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Letters To The Editor

It’s going to get worse

I think all of us were greatly saddened to hear about the July 4 heavy rain and catastrophic flooding event in central Texas that killed a number of girls at Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River. Unfortunately, extreme weather events like this are becoming more common due to the global warming/climate change that the great majority of the most qualified scientists in my field of atmospheric science blame on the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat near our planet’s surface. In fact, the National Oceanic and ...

E-bikes banned

I am writing this letter today, June 22, because my husband and I just got back from a bike ride out to Presque Isle and I am both upset and angry. We love both walking and biking but both being in our 70s now we decided to buy class 2-E bikes last year. We did so because they have a throttle and can give us assistance when both going uphill and taking off from the stop. Otherwise we pedal for the exercise and just enjoy slow paced riding. We live in Harvey and have enjoyed biking from here to Presque Isle and on all the bike paths around Marquette. Well, a week or so ago, we were ...

Questions posed

Last fall, I read an article in a northern Michigan University news release where for NMU‘s 125th anniversary, a local brewery was selling a special beer in the school's honor. I immediately questioned, why is a state educational institution cooperating with a brewery to sell alcohol? Knowing the dangers of alcohol on much of the public, how is it that NMU would want to be a part of that? Now, the brewery can do what they wish and the beer probably sold well. However, to make it more questionable in my book, the article went on to say how pleased those parties were to co-sponsor this ...

No favors owed

As the Senate votes on the budget reconciliation bill that will make catastrophic cuts in health care and food assistance to give tax savings to billionaires, we are treated to headlines about Jeff Bezos’ wedding. Bezos is the founder of Amazon and one of the wealthiest people in the world with assets of $231.4 billion.He will be one of the biggest winners of the tax cuts in the reconciliation bill. It is hard to even conceptualize the difference between a million dollars and $231.4 billion. To put this in perspective, consider that a million seconds is about 12 days, while a ...

Hypocrisy of Chatfield

For the first time in our state’s history a former speaker of the house and his wife will stand trial for embezzlement and larceny and other financial crimes. As Lee and Stephanie Chatfield wait for the trial which will either exonerate them or send them to prison for years, their story is a cautionary tale for those who want to mix religion with politics Some in our state may be surprised by Chatfield’s alleged actions, I was not. Five years ago, Chatfield supported a policy which threatened my family. In an attempt to get Chatfield to reverse his position, I called his office to ...

What Medicaid really is

Some people on Medicaid may not realize it, as it has many names in Michigan and different names in other states. Chances are you know someone on MIChild, Healthy Michigan Plan, MI Health Link, Freedom to Work, Healthy Kids/Healthy Kids Dental, TCM for Justice Involved Individuals, Michigan Medicaid. In fact, these are all Medicaid services in Michigan with different names focused on different needs. Nationally, Medicaid covers nearly half of all births, over half of long term care for seniors, over 1/3 of healthcare for children. The proposed “Big Beautiful Bill” is beautiful ...