The focus of minimum wage debates usually centers on the number of job losses that could result from an increase. Those job losses, however, do not impact all types of workers equally. Increasing the minimum wage leads to employers shifting away from younger workers toward older, ...

If something seems off, don’t be afraid to tell someone. So say advocates for ending human trafficking, who held an event Monday in Alpena to highlight the problem and let Northeast Michiganders know it happens here. Trafficking can take on many forms, but it always involves a vulnerable ...

Among all the dilemmas Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is confronting these days, you can now officially add that she has a messaging problem. When she shut down the state to bend the COVID-19 curve two times before, she steadfastly clung to the notion that the “science” justified the move. The ...

A Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that an Alpena County defendant must pay for the state’s costs in administering his court case is now precedent. By publishing their opinion, the appellate justices said their ruling that Travis Johnson must pay $1,200 in court costs can be used as case ...

The call annoyed me as a kid on vacation. About midway through the week, after we’d woken up and had breakfast, my dad had to dial a number on the hotel phone before we’d set out on that day’s adventure. “How are things going at the shop?” he’d ask his business manager, or ...

It costs money to print newspapers, and, like any business, we care about our bottom lines, so we can invest in our people and the technology, equipment, and services necessary to improve what we have to offer. But, at their heart, newspapers exist for public service. A call to public ...