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Opinion

It’s time to set the record straight

Editorials and columns

As a person who personally circulated recall petitions, I cannot let the recent letter from a board member go unanswered. The claim that circulators told people petitions were “just a poll” is false. I was trained on petition procedures. We knew exactly what we were circulating, and we explained as people were signing recall petitions. To suggest otherwise is an insult to volunteers. She also claims circulators spread misinformation. The reasons for the recall were not fabricated by us. Judge Curtis determined the recall language met the legal standard to proceed. ...

Finding my true colors

Editorials and columns

Colors are a part of us before we enter the Earth. Gender reveals tag us “pink” or “blue,” and an army of colored clothes, toys and puzzles come our way. At some point, we adopt a “favorite” color, or at least make one up to answer one of small talk’s silliest ...

Critical points missed in Alpena News story

Letters to the Editor

The News missed critical points in its headline story on Aug. 4 when they announced total signatures for three school board members did not meet the threshold number necessary to trigger a recall? The front page story that day surely should have made mention that school board members Sarah Costain, Monica Dziesinski, and Eric Lawson retained the services of an out-of-town law firm, Butzel, to challenge the legitimacy of the recall effort based on the weakest claim imaginable. Butzel claimed dozens of petitions, in their entirety, needed to be disqualified because the petition ...

Commercial harvest of walleye and lake trout?

Editorials and columns

Representative Cam Cavitt is a proponent of a House bill that would give commercial fishers a chunk of the walleye and lake trout in Lake Huron. Is this a good idea? House Bill 5801 would require the Fisheries Division of the DNR to allow commercial harvest of lake trout, walleye, and yellow ...

Proper role of law and government

Letters to the Editor

I begin with a principle: the proper role of law and government is limited and specific. Law exists to protect the equal rights that every person already possesses—rights to life, liberty, and property. These rights existed before, and beyond, government. The law’s only legitimate function is to organize the individual right of self-defense on a collective scale, so that no person may harm another’s person or property with impunity. Beyond that protective purpose, using law becomes a violation of the rights it was meant to secure. When government uses its taxing power to take from ...

A technicality overrides the will of 4,300 voters

Editorials and columns

The grassroots effort to recall three Alpena Public Schools Board of Education members was not certified, not because we lacked support, not because we were unable to gather signatures, and not because voters didn’t participate. It was stopped because the Alpena county clerk accepted a ...