Stephen Tuttle | Author

Into the Abyss

Sept. 28, 2019

We're sending troops to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is a response to Iran's shoot-down of an American surveillance drone and, more recently, their alleged attack on a Saudi oil refinery and depot.

The troops are an effort to establish … Read More >>

Fire!

Sept. 21, 2019

October 8, 1871, was a very bad day for fires in the United States.

At the end of an unusually hot and dry summer, railroad workers clearing brush outside of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, accidentally set a fire that quickly turned into a wind-aided conflagration.

Read More >>

Perflouroalkyl and Polyflouroalky Substances

Sept. 14, 2019

Quite a mouthful, otherwise known as PFAS. Now the trick is to actually keep them out of our mouths.

PFAS, first developed in the 1940s, is not a single thing but a massive family of man-made chemicals — nearly 4,700 of them now, according to the Environmental Protec… Read More >>

A Cautionary Tale

Aug. 31, 2019

The Michigan Legislature is currently contemplating competing bills regarding short-term rentals. One of them might not be such a good idea.

Supported by the real estate industry, companies like Airbnb, and private property rights advocates, the first would prohibit zoning ordinance… Read More >>

Numbers

Aug. 24, 2019

Numbers are funny things. They can illuminate or deceive, confirm or deny, prove or disprove. Often, they mean little without accompanying context, and these days, we all add our own context.

When President Trump, who often makes up his own numbers, ran for president… Read More >>

Shadow Grasping

Aug. 17, 2019

The quadrennial invasion of presidential candidates is now fully upon Iowa. It's the Democrats this year, nearly two dozen strong, and all of them in a hurry; there is much to do.

The Iowa caucuses, frighteningly, are less than six months away. And no Democratic candidate … Read More >>

40 Every Day

Aug. 10, 2019

One headline said the nation was “shocked”; another, we were “stunned.” If true, why? Mass shootings have happened for so long and with such regularity we shouldn't even be mildly surprised. Another week, another massacre.

It has happened at a… Read More >>

Time Growing Shorter

Aug. 3, 2019

Some cities and states have accepted, and are responding to, climate change realities, while the federal government continues to ignore them. Or worse.

Traverse City is making a significant commitment to solar power. Berkeley, California, is moving away from natural g… Read More >>

Of Dollars, Dregs, and Decks

July 27, 2019

Lake Ann, Maple City, and Empire have each recently rejected efforts to purchase land by a company associated with Dollar General stores. Fair enough; communities have the right to establish their own zoning and exercise control over their future.

It's the snobbishnes… Read More >>

Leadership Lost

July 20, 2019

This isn't your grandfather's Republican Party or Robert Griffin's or William Milliken's, or Ronald Reagan's. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Donald Trump.

That's a shame, because Republicans are now part and parcel of his fear-mongering, race-baiting ignoranc… Read More >>

Apples to Apples

July 13, 2019

The United States Women's National Team (USWNT) just won the World Cup, the world championship of soccer. There was a chance they wouldn't play at all.

As the national debate about pay equity between men and women continues to bubble along, our soccer program for wome… Read More >>

Too High a Price

July 6, 2019

We haven't much gotten along with Iran since they had their revolution, sent our buddy the shah scurrying into exile, and kidnapped 52 Americans, all in 1979.

Their nonstop, hateful rhetoric toward Israel and their war with Iraq — we were on Iraq's side that ti… Read More >>

A Radical Idea

June 29, 2019

What most of us think about the American Revolution seems to be this: The British overtaxed the colonies, we threw some tea into Boston Harbor, we declared our independence, went to war, won, wrote the Constitution and became a new country.

Not exactly.
&… Read More >>

A Slope Too Slippery

June 22, 2019

A recent report in The New York Times was troubling on so many levels. The article said the United States was conducting a cyber attack on the Russian power grid, including the installation of malware into their system.

The punchline: The intelligence communi… Read More >>

Because They Can

June 15, 2019

President Donald Trump and Congress are working, they say, to curb the ever-increasing costs of prescription drugs. They have made it a bit easier for generic drugs to come to market, a good thing. But they have a long way to go.

The president, not surprisingly,… Read More >>

Parties Without Purpose

June 8, 2019

There was a time when political parties had a coherent philosophy. Or at least something we could describe in a sentence or two. And there were stark differences. Not so much anymore.

That philosophy is now identical for both the Republican and Democratic parties: Mai… Read More >>

Local Trouble, Local Progress

June 1, 2019

Let's catch up with some local news.

104th District Sate Representative Larry Inman has been indicted by the feds. He's accused of soliciting a bribe, attempted extortion, and lying to FBI investigators, serious charges.

All the evidence… Read More >>

Bruising Our Shins

May 25, 2019

Let's see how that trade war thing is going.

Our Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says there is not yet evidence of any increased economic gain as a result of the tariffs we've imposed, and it appears the number of jobs gained and lost are about the same. Several companie… Read More >>

Food Lunacy

May 18, 2019

Some extreme vegans would like us to avoid California almonds and avocados. Not because they've been tainted by pesticides or other chemicals, and not because they've been adulterated with non-vegan food products.

No, it's because the bees that pollinate most of those crop… Read More >>

Nothing Unconstitutional About It

May 11, 2019

A discussion about free speech is always a good idea. Even the president is deeply concerned. Deeply. His current angst was spawned after Facebook and Instagram (Instagram is owned by Facebook) banished several darlings of the very far right.

The president has previo… Read More >>