singular part of a ...

It was the morning after the night Gretchen Whitmer was elected governor, and former Gov. Jim Blanchard could not have been happier. He was one of the first influential Democrats to embrace her candidacy. During a post-election interview, he drew upon his personal experience of putting ...

With the first big, heavy snow-dump of the season over the Thanksgiving holiday still sloshing around in our streets and driveways, it’s a good time to remind readers that it’s important to shovel their sidewalks. The city can and does ticket homeowners and — in some cases, renters — ...

We read with great dismay last week Crystal Nelson’s report that sexually transmitted diseases are on the uptick in Northeast Michigan. While the numbers remain small — 94 known cases this year as of October across the four counties served by District Health Department No. 4 — they are ...

Enough is enough. Sometimes, that is hard for a news junkie like myself to admit, but, every now and again, I just need a break from reality and I find myself reading trivial but interesting facts. Two sites I stumbled upon this month both dealt with winter in Michigan. The first, from ...

With a nod to Andy Heller, how ‘bout some quick-hit analyses of the media news of the day? ∫ Bloomberg News says it won’t investigate its founder, Michael Bloomberg, as he spends his way through the Democratic primaries. It won’t investigate his Democratic rivals. But it will ...

Black Friday is behind us, Small Business Saturday is today, Cyber Monday arrives in two days, and Tuesday will be Giving Tuesday — 24 hours for residents to share their generosity this holiday season to local nonprofits in need. Now in its fifth year, Giving Tuesday five years ago raised a ...

Come Heller high water … ∫ This week, at one of his rallies, President Donald Trump told supporters that the same unnamed liberals who won’t allow us to say Christmas are now after Thanksgiving. “They don’t want to use the term Thanksgiving. But everybody in this room I know loves ...

As we approach the Thanksgiving holidays and the buying spree known as Black Friday, new findings in medical science can help guide our purchases to improve rather than hurt the persons to whom we have chosen for gifts. While there has been considerable research in middle school and teenage ...

On Nov. 1, I received my first email promoting Black Friday sales. Early access! Sneak peek! Kick off your holiday shopping now! Our Black Friday event continues! 60% off everything! Your special code ends tonight! Buy now! A cacophonous ringing of headlines and promises and promotions ...

When people ask about the influence of a newspaper, we refer them to Alpena Lena. A mild-mannered woman whose goal in life might be to leave a smile on the face of everyone she meets, Lena is generally shy by nature — that is for the first minute you meet her. Then, she is anything ...

This question was received via email: “I have driven in Michigan for 35 years and understand that the speed limit in construction zones typically is 45 MPH when workers are present. However, does that still apply when workers are on the other side of a concrete barrier wall? Or how about when ...

I have my list. I’ve checked it twice. I’ll go to the grocery store and buy the feast. Thanksgiving is in a few days, and our table will be full of people and full of food. It will be a day of festivities and over-filled stomachs. Table talk will be lively in our home, which will be full ...

This Thanksgiving, as we prepare to pass around the turkey and pumpkin pie, we at The News pause to tell you, dear readers, how thankful we are for you. Day in and day out, all throughout the year, you give us stories to tell — some of heartbreak, some of triumph, some of humor. And, day in ...

Consider the ordinary man — I have — for I consider myself to be one. Lately, however, I’m not so sure. I’m beginning to think that, somehow, somewhere, I lost some of what it takes to be ordinary. Maybe I didn’t download the ordinariness updates. But maybe I did. Maybe they ...

It wasn’t long after Michigan voters in 1992 said yes to term limits for state lawmakers that official Lansing said no and there was an almost immediate discussion about undoing what the voters just did. That was 27 years ago, and the undoing is still not done. Term Limits will remain ...

We were disgusted to read in Saturday’s edition that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources investigated two poached elk in less than a week. Conservation officers believe a bull elk reported Friday near Teets Trail, west of Voyer Lake Road, was killed by a single gunshot, possibly by ...