Flowers:
‘A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” – Thomas Paine
Official Washington, D.C., just got another early warning. The Congressional Budget Office recently confirmed the Medicare trustees’ 2020 report that the Medicare trust fund – the Part A account that funds the hospitalization and related services – faces insolvency in 2026.
Find true value of diesel plant
This past year has left many of us in ruins. The unluckiest have said premature goodbyes to loved ones. Others have lost jobs, homes, businesses, and financial independence.
Select neutral redistricting vendors
On Tuesday, "cancel culture" was officially promoted to "outlaw culture," which definitely would sound way cooler if it weren't so maddeningly ridiculous and offensively dangerous.
The numbers paint a daunting picture. In 2019, consumers worldwide bought 64 million new personal cars and 27 million new commercial motor vehicles, a paltry 2.1 million of which were electric-powered. Climate scientists tell us that we have less than a decade to make meaningful reductions i…
Three hours after restaurants and bars were mandated to close here in Michigan, Speaker Pelosi and Democrats in the House were passing a $1.9 trillion partisan spending bill masquerading as “COVID relief” in the middle of the night in Washington. I voted against this package and I believe Mi…
President Joe Biden’s address to G-7 leaders at the virtual Munich Security Conference last month made it clear there has been a fundamental change in American policy, and that now the U.S. “will work closely with our European Union partners and the capitals across the continent – from Rome …
Trials and tribulations
One of the great things about living in the U.S. is that our city and county governments are required to keep their citizens informed about their actions. One of the ways they do this is through public notices – the informational notices that have been deemed to be of importance to local con…
BLP committed to transparency, cybersecurity
President Biden has challenged those who oppose the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion bill disingenuously dubbed “COVID relief,” or the more deceitful “American Rescue Plan.”
Local history museums are vital resources, serving as keepers of history, information and objects that have cultural significance to an area or city. The mission of the Tri-Cities Historical Museum is to create connections to local history.
A friendly card game
The United States currently celebrates 11 permanent legal public holidays, if you include the quadrennial celebration of Inauguration Day. None of these holidays was created to celebrate women’s achievements (not even Labor Day, which was designated a federal holiday in 1894, when less than …
There wasn’t much President Joe Biden could have done about this month’s Texas energy disaster. Ditto the slow-moving vaccine rollout. The reason is the same: federalism, a system dating back to the 1780s and only seriously overhauled once.
Rush Limbaugh, who died last week at 70, was, to liberals, leftists and maybe to a good number of people in the political center, an agitator and showman at best, and, at worst, a lout, a loudmouth and a demagogue.
BLP blocking emails from the public
For those of us who are Christians, we have entered the sacred season of Lent. Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, which marked the beginning of the 40-day period, excluding Sundays, leading up to Easter, the day which marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave.
Michigan’s lockdown measures have resulted in devastating job losses for the hospitality and leisure industries, even as other industries less affected by COVID-19 restrictions saw employment gains. These businesses were harmed by no fault of their own and deserve extra help from the state.
The Biden administration set an ambitious and clear goal for vaccine distribution, stuck to it, made it reality and then set the goal higher. If only the same thing were happening with the president’s vow on reopening schools during the pandemic.
When I spoke with Josh Bytwerk, executive director of Love in Action in Grand Haven, one of the first things I asked him was how much COVID-19 has impacted the need in the Tri-Cities community. Bytwerk said, “In 2020, Love in Action served over twice the number of food services and clients t…
Not running again
Just a decade ago, a mandatory $15-per-hour minimum wage seemed like a pipe dream – even liberal economists and The New York Times warned of negative effects. But a few large cities started enforcing it, and then it became part of the Democratic Party platform. It now stands a real chance of…
The Republic Services’ Ottawa County Farm Landfill in Coopersville has proposed building a well to inject wastewater leachate 4,490 feet underground. This waste removal method is not sustainable, and the landfill should instead invest in a safer method of leachate removal and reduction of fu…
President Joe Biden, promising them multimillions of dollars, said he was going to open all schools in his first 100 days. Maybe he didn’t get it that this is up to state and local officials responsive to teachers unions, not so responsive to scientists now saying it’s safe. The unions appar…
Flowers:
Facts do matter
‘It takes a village” is a phrase we have heard time and time again, yet it continues to ring true in our beloved community.
Money doesn’t solve problems, but it can accelerate solutions.
At $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage is appallingly low.
The people who hand out Emmy Awards should ask New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to return the one they gave him.
We can do better
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer laid out her priorities for 2022 spending as the state moves on from a year dominated by job losses and other economic disruptions caused by lockdowns. While the budget is buoyed by a one-time influx of federal COVID-19 relief dollars, the state can’t use that windfall …
You know what they say: Laughter is the best medicine, and I, for one, wholeheartedly agree.
Are we changing?
In the shadow of his predecessor’s impeachment trial, President Joe Biden is taking up the challenge of restoring America’s tarnished image in the world by making this case: The nation has survived an attack on its own democracy and actually emerged from it stronger, not weaker.
In life there are certain markers. I was once picketed in front of City Hall because I approved of a deer cull. I now had a disclaimer added to my last column.
Why now?
The U.S. Supreme Court is strongly committed to the “marketplace of ideas.” It tends to believe, in the words of Justice Louis Brandeis, that the remedy for falsehoods and fallacies is “more speech, not enforced silence.”
People today have strong opinions, one way or the other, about Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The same likely goes for Barack Obama and George W. Bush. They can be argued about with the same knowledge and passion that people have with regard to sports teams.
About 10 years ago, a woman called me from the San Fernando Valley with a request I could not accommodate.
Decide now
I suppose winter is just a part of life here in Michigan. We do our best to put up with it. And boy, have we had to put up with it this week!
Standards of leadership
On the heels of a contentious election, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson isn’t wasting time in calling for sweeping changes to Michigan elections. She says she wants to work with the Legislature, and that’s where the discussions should take place.
I am an adult with ADD. Attention deficit disorder. According to the Cleveland Clinic, people with ADD or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) have trouble paying attention, are easily distracted and often have trouble finishing tasks. We also have trouble organizing.
Ignoring the disaster?
It’s been 13 months since China shut down a region of 18 million people because of the rapid human-to-human transfer of a new strain of coronavirus. It’s been a year since the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency because of the spread of the coronavirus and COVID-19, …
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