Breaking News

An America of privilege financed by poverty

Veterans and V.A. employees. Fisheries and Wildlife biologists. National parks workers. Firefighters. Middle-class federal employees who guarantee that Social Security checks go out on time and that rural hospitals and clinics receive the Medicare payments that keep their doors open. All of these are victims of America’s True Deep State’s takeover of the United States government. Not the imagined Deep State of middle-class bureaucrats but that of the upper one percent of the monied class. Elon Musk’s bouncing around on stage brandishing a chainsaw symbolizes more that a thinning ...

Keep Michigan DOE tax dollars in Michigan

The Wednesday, March 12, edition of the Alpena News contained a commentary column “Protect Schools From Cuts” authored by Alexandra Stamm of the Michigan League for Public Policy. Ms. Stamm was complaining about the expected funding cuts to the budget of the federal Department of Education (DOE) and what she expected the impacts to Michigan from those cuts. She reports the DOE has two main roles impacting Michigan public schools. The first is providing grants which amount to about $2.3B to Michigan. The second role according to Stamm is funding for students with disabilities, ...

Congress must reject plans to dismantle DOE

The U.S. Congress must reject President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and undermine the foundation of public education in this country. We have witnessed countless attacks on public education at the hands of this president and his administration since he took office. In this most recent attack, nearly 50% of Department of Education employees were unjustly fired in the name of government efficiency. With the significant reduction in staff, the Trump administration has effectively shuttered the agency and gutted its ability to support ...

Pink-slipping Congressman Jack Bergman

If President Musk and his DOGE team really want to root out waste, fraud and abuse within the Federal Government, I suggest they start by pink-slipping Congressman Jack Bergman and staff. Aside from not having held a constituent town hall for over eight years, they’ve delivered little to Northern Michigan. Agencies and services critical to our safety and welfare are being axed. Meanwhile, Bergman blindly defends the carnage left in the path of DOGE cuts. Alpena and the surrounding area depend on local VA programs, an accessible Social Security office, a reliable and secure postal ...

Considering all options for federal workforce

So we now have a king who resides (temporarily) in the White House for four more years, unless HE decides to stay for four more years, who is not smart enough to realize that he is being played by a cunning former KGB agent, who wants to reduce the federal workforce force who he thinks do nothing but draw a paycheck, well here’s a novel suggestion, how about laying off the entire House of Representatives abruptly? He wants to call all the shots, he doesn’t need a VP either, or a cabinet of incompetent people, maybe one senator per state with no party affiliation, oh the list could go ...

Fixing policy for a minority to overrule majority wrong

A member of the Alpena Public Schools board recently proposed a change to school policy regarding the process used to respond to complaints. The complaints in this case seemed to be about certain books kept in the school libraries. The change would simply give three members of the board the power to remove the books. Currently, the process involves parents, principals, the administration, and the board. I am concerned for two reasons. First, the proposal eliminates the possibility of an informal settlement through conversation between parent and principal (the way most such complaints ...