Breaking News

Opinion

AI moral panic demands leadership, not pandering

Editorials and columns

The midterm elections are right around the corner, and both parties are about as popular as a Monday-morning visit to the DMV. The time-tested solution? Find a scapegoat, go negative, and blame the other side. This year the weaponized bogeyman is artificial intelligence. Many Americans are falling for the anti-AI information operation. They shouldn't. A new poll from Politico has the grisly details: 63% of Americans think AI has the potential to "destroy humanity." A majority of both Democrats and Republicans now think AI could herald the apocalypse. That's quite a sea change ...

Barr challenges Bergman to debate

Letters to the Editor

On Monday night, I met with a room of Alpena residents to listen. Since we launched this campaign, we've hosted more than a dozen town halls. Like every one before it, I left with a laundry list of the things keeping Northern Michigan and Upper Peninsula families up at night. The cost of groceries and gas is bursting families' budgets. District 1 residents are driving further for medical care. While they hold our communities together, our farmers, manufacturers, and small businesses are hurting from tariffs and inflation. In Oscoda and Grayling, people still live with PFAS contamination ...

Against AI regulatory capture

Editorials and columns

American businesses have long practiced what political scientists call regulatory capture. A company that cannot repeal a law takes control of the people the government put in charge of enforcing it. The airlines did it to the Civil Aeronautics Board, which in 40 years never approved a new ...

Your voice, your vote: Don’t let Alpena be silenced

Letters to the Editor

Last spring, over 4,300 community members stood on sidewalks in the heat and rain to sign three petitions to recall Sarah Costain, Monica Dziesinski, and Eric Lawson. Unfortunately, a high-priced Detroit law firm hired by Dziesinski, representing all three board members, used a legal technicality to throw out your signatures and silence your voices. As a grassroots coalition without corporate legal funding, the recall committee now depends entirely on the power of your vote. We encourage all voters - including those who faced intimidation or harassment - to exercise your rights and ...

If the Kennedy Center stays closed for now, so be it

Editorials and columns

Go ahead, President Donald Trump, keep the Kennedy Center closed. Don't give it money for necessary repairs. This is low-hanging fruit for Americans done with your extortion schemes. They don't have to submit to small-bore intimidation like this. They can just shrug at the demand that your ...

A man on a mission

Editorials and columns

There’s something magical that takes place when a person finds a mission to commit their life to. When I think of the word mission, I think of astronauts who have been sent into outer space to do exploration or research to better all of mankind. I think of military personnel who are ...