Opinion

Earth Day is less than two weeks away

Letters to the Editor April 11, 2026

Two years ago, our small group of volunteers started cleaning city beaches. Specifically we removed lumbering-era bark, and storm-water runoff sludge, from Blair Street, Starlite, and Mich-e-ke-wis beaches. During these two seasons, volunteers removed 107,000 pounds of debris from these beaches. The Alpena News did a great job bringing the news of these cleanup efforts to your attention. As we prepare for the 2026 season, our group has adopted the name MIShores. MIShores has strong leadership with exciting plans for future area projects. MIShores first major effort for this season ...

There Must Be More

Editorials and columns April 11, 2026

In Western Civilization, Christian ethics still, in some ways, dominate society. Murder is wrong. Stealing is wrong. Lying is wrong. Iran is dominated by Shiite Muslims who, at heart, embrace Taqiyya, or religious dissimulation, in ways Sunni Muslims tend to reject. It is why more must be done ...

AI is helpful, but can fail on facts

Editorials and columns April 11, 2026

I love using artificial intelligence technologies. They’re wildly powerful and helpful. They speed up research and summarize historical or philosophical ideas or help with practical problem solving. Hey, I’m not a plumber. Helpful as they can be, I see several hazards as we confront AI ...

39 Days: Too Much or Not Enough?

Editorials and columns April 10, 2026

Will the U.S.-Iran war turn out to have been the 39-day war, following the locution of the 12-day Israel-Iran war of June 2025? The markets, as this is written, seem to think so. Asian stock markets were up Wednesday morning after President Donald Trump's ceasefire announcement and, hours ...

Local News Day commentary for MPA

Editorials and columns April 10, 2026

I started my journalism career with a typewriter, a notebook and a pretty basic motivation: I wanted to know what was happening in my community, and why. The typewriter is long gone, replaced by technologies I couldn’t have imagined back then. But across Michigan, the curiosity and ...

Big Tech's ugly data centers finally meet the opposition

Editorials and columns April 10, 2026

It appears that folks living in the gently rolling farmland of southwestern Ohio don't want a 2-million-square-foot data center plopped down the road from their front porches. What's wrong with them? Are they snotty not-in-my-backyard liberals? Not quite. Wilmington, Ohio, is a very ...