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Don't base your vote on candidate ads

Did you watch any of the debates this past week? Most folks probably did not even though it was a rare opportunity to evaluate the candidates based on something other than those often misleading campaign commercials. In fact some valuable advice is, if you base your election decisions based ...

Barr distorts Bergman’s record on veterans

One of the most absurd claims being made this campaign cycle concerns the race for Congress. For the second election in a row, incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman is being challenged by Democrat Callie Barr. For much of the campaign, Barr seemed largely absent outside Democratic ...

Osmer is not local chairman

Hi, contrary to a recent letter to the editor by Ms. Goike, I am the chair of the Alpena County Republican Party. Jesse Osmer hasn’t held an officer position for quite a while now. I’ve reached out to our state party to correct their online directory. However, I am actually writing for a different reason, to share information: 1. The SAFE PAC that paid for billboards and postcards for Fritz, Ratz, Carlson, and Kipfmiller is registered under Alpena Democratic Chair Sarah Lane and liberal activist Marie Fielder. 2. Both these ladies helped circulate the ‘Build a Better Board’ ...

Moving on from a recall error

Recently, our county clerk rejected petitions calling for the recall of three Alpena Public Schools school board members. Earlier, our clerk had accepted these same petitions. But when a law firm told her the petitions were procedurally defective and that if she didn’t withdraw her ...

He voted no twice in the last four years. Why?

As we approach a highly contentious Alpena Public Schools Board of Education election, I am making a conscious effort to give every candidate an equal opportunity to earn my vote. That means researching their records, asking questions, and understanding the decisions they've made. As the parent of a former APS high school athlete and a future APS athlete, I was surprised to learn that current board member AJ McArthur reportedly voted NO twice in the past four years on resolutions supporting APS membership in the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA). Why does this ...

Has Trump broken his McDonald's promise?

The defining moment of the 2024 presidential campaign, it can be argued, came almost exactly two years ago, on Sunday, Oct. 20, when then-former President Donald Trump traded his suit coat for a yellow apron and worked the fry station and the drive-thru window at a McDonald's. His staff picked a propitious location in the battleground state of Pennsylvania: lower Bucks County, just south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and about a mile west of U.S. 1, suburban turf settled a generation or two ago by the sons and daughters of blue-collar ethnic communities in northeast ...