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When elected officials answer citizens with attorneys

Letters to the Editor

Alpena deserves to ask a serious question: How much of this are we expected to tolerate from an elected school board member? Monica Dziesinski was facing a citizen-led recall effort over her conduct and decisions as a member of the Alpena Public Schools Board of Education. Rather than simply allowing voters to have their say, she hired a downstate law firm that challenged recall petition signatures on technical legal grounds.But this goes beyond fighting a recall. I know that personally. After I publicly criticized Dziesinski’s actions as an elected official and encouraged ...

Let the voters decide

Letters to the Editor

It didn’t surprise me when the news broke that Monica Dziesinski had hired an elite downstate law firm to influence the outcome of the school board recall campaign. It also didn’t surprise me that Eric Lawson joined her. After all, Lawson seems pretty comfortable with suppressing community voices. Isn’t this the same person who positioned deputies at school board meetings to remove people who dared to clap? And threatened defamation lawsuits against community members? What did surprise me was Sarah Costain. Members of the community gave me the impression that she is someone with ...

A dog, a creek, and an environmental plan

Editorials and columns

Sometimes being a nice guy leaves you – well – hanging in a precarious position. Such was the case with Luke, a dog we never aspired to own, but that changed when we took one off the hands of friends who could no longer afford to keep him. Luke spent most of his days outside, as was the ...

Congress must stop proposed Head Start changes

Letters to the Editor

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 ...

A hard pill to swallow

Letters to the Editor

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 ...

$40,000,000,000,000.00 and counting

Editorials and columns

America just achieved another milestone and not in a good way. This week our National Debt topped $40,000,000,000,000.00! That’s 40 trillion dollars. It’s nearly impossible for us to comprehend just one trillion, but I will try. A million seconds ago was about 11 days ago. A billion ...