WobblyReport

The new job has assigned an opinion column every three weeks. My first was a brief self-introduction. Tomorrow I'll pitch this as the first in a series. Ogemaw Hills Pathway On runs, sentences... A good recreational trail keeps one on one’s toes; lulls, perhaps, a wanderer into a sense of detached familiarity but just as easily immerses a traveler in the present moment and place. The way is clear one instant, inviting, but later on cluttered with debris and uncertain, merging and diverging with old fire roads and off-road vehicle paths, offering shortcuts and side-routes and extensions. A signpost’s map has fallen off or was never installed. A natural sense of direction disorients under the canopy, after a series of switchbacks that prevent erosion and confuse the hapless. Ogemaw Hills Pathway is a most suitable environment to experience the great outdoors—physical space for psychic journeys, explorations of nature and self. The pathway’s winding trails and interconnecting nodes br

Rube launches Senate campaign By the Committee to Elect Douglas P. Marsh The Committee to Elect Douglas P. Marsh announced today that journalist Douglas P. Marsh is seeking the Green Party ’s nomination in the race for the United States Senate in Michigan. Sitting Senator Debbie Stabenow announced early last year that she is retiring from politics and will not seek reelection. “I anticipate a fair contest in which policy positions and personal integrity are the primary deciding factors for voters,” said Marsh. Third party and independent candidates have won fewer than one percent of Senatorial races in the past century. Contenders for nominations within the Republican and Democratic parties include billionaire heir Peter Meijer and Central Intelligence Agency veteran Elissa Slotkin, respectively. Marsh was unfazed. “People are sure to vote their wallets and consciences this time,” he said. “I’m the only candidate who is serious about getting Medicare for All at home and permanent

Building the Party In a recent opinion column , small business ownership expert Mary Keyes Rogers adeptly diagnoses several problems in our United States political systems. She homes in particularly on our country’s two major political parties, the Republicans and Democrats, and elected leaders, referring to some iconic household names. 1 Rogers wisely recognizes, too, that our two-party system is not going away any time soon, no matter how divorced both of the parties have become from the will of the people. A third party cannot coexist with the other two major parties under our country’s predominant election rules (see Duverger’s Law ) and this system carries the inertia of our nation’s entire history to this point. 2 Relatedly, she recites Pew research indicating around a third of Americans hold negative views of both major parties. Yet more to this point, we know that more than half of eligible voters regularly do not vote in any given U.S. election. Keen to problems, Rogers is n

Listen to Michigan has crafted a simple message with an easy ask: turn in an “uncommitted” ballot on Tuesday to demand a ceasefire in Gaza from the incumbent U.S. president. That’s a great tactic for those committed to working within the Democratic Party for change. But how does it fit strategically for those outside the Democratic Party? Per Michigan election law and electoral developments to date, resident voters may choose from one or the other major U.S. political parties in this Sunday’s presidential primary election. Both primaries are run on the same ballot, which makes more sense than printing two ballots for each voter and then throwing half of them away, even if it leads to some confused voters invalidating their ballots by voting for a candidate from each party. Minor parties select candidates to run in the general election through a nominating convention, but their members can still vote in Michigan’s primaries, as can unaffiliated and independent voters. Theoretically

Having left town for the holidays, I only became aware of this incident by arriving early at a Jan. 2 meeting of county commissioners and overhearing one of the commissioners mention it. At the office, the editor said they had heard about it and that it was sad. Dog bites woman through vehicle window The Wild Blueberry Breakfast and Bakery is a popular morning meetup location for many locals. Dawn Nelson, 81, formerly chair of the Mackinac County Board of Commissioners as well as  county assessor, was seriously injured by a dog in the parking lot of the Wild Blueberry Breakfast and Bakery on the morning of Dec. 24. Nelson (photo courtesy St. Ignace Police) [removed per request of family member] Nelson sustained injuries to her hand and face, including partial loss of her nose, when she approached the side of her son’s vehicle and was attacked through an open window by Heff, a 6-year-old, male, pit bull mix. Nicholas Nelson, 38, reported to police that his father had pet the dog through