Opinion

Tilting at Budget Windmills

By Stephen Tuttle | Sept. 30, 2023

By the time this column goes to print, the federal government could be shut down. Or, more rational voices within the Republican party will have been heard and at least some sort of stopgap budget deal will have been made to keep the government running. This trip to the edge of an economic cliff now occurs with troubling regularity. Some, especially a certain former president, believe a shutdown would be a good ... Read More >>

Expanding Nurse Practitioners’ Authority to Improve Healthcare in Michigan

Guest Opinion

By Jennifer Attie | Sept. 30, 2023

One of the biggest concerns I hear about as a nurse practitioner living in Emmet County is how difficult it is for people of all ages to find a primary care physician. Therefore it should come as no surprise that more than 3.5 million Michigan residents (approximately one third of our population) are without a primary care physician, with a majority of these individuals living in rural Michigan communities just like ours. ... Read More >>

A Non-campaign Campaign

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Sept. 23, 2023

You might have noticed the pregame activities for Traverse City’s TIF 97 extension campaign have already begun. TIF 97 has been rebranded as the Moving Downtown Forward TIF, adding some pizzazz to it. And the third parking deck, touted for years as crucial, is not a parking deck anymore. It’s now the West End Mixed-Use Development, and it eliminates some of the originally planned parking slots to include housing and retail. These ... Read More >>

The Seasons of Our Lives

Guest Opinion

By Karen Mulvahill | Sept. 23, 2023

Poetry, literature, mythology, astrology, religion…all find metaphorical connections between the human lifespan and the seasons of nature. We are, after all, creatures of nature. Spring signifies beginnings, youth, and hope. In summer, we bloom; we discover love, vocation, and—vacation! Fall represents maturity, harvest, and conserving. Winter symbolizes endings, dormancy, and death, but also wisdom. Summer has officially given way to fall with its spires of goldenrod, purple asters, red maples, and bronze ... Read More >>

Getting Involved in Housing Solutions

Guest Opinion

By Yarrow Brown | Sept. 23, 2023

Take a drive around northwest Michigan, and you’ll notice there is a lot of residential development happening. It seems overwhelming to see such growth—I get it. But I also believe if we do not engage, learn, and collaborate to address this important issue, we won’t make sensible progress, and we will see our community change in a way that won’t protect our natural resources or help the community thrive. There is an ... Read More >>

Safe, Secure, and Fair

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Sept. 16, 2023

Republican loyalists have their reasons for continuing to support Donald Trump. Some simply can’t stand Democrats or Joe Biden and would vote for a lamppost if it was identified as a Republican. (Plenty of Democrats are just as blindly partisan.) Others claim they liked his policies regarding immigration, taxes, and China. There is, however, a difference between blind loyalty and an unwillingness to accept reality. The latter keeps rearing its ugly head ... Read More >>

Fire, Heat, Flooding, and Misinformation

Guest Opinion

By Cathye Williams | Sept. 16, 2023

This summer, the towns of Copemish and Grayling experienced dangerous wildfires that threatened life and property and spread smoke and ash around the region. Meanwhile, over 1,000 wildfires threatened Canadians this summer and also exported pollution across the Great Lakes region, laying a thick haze over New York, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and everywhere in between. Folks were driven indoors by poor air quality at the peak of summer tourism. We watched ... Read More >>

What 'Oppenheimer' Didn’t Tell Us

Guest Opinion

By Isiah Smith, Jr. | Sept. 9, 2023

The Manhattan Project was essentially a collective of brilliant American physicists united for the sole purpose of using science to create a bomb capable of destroying the entire planet. Never has so much raw brain power been dedicated to such a monstrous purpose. Oppenheimer, the movie, reveals that the physicists involved acknowledged this horrific possibility. Oppenheimer reassured his boss, Gen. Leslie Groves, that the chances the test detonation of the bomb would ... Read More >>

Back to School...For Most

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Sept. 9, 2023

Is there a dramatic teacher shortage in our country? Let’s see. The country’s K-12 students have now returned to class, all 55.4 million of them being taught by just more than 4 million teachers. Most will be in traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms Here in Michigan, 1.44 million students and some 80,000 teachers are getting to know each other or renewing old acquaintances. That’s a slight increase from 2021. The biggest increase in student ... Read More >>

Bank Accounts Instead of Scoreboards

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Sept. 2, 2023

The college football season has begun in earnest, and almost everything about it, and college sports in general, is wildly different than it was just a decade ago. The goal of the game is essentially the same, but everything surrounding the game and college athletes has changed. College football goes back a very, very long way. The first official game took place on November 6, 1869, between Rutgers and the College of ... Read More >>