We read with great interest reporter Julie Riddle’s dispatch on local law enforcement officials’ response to recently released recommendations from the Michigan Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration. The task force issued 18 recommendations to judges, prosecutors, and police that ...
Did you feel a bit gloomy this past month? If you answered yes, then good — I thought perhaps it was just me. But then I read a recent statistic from the National Weather Service’s Gaylord office revealing that, of the 31 days in January, 68% of them were completely cloudy in Alpena, ...
Let us all, Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, atheist, gay, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, religious person/zealot, or this (ism) that (ism), take a step back and remember: We are Americans and human first! Treat everyone with respect. If you don’t like a certain show, don’t watch. ...
“Just because of the sanitizing coverage that’s in the media doesn’t mean the facts aren’t out there.” *** “The media knows what sells — conflict and division.” *** The president said those things. Not Donald Trump. Bill Clinton. Ol’ Slick Willy had little ...
Next month, on March 10, our community will be faced with a decision on whether to renew the bond that will allow our public school system to do some much-needed repairs and maintenance across the county. Out of all the frustrations we face when looking at the numbers of the past bond election, ...
Sometimes, what seems like a good decision doesn’t always work. The traffic light at 2nd Avenue and Miller Street in Alpena might be one such case. The key word there is “might.” Alpena Municipal Council members were asked this week to consider returning the stop light at the ...
I graduated from Alpena High School in 1989 and attended Alpena Community College, becoming a Registered Nurse in 1993. In 2002, I left Alpena to begin my life’s journey. My parents hoped I would be “back someday.” They were right, as parents usually are. Last fall, I left the state of ...
Ishmel said: “Whenever it is a damp November in my soul … I quietly take to the ship. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree — some time or other — cherish very nearly the same feeling towards the sea with me. “I did not mean to infer that I go as a passenger,” ...
Some reasons to vote Democratic this year: 1. You want driver’s licenses, voting rights, free health insurance, and all other benefits for illegal immigrants. 2. You agree that anyone from anywhere is allowed in our country without any criminal or disease checks. 3. You agree that ...
I’m from Illinois, I told someone recently. The blank stare in response told the usual story. “Is that over near Chicago?” my listener asked, and then shrugged and changed the subject. My former home is one of what coast-dwellers call the flyover states, considered too dull to be worth ...
I commend Presque Isle County Commissioners Shutes, Gapczynski, and Darga for passing a Second Amendment Sanctuary Resolution at their meeting on Jan. 30. Further, I thank Sheriff Brewbaker, his deputies, and county Prosecutor Radzibon for supporting this resolution against additional ...
Why did U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney’s impeachment vote echo the words of U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler’s hypocrisy? Democrat constitutional professors Jonathan Turley and Alan Derschowitz expressed constitutional law. George Romney will always be respected — Mitt? Elite? RUDY ...
Trump-Pence vs Bloomberg-Whitmer? In politics, sometimes the improbable becomes the possible and the possible becomes reality. You just never know. MIKE DOTSCH, Ossineke
Regarding your article in the Saturday/Sunday Jan. 25-26 edition about empty buildings in Alpena. Pre-sale of the Thunder Bay Shopping Center, almost all buildings were full. The tenants did not dissolve their businesses like the article made it sound. One business was tehre over 30 years and ...
We read the 765-word bloviation of Mike Westfall, representing some basement fringe organization called the American Family Association of Michigan, arguing that potential expansion of protections for LGBTQ persons is a serious threat to Christians and other “people of faith.” (We recall, ...
How can 79-year-old Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the “People’s House,” be as completely immature as my recently turned 1-year-old grandson, Ozzie, who regularly drops the food he dislikes off his highchair tray onto the floor? The “rip” seen round the world occurred immediately after ...
Twenty years ago, managers at The Alpena News saw a need in the community and decided to work to meet that need with their first Business Expo. Several years previously, the Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce had stopped hosting their business gatherings, and newspaper leaders thought perhaps we ...
What happens if you do something to expand your mind or improve yourself every day for a year? Have you ever set a goal for yourself like that? Not a goal with general statements like “do more of” or “get better at,” but a goal with specific measurables like, “I am going to do ...
Northeast Michigan saw back-to-back-to-back packed local government meetings in recent days as the boards of commissioners in Alpena, Presque Isle, and Alcona counties considered a resolution that would declare their counties Second Amendment sanctuaries. The Alpena County board tabled the ...
“Putting numbers before words.” An interesting prospect, especially in using it to start off a newspaper column, but bear with me. Last night was President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech, followed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s nationally televised Democratic response. And, ...