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Letters to the Editor

Congress must stop proposed Head Start changes

Congress must immediately call on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to rescind RFK Jr.’s proposed rules attacking Head Start and protect this vital program! Since his time in office, Kennedy has repeatedly undermined the well-being of our nation’s children, families and moms–the very population his department is tasked with serving and supporting. Now, instead of helping families, RFK Jr. is attacking Head Start, the nation’s important social and educational program for children, families, and communities, by proposing to eliminate most of the program's ...

Donald Trump’s solution

Big Numbers – Elon Musk, one single person, is worth more than one trillion dollars. $1,000,000,000,000.00. An unimaginable number that for our understanding equals one million, millionaires. Coming into office Donald Trump promised to deal with inflation and he has. He is now worth more than a billion dollars, or one thousand, millionaires. He has solved the inflation problem. He has now amassed so much wealth that he just doesn't have to care about inflation. How did they amass such wealth? Our government is broken. Donald Trump is in control. Divisive personal interests ...

To the wilderness I go

Like an uncertain lamb, newly born, I have wobbled my way through a rocky terrain of finding purpose again after a decade of secularism, atheism, and agnosticism. It’s interesting how deep the roots are for religious belief as once I returned to the garden to inspect the roots I had left, ...

A hard pill to swallow

It must have been a hard pill to swallow when school boards members, Sarah Costain, Monica Dziesinski and Eric Lawson, who were facing a recall effort, realized over 4300 individuals in the community felt they were quite bad at their school board job. Over 4300 community members picked up a pen and signed a recall petition which would have put these three back on the ballot in November so voters could decide whether to continue with the chaos and waste they bring to the school board, or replace them. All was on track for the “replace” option which is likely what drove their decision ...

Critical points missed in Alpena News story

The News missed critical points in its headline story on Aug. 4 when they announced total signatures for three school board members did not meet the threshold number necessary to trigger a recall? The front page story that day surely should have made mention that school board members Sarah Costain, Monica Dziesinski, and Eric Lawson retained the services of an out-of-town law firm, Butzel, to challenge the legitimacy of the recall effort based on the weakest claim imaginable. Butzel claimed dozens of petitions, in their entirety, needed to be disqualified because the petition ...

Who has my signature?

As a matter of transparency it’s important for the community to know that all the petitions from the school board recall effort are now in the hands of unknown numbers of individuals. The day after the recall petitions were filed with our County Clerk, community member Dennis Schultz submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Schultz wanted all petitions, numbering close to 2000, to be copied to a thumbdrive and turned over to him. Schultz paid for the FOIA and by that action, had in his possession the names and addresses of over 4300 individuals who participated in the ...