Columns – Page 209

Monday Moanin’: Researchers say kindergarten is new 1st grade

February 14, 2016

(Mister Journalism Blog by Jeff Salisbury) https://misterjournalism.wordpress.com/ Increased academic focus? Check. More testing? Check. Heightened expectations? Check. It’s official: kindergarten is the new first grade – and maybe more. A greater focus on academic skills can lead to something else getting pushed out or sidelined. In between 1998 and 2010, music...

Columns

Army Bob: If you love the Internet, thank the American Military

February 14, 2016

by Robert M. Traxler The Internet is an under appreciated marvel of the 20th/21st century. We have had the Internet for more than a generation now and it is hard to imagine life without instant knowledge on a scale unimaginable to my grandparents. If we wish to learn more about...

The Muck Starts Here: Dems comfy as GOP candidates drop like flies

February 14, 2016

by Barry Hastings It's nice being a Democrat, 'cause I can only remember one ticket (to the presidency) I've had doubts about... Kerrey/Edwards. And it wasn't the presidential nominee I distrusted. John Edwards reminded me (almost first sight) of an up-dated Spiro Agnew, Too damned slick, for a Demo. I've...

Democracy Tree: It’s reigning PAC money in the mitten state

February 13, 2016

by Amy Kerr Hardin Though the media would indicate otherwise, there’s more than a presidential election for voters to consider this year. In Michigan, the entire House comes up for re-election, as is the case every two years. (Senate terms coincide with the governor’s, to be decided every four years,...

Columns

Army Bob: Bernie Sanders won New Hampshire primary… or did he?

February 11, 2016

by Robert M. Traxler Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont received nearly 60% of the New Hampshire Democratic primary votes; a landslide by normal political standards, so to the victor goes the spoils, but not in our current political primary system. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walked away from New...

Basura: The story of old Mr. White and his only friend, Charley

February 10, 2016

Mark was a social worker at the Department of Social Services, assigned to work with the elderly. In his early-thirties, Mark enjoyed working with folks that had some age to them. He thought that one can't live for many years without having had some experiences along the way, and he...

Ranger Rick: Picking up trash while walking turns into gold

February 9, 2016

I have a daily habit of walking a circuit that includes city streets. You see everything and every walk of life on the sidewalks – men, women, teenagers, children, white, black, brown, walking, in-line-skating, on a bicycle. I see at times dogs, cats, bunnies, squirrels, ground hogs, birds, fish in...

Democracy Tree: State Legislature honors Gamrat by resurrecting gun bill

February 9, 2016

by Amy Kerr Hardin There’s a sad irony to this story — one that is surely lost on disgraced lawmakers, Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser It didn’t take long for Michigan’s most patriotic lawmakers to pick up the battle flag of expelled lawmaker Cindy Gamrat. As Democracy Tree predicted back...

Monday Moanin’: What’s a progressive, and who is more progressive?

February 7, 2016

POLITICS 2016 ELECTION The Progressive Party of 1912 was an American political party formed by former President Theodore Roosevelt, after a split in the Republican Party between him and President William Howard Taft. Bernie Sanders says he’s a socialist democrat AND a progressive. In 1991, Sanders co-founded the Congressional Progressive...

The Muck Starts Here: The Snyder solution’s fact and farce

February 7, 2016

by Barry Hastings After many years of poisoning the political atmosphere of Michigan, Herr Governor Rick Snyder has now turned to poisoning people — from very young, to the very old; from those previously afflicted with serious health problems, to those previously in good health, as well. As you'd expect,...

Category: Columns