The next presidential election is a year away. I know for many that seems like a long way off, and yet it can’t come soon enough.
Politics aside, we Michiganders unite around our deep love for the Great Lakes. We adorn our cars, shirts, baseball caps and coffee mugs with Great Lakes images and slogans like, “4 out of 5 Great Lakes prefer Michigan” and “No salt, no sharks, no worries.”
Speed up transition to renewables
Remember when you were a kid and woke up to a fresh snowfall and the surprise of a snow day? It was a wonderful gift, inviting you to burrow in and sleep just a little longer.
I sometimes think it is incredible that our minds go so quickly to things that are negative.
When I attended our high school football games this past fall, I was equally drawn in by the halftime marching band shows as I was the game itself.
Heaven bound?
Iraqis who worked alongside U.S. troops during the war provided “essential mission support,” according to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general who fought in that conflict. Iraqis served as interpreters, translators and guides. They “risked their own lives and t…
Flowers:
Democratic presidential candidates can’t stop talking about how terrible charter schools are, yet the latest crop of national test scores from traditional public school students ought to make them all school choice converts.
Should World War II history be taught to young children?
Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) unveiled how to pay for the universal guaranteed lifetime health care bill known as Medicare For All. Sen. Bernie Sanders has previously issued options to fund his version of Medicare For All. While both plans offer an ambitious vision for t…
National parks were created more than a century ago to be refuges for flora and fauna and the land on which they depend for existence, to protect them all from the ravages of human development. They have become refuges for humans, as well – places where people can disconnect from the clamor …
Trust in Trump
Good neighbors
The abrupt resignation last month of MSU Trustee Nancy Schlichting is yet another troubling sign for a campus and community eager for transparency and healing as it relates to the university’s handling of Larry Nassar and other sexual assault allegations.
There are 2.2 million people in our country’s nations and jails – a 500 percent increase over the past 40 years. We incarcerate a greater proportion of our own citizens than any other nation in the world. Just behind us are El Salvador, Rwanda and Russia. The amount of people incarcerated in…
Ryan Cummins for City Council
Everyone – I mean everyone – fantasizes, sometimes, about quitting their jobs.
As impeachment talk ratchets up the partisan tension in Washington, there’s still hope that progress can be made on the most serious threat we face. It appears Republicans and Democrats are coming together, albeit slowly, on one issue that seemed intractable not long ago: climate change.
Two of the largest information companies on Earth are making a mockery of a state's campaign law.
Voting for Josh Brugger
In those monster movies so popular at Halloween, it usually takes a while for the killer to be revealed, but when he is, the terror he inspired among his targets often comes to a frightening conclusion for viewers.
In his farewell address on Jan. 17, 1961, President (and five-star general) Eisenhower warned our nation about the corrupting influence he described as the “military-industrial complex.” The military-industrial complex (MIC) is an informal alliance between a nation’s military and the defense…
Supports Brugger for mayor
“Can I have a do-over?” Every kid asks this question when they’ve made a mistake. Yet, as we age, it seems that society becomes less willing to give grace to those asking for a second chance.
An encouraging sign in bad behavior
While the Tribune is accepting letters to the editor regarding the upcoming elections, we do not publish campaign letters by the candidates themselves. Candidates are asked to call our advertising department at 616-842-7180. And remember, letters must be no more than 300 words in length and …
A benefit of living in the Midwest is that we can see change all around us in nature, which has both positive and negative sides.
Does he have time to be mayor?
As is so often the case, the attempted cover-up by the Duggan administration of the mayor’s special treatment of a charity run by a close friend is worse than the offense he is accused of committing.
Should Trump be impeached? In a word, no! (Although I do support the impeachment inquiry to give us more facts).
Born again?
We’ve heard Michigan’s mental health care compared to a poorly maintained road: Potholes. Crumbling shoulders. Travel at your peril.
California lawmakers like to think of themselves as trendsetters. They take pride in passing groundbreaking legislation.
Keeping voters in the closet?
Though the attribution is disputed, the writer C.S. Lewis is said to have quipped: “You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” It may be closer to the mark to say humans are primarily neither one nor the other.
Six of Michigan’s 15 public universities are showing double-digit enrollment drops. Only four of the state’s universities – including the University of Michigan and Michigan State University – have seen enrollment increase by 1 percent over the past 10 years.
In early February 1998, as Ken Starr assured reporters his behind-closed-doors impeachment inquiry was moving expeditiously and Bill Clinton was announcing he had no intention of stepping down, CNN and Time conducted a poll asking whether Americans supported impeachment. Just 19 percent said…
Supports impeachment
Last week, at the Truth Matters conference in California, prominent evangelical pastor John MacArthur said a terrible thing.
Monetza is the best candidate
More than two decades after the charter law in Pennsylvania was passed, school choice remains the center of a lively but largely unresolved debate – one that has taken on new shapes.
Legislation introduced in the Michigan House would make state park vehicle passes mandatory, unless drivers opted out. Michigan’s state parks and recreations areas are a tremendous resource, but this is a sneaky way to boost funding for their upkeep.
Here we are in the fall season already. As I was driving to church this past Sunday, I felt like it was just overnight that the leaves had begun to change their colors. A beautiful sight indeed!
Michigan screws safe drivers
The media often label those who are pro-life as “anti-abortion.” In fact, that is the language suggested by The Associated Press Stylebook, a style and usage guide created by and used widely by journalists.
For any normal commander-in-chief, an overwhelming, bipartisan House resolution condemning his actions (by a 354-60 vote) would at least provoke a smidgen of introspection.
With so much happening in the world, you probably don’t want to read about my own personal dark night of the soul. But at the risk of sounding narcissistic, I do think there is some value in examining why a person like me would feel compelled to leave the Republican Party.
Since America's colonial days, the press has been a target of those who believe journalists have a point of view that shapes their reporting.
“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” For many of us, this was the poem that we learned in grade school to teach us who Columbus was and why we celebrate his legacy on the second Monday of October.
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