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Editorial

St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the GOP, reproductive rights

Little ladies of America, put down your sewing kits and listen up: Donald Trump and the Republican Party have your cute little backs. They’re going to protect you — from making your own choices about reproduction, from deciding whether to own a cat, maybe even from traveling between states. Heck, girls, today’s GOP will even protect you from the burden of thinking! “WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, CONFIDENT AND FREE! YOU WILL NO LONGER BE THINKING ABOUT ABORTION!” the former president recently posted — helpfully putting it in all-caps so even female readers can understand ...

WAPO on lowering birth rate in the United States

To have children or not to have them? That is the question more and more Americans are asking themselves. Only 26 percent say having children is extremely or very important for a fulfilling life, according to a Pew Research Center survey, whereas 71 percent say the same about “having a job or career they enjoy.” The U.S. fertility rate has plummeted to 1.6 lifetime births per woman, well below the “replacement rate” of around 2.1, at which point a population remains stable between generations. Lower birthrates mean fewer young people, which means a shrinking workforce and more ...

DNR: Keep fire safety in mind while enjoying outdoors

It’s dry. Burn permits for brush and yard debris are not being issued in much of the Upper Peninsula due to drought conditions, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources stated Thursday in a news release. “The western portion of the Upper Peninsula is starting to see drought conditions, and fires that have occurred are taking a significant amount of time to extinguish,” said Paul Rogers, a DNR fire prevention specialist. Permits will not be issued until significant rainfall has occurred, the DNR advised. Locally, the U.S. Drought Monitor on Thursday listed severe drought ...

Marshfield Clinic researchers continue tick collections

Scientists at Marshfield Clinic Research Institute are asking the public to submit ticks for a research study called the Tick Inventory via Citizen Science. The study is surveying the distribution of tick species, including any new, invasive ticks. They will also identify the microbes carried by each tick, including pathogens that may cause diseases, such as Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and babesiosis, and non-pathogenic microbes that may contribute to a tick’s likelihood of carrying disease. The study was first launched in central Wisconsin with the hope to receive a few hundred ...

A reminder about available options to test for COVID-19

Fall has arrived, with winter soon to come. That means more time indoors, which inevitably kicks up the spread of viruses. With that in mind, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is encouraging state residents to order free COVID-19 at-home tests through the federal government’s COVID-19 tests website, https://covidtests.gov/, and reminds residents about additional testing resources available in Michigan. “We encourage Michigan families to take advantage of the free COVID tests being provided to reduce the risk of spreading the virus,” Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, ...

Israel must investigate killing of pro-Palestinian activist

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was 26 and a University of Washington graduate with a degree in psychology. A friend of hers told the Associated Press that Eygi “loved humanity, loved people, loved life so much that she just wanted to help as many as she could.” Eygi, who had American and Turkish citizenship, traveled to the West Bank with the pro-Palestinian activist group International Solidarity Movement. She was killed by Israeli soldiers while participating in a demonstration. To be sure, Eygi knew she was heading into a dangerous, volatile situation with the potential for violence. But she ...