Editorial – Page 41

McLean’s departure leaves me unpleasant questions

August 22, 2017

The sudden and unexpected (at least to me) resignation of Wayland City Manager Tim McLean Monday night has left me with some unpleasant questions about the nature of public service in this town. McLean’s successor will be the fifth city manager here in the last six years. Chris Yonker left...

I remember Congressman Vern Ehlers, perhaps too well

August 18, 2017

I knew Third District Congressman Vern Ehlers, who died earlier this week, and as Jeff Smith of the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID) so insightfully wrote, "In the past few days there has been a number of news stories reflecting on the life of the former Congressman, with virtually every...

Time has come to to put Leighton’s air park issue to rest

August 11, 2017

ACHTUNG: This is not a "fair and balanced" story. It is an editorial by the editor. "Eighty percent of the people who show up at public meetings are there to bitch." — David T. Young, writing on the newsroom chalkboard in 1985 at the Ypsilanti Press. I've learned two very...

Steven Johnson will be a vulnerable incumbent in 2018

July 29, 2017

ACHTUNG: This is not a "fair and balanced" story. It is an editorial by the editor. Wise observers of our corrupt and rigged election system in West Michigan have posited that Republican incumbents are almost invincible at the polls every two and four years. There have been rare exceptions, but...

Obituaries, causes of deaths too important to overlook

July 22, 2017

Townbroadcast columnist "Army Bob" Traxler not long ago made a quality suggestion about publishing death notices by saying they all should provide information about the cause of death. Some people believe that such a practice constitutes an invasion of privacy of the dearly departed, an assertion that has a grain...

Why was there no information on fatal crash in Hopkins?

June 29, 2017

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor. When “fake news” continues to become commonplace, it is more than disconcerting that finding the truth seems more difficult than ever. Not only are we bombarded with lies, sometimes we aren’t told anything at...

Can Rep. Whiteford avoid ‘Curse of the 80th District?’

June 24, 2017

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor. Can State Rep. Mary Whiteford avoid the Curse of the 80th Legislative District? I’m betting on her, but she’s a got a lot of history that’s not on her side. Ever since the...

Editorial

Rep. Upton seeks federal help after cutting federal program

June 24, 2017

To the editor: Congressman Fred Upton calls for federal help: “We must act now to stop Asian Carp... Asian Carp have been discovered beyond the electric barrier and only nine miles from Lake Michigan, I have implored President Trump to release the Brandon Road Study and take immediate action to...

Why not let local government control fireworks madness?

June 16, 2017

ACHTUNG: This is not a fair and balanced story. It is an editorial by the editor. I’ve been railing against the Michigan Legislature’s terrible decision to allow fireworks everywhere on holidays for the past five years. But virtually nothing has changed. Calling or writing your legislator, as we are so...

Editorial

Hate-filled rhetoric fuels troubling incidents like shooting

June 15, 2017

To the editor: A person shot up a baseball practice in the Washington D.C. area; not surprising, the target was a team made up of Republican members of the House of Representatives. The criminal who attacked a team of ball players chose the Republicans because the good folks in the...

Category: Editorial