Stephen Tuttle | Author

Closer to Home

Aug. 20, 2022

For this week: a local grab bag of news, projects, and plans.

Undeterred by a pair of convincing thumpings at the polls, Traverse City’s tall building advocates are at it again.

First they circulated petitions in an effort to repeal the charter requirements brought a... Read More >>

Electric Everything

Aug. 13, 2022

Our best environmentally-friendly intentions have outstripped our ability to implement them. The push for electric everything is the best example.

New York City, Berkeley, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and New Jersey, among other locales, have, or soon will, outlaw the use of na... Read More >>

Deep Trouble

Aug. 6, 2022

There are elected representatives and others determined to change the very nature of our country and not in a good way. We should be far more concerned than we appear to be.

Out in Colorado, U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert is Example One of this incredibly dangerous trend. As r... Read More >>

Want to Avoid the “Fraud”? Just Don’t Vote

July 30, 2022

The congressional hearings on the Jan. 6 attempted coup have been even more distressing than we imagined because the evidence uncovered has been more offensive than we imagined.

Of course, this all started with Donald Trump’s outrageous lies about the results of the 2020 ele... Read More >>

Marching Backward

July 23, 2022

Depending on your beliefs, this has either been the greatest session in U.S. Supreme Court history or a nightmare from which we will not soon recover.

Let’s review highlights of what they’ve done and look at a sample of what their next session promises. (Full credit to... Read More >>

A Shameful Abdication

July 16, 2022

After a streak of especially nice weather in northern Michigan, it might be a good time for our semi-regular check on how other states are doing. As it turns out, not that well.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency ... Read More >>

Infecting Everything

July 9, 2022

A contagion of political foolishness and extremism now infects all corners of the country.

Down in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is using a compliant legislature—some would say downright ovine—to both install his ideology as law and to exact retribution in a way that prob... Read More >>

Protecting What We Have Left

July 2, 2022

We typically celebrate the Fourth of July with cookouts and fireworks, another day off work without much appreciation for why.

The Declaration of Independence, written mostly by Thomas Jefferson over the course of three weeks, isn’t so much an eloquent plea for freedom from ... Read More >>

Traverse City is looking to develop surface parking lots whenever practical or possible. There is no question those surface lots occupy incredibly valuable space that might be more productively used for other purposes. Such a purpose has been found, we’re told, on what is now Lot O ... Read More >>

The Furthest from Reality

June 18, 2022

Let’s check in on some Michigan politics at the top of the ticket.

The Democrat side is pretty much set with Governor Gretchen Whitmer as the candidate. Her road to reelection is likely to be bumpy given all that has happened in her tenure, including much over which she had ... Read More >>

A Lot Worse

June 11, 2022

The supply chain is something most of us hadn’t much considered until the various links started breaking. Now, that same broken chain is impacting almost every product we use or consume. In some instances, that impact can be life threatening for individuals and a national security i... Read More >>

More Important than Life

June 4, 2022

Another day, another massacre of children, another night of parents lying sleepless, eyes wide open, minds racing, hearts irreparably broken.

When not slaughtering children in their classrooms, we slaughter shoppers in a grocery store; or worshipers in a church or mosque or synago... Read More >>

A Conspiracy of Ignorance

May 28, 2022

Some people, especially politicians, search and search until they find, or create, a conspiracy on which to blame their woes. If they’re lucky, it might even generate contributions and votes without the need for any kind of actual policy.

Which brings us to something called ... Read More >>

Would We Be Doing Any Better?

May 21, 2022

The question occurs as we watch Russia’s top-heavy, untested, and bloated military slog to a near standstill in their ill-conceived incursion into Ukraine. What Vladimir Putin no doubt believed would be a quick and decisive victory, bringing Ukraine back into the arms of Mother Russ... Read More >>

Should Have Seen It Coming

May 14, 2022

Pro-choice advocates should have seen it coming; Roe v. Wade has been a goner since Donald Trump nominated three Supreme Court justices.

Roe v. Wade, decided in 1973, was predicated on the notion that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution offers a right to ... Read More >>

Roads and a River

May 7, 2022

Traverse City is in the middle of significant bridge and road rebuilding. Though a trifle inconvenient for those trying to negotiate their way around the bridge work, the projects have gone more smoothly than most assumed when they were announced.

Things have become a bit more com... Read More >>

Too Much Fire, Not Enough Rain

April 30, 2022

We recently celebrated another Earth Day with various festivities around the country complete with bloviating politicians making promises they either won’t or can’t keep. Meanwhile, wildfires, drought, and water shortages are the norm out west.

Wildfires are a normal p... Read More >>

We Should Be Concerned for Our Officials

April 23, 2022

These are not the best of times for those overseeing our elections or our schools.

There are more than 3,000 counties, parishes, boroughs, census areas, and independent cities in the United States. (Michigan has 83 counties.) In most states, the ultimate responsibility for running... Read More >>

Gurus of Flim-flammery

April 16, 2022

People running for office tend to exaggerate their qualifications and ignore their shortcomings. We’ve come to accept at least some of that with each election cycle. But even by those unfortunately loose standards, Perry Johnson is a rather obvious outlier.

One of 12 Rep... Read More >>

Dead Right

April 9, 2022

The unpleasant death throes of winter notwithstanding, the bicycling season is about to start in earnest. Yes, we all know some people cycle year-round, but most of us wait until the snow is off the ground.

The health and economic advantages of biking are now well-known and have b... Read More >>