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Candidates advised of rules for political sign placements

Editorial

During this election season, the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Dickinson County Road Commission remind all candidates that campaign signs can interfere with motorist and pedestrian vision along streets and highways. Signage at intersections and other places in the right-of-way can also be problematic for maintenance operations. Candidates are advised of MDOT’s sign placement criteria: — Political candidates are responsible for obtaining approval from the adjacent property owner to place the signs. — Signs must be more than 30 feet from the edge of the roadway ...

Questions posed

Letters To The Editor

To the Journal editor: Like many residents, I believe public transportation is an important service for our community. Seniors, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and others depend upon it for medical appointments, groceries, work, and maintaining their independence. If the facts show that these essential services would truly be lost without additional taxpayer support, my vote would be yes. That is why I believe voters deserve clear, complete, and timely information before making an eight-year commitment. The signs placed throughout Delta County sending messages like “if ...

A former slave told us the value of July 4

Columns

It is unfortunate but also ironically appropriate that national efforts to celebrate the nation's birth have been rattled by internal disputes over how that birth should be celebrated. "Who controls the past controls the future," wrote George Orwell in 1984. "Who controls the present controls ...

Some reorganization

Letters To The Editor

Have you heard? USDA Forest Service is reorganizing, it says. All regional research and management offices will close, it says. This is beyond reorganization. Reorganization implies systematic planning to form a functioning whole (Websters). The Detroit News has called this “a massive restructuring effort.” The Guardian calls it “chaos.” These closures effectively collapse its regional structure. I would call that devastation. It entails creation of 15 national regions headed by politically appointed “state directors.” Michigan’s Huron-Manistee, Hiawatha, and Ottawa ...

Birthright citizenship for illegals insane

Columns

Weeks after returning to the White House, President Donald Trump looked to cut straight to the heart of birthright citizenship – the notion that anyone born in the United States is an American citizen – through an executive order titled "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American ...

Federal waste of office space stifles economies at many levels

Editorial

The federal government is the largest owner of U.S. real estate, including more than half a billion square feet of office space. That is far more than it needs, and the cost of maintaining it has ballooned to unsustainable levels. The Public Buildings Reform Board recently identified 26 buildings across 15 states — totaling more than 7.3 million square feet — as potential candidates for the government to dispose of due to poor usage and high maintenance costs. It’s the third set of disposal recommendations since Congress created the board in 2016. That’s a great start, but the ...