Blogs List
From Way Downtown
 Chris Dobrowolski |
That's what I like to seeTue, November 3, 2009 @ 1:48PM Matt Stafford probably wasn't that defiant, more like stating a fact, when he said he won't let Lions' fans run him out of town after fans were yelling less-than-desirable things at the rookie QB at the end of Sunday's 17-10 loss to the Rams. Still, I like Stafford's moxie when it comes to handling adversity. I know I was adamant Detroit pick someone else with the top pick in last spring's draft, but Stafford has shown a great deal of toughness under fire, unlike a certain champagne-drinking and cavier-eating former Lions QB. While he hasn't been great yet, Stafford has steadily improved since the beginning of the year. One of these weeks he may actually lead them to a victory. Unfortunately for Stafford, and Lions fans, more than the occasional victory won't occur until Detroit gets star receiver Calvin Johnson back, improves its offensive line and gets better on defe.
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Pardon me, but ...
 Steve Murch |
Some statistics to chew onWed, November 18, 2009 @ 3:25PM I took a few days off and among the things I did was catch up on some reading. I picked up National Geographic's EarthPulse State of the Earth 2010. It's basically a magazine of analysis with graphs, maps and statistics. I love statistics, so it was right up my alley. There were several things that stand out in the publication – some are interesting, some are hard to believe and some are just things to ponder. Some that stood out to me: We consume 1.4 Earths worth of resources per year. If everyone consumed the way Americans do, we'd consume 5.4 Earths worth of resources. Um, at some point don't we run out of resources? There are 20 cities with 10 million or more people, four of which are in India (three in North America) Gobi Desert in China is growing at a rate of nearly 4,000 square miles per year. Isn't that adding to a dwindling Earth's resources? 20 percent of the world's population lives within 25 kilometers of a border.
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Upon Further Review.....
 Steve Schulwitz |
Ballots and pollsWed, November 4, 2009 @ 7:47PM Another election is in the books. Here are just a few of my thoughts and observations from a busy day of election coverage. I knew things were tight in Montmorency County, but I never dreamed BOTH the millage proposals for the sheriff's department would fail. The deputies are currently driving cars that have excess of 180,000 miles and are well past their retirement time. If the millage requests would have been approved it would have allowed Sheriff Don Edwards to run patrol officers 24-7, several times a week, and hire more deputies. Instead it appears the county commissioners are going to cut 1 or 2 patrolman because of budget restraints. I hope the voters in the county didn't drop the ball on this. It took me about 10 seconds to fill out my ballot. I voted for a mayor, who ran unchallenged and a pair of city council members who ran against nobod.
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More BS (Bill Speer)
 Bill Speer |
Be Safe Out ThereThu, November 12, 2009 @ 4:47PM Earlier this month I was on my way to Lansing for an 11 a.m. meeting of the Michigan Press Association when I suddenly was confronted with a dilemma. I noticed the Jeep that just had passed me and now was about a mile up the highway had put on its brakes, and its headlights were now faced in my direction. As I drove closer, I could see the driver jump out of the vehicle and run into the median. He had parked just off the passing side shoulder of the road. In the swampy median separating the north and southbound traffic, a Jeep Liberty was overturned. I quickly pulled over and stopped as well, and after exiting and running across the road myself, my first thought was "Darn, I've got my suit on for the meeting." And, I also mentally counted the minutes I had left as a cushion to make it in time for my meeting.
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Art Beat
 Diane Speer |
Bad news - book store closingFri, November 6, 2009 @ 4:11PM Working at a newspaper, I'm used to hearing/reading bad news. Still, I'm personally frustrated by the latest bit of negative news that just passed my way. Granted it isn't on par with this week's horrific shooting at Fort Hood, but it's bad news for the community, bad news for book lovers and bad news for me. Waldenbooks at the Alpena Mall is set to close sometime after the first of the year. Borders Group Inc., based in Ann Arbor, has announced its plans to close 200 of its mall-based Waldenbooks and Borders locations, including the store in Alpena. As a lover of books and magazines, Waldenbooks has always been one of my favorite places to stop whenever I'm at the Alpena Mall. Maybe it didn't always have the huge selection of the bigger stores that have sprung up in recent years, but staff was always more than willing to go online and order any book for me. I'm sure the closing is just one more casuality of a severely sagging economy.
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Inside out
 Caroline Zilk |
Fire: the inside perspectiveMon, August 10, 2009 @ 0:09AM Yesterday seemed like it was going to be a slow day in the newsroom. Most of our stories and photos for the paper on Monday were from events over the weekend: the nautical festival, the tractor show, the Posen pageant. Then, all of a sudden, our sports editor, Chris asked if we smelled smoke. I didn't at first, and made myself a little dizzy trying to sniff and smell something. But when I walked into our sports room - a little closer to the outside of the building - I smelled A LOT of smoke. It took us a while to figure out where the smoke as coming from, but it was easy to see from the window of the newsroom...and we actually called the police. Chris joked that we had a new lead story for page one, but I said the fire department would probably just think we were bored and needed something interesting to happen. Either way, we didn't have to travel too far to find the news.
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