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Deadline next week to sign up for state’s Health Insurance Marketplace

With the deadline coming up quickly — next Thursday — to purchase a health plan on the Health Insurance Marketplace, the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services Director Anita Fox is urging residents who need coverage for 2026 to act now. “Comprehensive, high-quality health insurance leads to better health outcomes, and time is running out for consumers to take advantage of free, local assistance to get the coverage they need through the Health Insurance Marketplace,” Fox said in a news release. “The biggest mistake you could make is to wait and miss the ...

Trump’s attack on Venezuela illegal, unwise

Over the past few months, President Trump has deployed an imposing military force in the Caribbean to threaten Venezuela. Until recently, the president used that force — an aircraft carrier, at least seven other warships, scores of aircraft and 15,000 U.S. troops — for illegal attacks on small boats that he claimed were ferrying drugs. Last Saturday, Mr. Trump dramatically escalated his campaign by capturing President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela as part of what he called “a large scale strike” against the country. Few people will feel any sympathy for Mr. Maduro. He is ...

Lack of post-Maduro planning could create quagmire

How do you do regime change without changing the regime? That is the conundrum facing President Trump following his announcement that the United States would run the government of Venezuela “until such time as a proper transition can take place” — date to be determined. Coming from a president who has mocked American military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Trump’s declaration was almost as surprising as the lightening-strike operation itself, which led to the arrest of Venezuela’s autocratic president, Nicholas Maduro, on drug trafficking charges. Set aside for a ...

State urges testing for radon gas in homes

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has again declared this to be Radon Action Month in Michigan, encouraging all residents to learn more about this environmental hazard and test their homes during this winter’s heating season. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas produced by the natural decay of uranium found in all soil types. It enters buildings from the soil and can accumulate to high concentrations indoors. Yet radon cannot be seen, smelled or tasted, and has no short-term side effects that could cause alarm or warn of its presence, according to the Michigan Department of ...

Flu season just getting started

Flu season means taking precautions, care of oneself Although the holiday season is over, flu season just getting started Flu season is here and we’d like to remind everyone of a few things to remember as the illness peaks. Typically the flu season peaks in January or February, but with the winter starting as early as it did this year, it’s not too soon to to think about the flu. Though the start, duration and severity of the season is hard to gage from year to year, it seems the sickness has already begun to spread in the U.P. But it’s easy for anyone to take steps to prevent ...

US foreign aid rollback seems reasonable — for now

The Trump administration will always couch even its most reasonable decisions in the most dramatic terms possible, and so it was with a State Department announcement that the U.S. would be sending a significantly smaller humanitarian aid package to the United Nations: “Individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink or die.” The $2 billion announced last week is down from $3.8 billion in 2025 and a major reduction from America’s contributions under President Joe Biden, which peaked at $17 billion in 2022. It’s easy to write this off as a shortsighted America First policy, ...