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Opinion

Approval of labor contract is step in right direction

Editorial

The approval of a one-year labor contract between the university and Local UAW 2178, which represents the university’s Administrative Professional union, is a positive step toward supporting employees and maintaining a productive workplace. Following union ratification on Sept. 30, the agreement, effective Oct. 1, demonstrates the value of cooperation and compromise between university leadership and its employees. The contract includes a 2 percent increase in annual base wages and a one-time payment equal to 1 percent of base wages. While these increases may not resolve every ...

Electoral power

Letters To The Editor

The cost of the corruption in Washington is coming out of our pockets. While gas prices skyrocket, rural clinics close, food is not safe to eat, health care premiums increase, AI steals millions of jobs, and data centers increase utility bills, our tax dollars are being used for lavish parades, jets, ballrooms, huge government contracts given to relatives and friends, and the war in Iran. Michigan has lost 12,000 manufacturing jobs in the past 18 months and the president’s wealth has grown by $2.2 billion. We need leaders who will hold corrupt people accountable and work hard to make ...

What voters see in the parties

Columns

The November midterm vote will be shaped less by party slogans than by the judgments voters make about their daily lives: whether prices feel manageable, whether their communities feel safe, and whether Washington is listening. Neither party can assume that frustration with its opponent ...

Supports Sunshine Protection Act

Letters To The Editor

To the Journal editor: I've lived and worked in Iron Mountain for 47 years and every winter I watch our kids lose the daylight. Here on central time, it's dark by 4:15 in December. A child gets off the bus and there's no light left for sledding, skating or a game in the yard. Four months indoors in front of a screen isn't good for anybody's health or mood. The Sunshine Protection Act would fix that by keeping us on Daylight Saving Time all year. The U.S. House passed it 308 to 117 this summer. It's stuck in the Senate because one senator, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, keeps blocking a ...

Politicians can't just 'give the people what they want'

Columns

For reasons that will baffle my many detractors, I am often asked for advice about being an opinion journalist. One of my standard responses is: You have to be willing to disappoint your biggest fans. What I mean is that if you start to see your job as telling fans what they want to hear, you ...

Before the first proposal

Letters To The Editor

To the Journal editor: Nobody has proposed a data center or a reactor in the Upper Peninsula and nobody may. But the rules get set before any proposal arrives and that is when residents have the most say. So here is a question that costs nothing to ask now: if a nuclear project’s revenue falls short, what happens to its safety budget? First, what Washington is doing. On July 15 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed retiring ALARA, its rule that exposure be kept as low as reasonably achievable and replacing it with a graded approach built on thresholds and cost tests. The legal ...