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U.S. researchers increasingly seeking work abroad

You know there’s a problem when scientists in the United States increasingly see European bureaucracy as a safer setting for conducting their cutting-edge research than their home country’s own institutions. The European Research Council, which grants funding for academic work in the European Union, has seen a surge in applications, the Financial Times reported this week. That included nearly triple the number of proposals from Americans compared to the year before. The United States is still the world’s leading scientific research power, but competition is growing more fierce, ...

Michigan steps up recycling effort for fourth straight year

While most in the Upper Peninsula will think of Saturday as the opening of firearm deer season, it has another designation as well this year: America Recycles Day in Michigan. In making the proclamation, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer pointed to data that show the state’s recycling rate is at an all-time high for the fourth consecutive year, “putting Michigan on track to achieve the state’s 30% recycling goal by 2029,” the proclamation states. “Participating in America Recycles Day … is one way Michigan businesses and residents can help raise awareness about the need to reduce waste ...

The Wall Street Journal says the FDA has been an embarrassment in Trump’s second term

The Food and Drug Administration shouldn’t be in the news if it’s doing its job right. By that measure the FDA is failing in spectacular fashion. The agency this week is making news for all of the wrong reasons, and the dysfunction could have life and death consequences for patients. The biotech firm UniQure on Monday reported that the FDA had moved the goalposts for approving its Huntington’s disease gene therapy. There are currently no approved drugs that can slow progression of the brutal neuro-degenerative disease, which afflicts about 40,000 Americans. The FDA in April ...

Firearm deer season much more than venison quest

The Michigan firearms deer hunting season starts at dawn Saturday morning. Tonight, a lot of folks will be as excited as children on Christmas Eve, waiting for the chance to get out in the woods in pursuit of an elusive whitetail. While difficult winters have thinned the Upper Peninsula herd, we know hunters are going to work hard for the chance to bag a buck. Non-hunters may not understand the thrill hunters feel when successful, but these non-hunters should also remember the deer harvested will stock freezers to feed many local families during the long winter ahead. Tradition is a ...

Be ready as winter conditions set in

The region got its first taste of winter weather in the past couple days, though not quite the levels seen in downstate Wisconsin or even other parts of the Upper Peninsula. Still, it’s a reminder that winter conditions, even storms, are back to being possible at this time of year. With that in mind, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared this to be Winter Hazards Awareness Week. The Michigan State Police, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division urges Michiganders in a news release to take steps now to prepare for winter emergencies to stay safe in the months ahead. “The ...

Safety always first in firearm deer season

The annual rite known as the firearm deer season kicks off at dawn Saturday morning and continues for the final two weeks of November. Hundreds of thousands of hunters of all ages will take to the woods in the coming days in search of a trophy buck. Regrettably, if history is any kind of indicator, there is at least a chance that a number of hunters will become injured while in the field. From time to time, some have even died while hunting. What follows here is is a listing of “do’s” and “don’ts” for hunters in Michigan forestlands. Most of the items are of the ...