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Can the Vances make it cool to have kids?

Vice President J.D. Vance is putting his own spin on MAGA -- Make America Grow Again. Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance recently announced that she is pregnant. Their fourth child, a boy, is due in June. Usha isn't the only woman connected to the White House who is expecting. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Katie Miller, wife of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, are both pregnant, too. Talk about leading by example. This baby boom fits perfectly with the vision J.D. Vance articulated at last year's March for Life. "I want more babies in the United States of America," Vance ...

The wrong narrative

If you follow what presents itself as "reporting" these days you have likely heard about a 5-year-old boy in Minneapolis who was used as "bait" to get his father, who had abandoned him, to return so he could be arrested. Some claimed the child had been "kidnapped" by ICE. Rep. Jasmine ...

Canada should warm to Trump’s arctic plans

Donald Trump's Arctic strategy has been 500 years in the making. When Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic in 1492, he intended to find a direct path from Europe to Asia. He didn't, of course -- but the first transatlantic explorer to sail under an English flag, John Cabot, tried again a few years later and became the first modern explorer to reach what is now Canada. The commercial potential of the Northwest Passage was obvious from the start, but even once explorers at last figured out how to thread their way through the Arctic's ice and islands, there was no ...

It is America’s birthday: get ready to party!

Fifty years ago, I lived in Washington, D.C. during America’s Bicentennial. Leading the 200-year event was the late Senator John W. Warner. I worked for him when he was Secretary of the Navy serving active duty on his public affairs staff. The nation’s birthday celebration was not just ...

What the heck is a Chamber of Commerce and what does it really do?

Ask ten people in Alpena what the Chamber of Commerce does, and you’ll probably get ten different answers. A networking group. A business club. A visitor information center. Something for big employers. Here’s the truth: the Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce is far more practical, and far ...

The return of Perry Johnson

He's back. If you've got any ragged "Perry Johnson for Governor" yard signs laying out in the garage, dust them off. He's back. The Oakland County multi-national business guru is running for governor and this time, he thinks he will get it right. Last time in 2024 he and others got it ...