Stephen Tuttle | Author
Our Future As Past
May 6, 2017
Our bridges might not be falling down but way too many are getting close. The rest of our infrastructure isn't doing much better.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) completes a quadrennial survey of our infrastructure; their most recent report card gives us a D-plus.&nbs…
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The 100-Day Fever
April 29, 2017
President Donald Trump is right about one thing: The first 100 days is a ridiculous way to judge a new president.
This began in the first 100 days of FDR's first term when a compliant and fearful Congress passed huge chunks of legislation designed to bring the country out of the Gre…
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Bumpy Skies
April 22, 2017
United Airlines and their passengers are having a relatively bad couple of weeks. United dragged a man off a flight with cell phone cameras rolling, and their CEO botched a number of explanations and apologies. A few days later they removed a couple on their way to their wedding over seat a…
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Deeper Into The Quicksand
April 15, 2017
Already sick from the dirt diet that is the Middle East, we've decided to add Syria to the menu. We should be asking why.
Syria became an independent state and an original member of the United Nations in 1945. Things deteriorated after that.
Regular coups bedeviled the…
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Locally Grown Issues
April 8, 2017
We have parking, tree and communication issues, all locally grown.
Some people are now claiming downtown Traverse City has a parking problem. No kidding.
Parking is scarce downtown, at least in part because planners and decision-makers from a couple decades…
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Awash In Drugs
April 1, 2017
We are the sickest, most pain-riddled and depressed country on the planet. It's not even close.
We consume more prescription drugs than the rest of the world combined. And we take them for almost everything. According to research published in the Journal of the American Me…
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March 25, 2017 President Trump and his Republican allies are in a nasty two week slump. Perhaps we should check in. That American Health Care Act the Republicans rolled out, initially and enthusiastically supported by the president, wasn't received warmly. At all. They're now stuck with it.&…
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March 18, 2017 Northern Michigan continues to move in unexpected and mysterious ways. There is talk, and that's all it is at this point, of Munson Medical Center (MMC) nurses unionizing. They've taken no formal steps to do so and have started no real organizing effort…
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March 11, 2017 “I'm a very big person when it comes to the environment. I have received awards on the environment.” That's what President Donald Trump said in a meeting with business leaders on January 23. We'll just ignore the fact that no one can find any awards he's ever won &…
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Feb. 25, 2017 Sigh. The President of the United States is a liar. There are politer ways to say it, but if he was your child you would have to take away his toys and make him go stand in the corner. We begrudgingly accept that politicians exaggerate their accomplishments and minimize their …
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Feb. 18, 2017 Our new president has pledged to bring back manufacturing jobs, a reality that has already been happening for the last seven years. Since 2010 there's been an increase of more than 800,000 new manufacturing jobs compared to the five million we lost in the previous ten years. A…
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Jan. 28, 2017 That was a pretty impressive beginning as protests go. Millions of women -- and men too -- gathered all over the country, including thousands here in northern Michigan. There were plenty of issues in evidence, but mostly they were protesting the manifest misogyny of President Donald…
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Jan. 21, 2017 President Trump wants us to trust him blindly while refusing to place his assets in a blind trust. His sons will run his businesses, he says, and they will never discuss it, ever. Trust him. Modern presidents and cabinet officers are almost always people of substantial means. …
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Jan. 14, 2017 In a few days, a new administration will be seated in Washington. Those now designated to develop our energy policy are either climate change skeptics or outright deniers who intend to facilitate more oil, gas and coal production. Let’s assume they are right. If our climate is…
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Jan. 7, 2017 Every president-elect is faced with the immediate problem of hiring and nominating many people for many jobs. Many, many jobs; nearly 7,500, including nearly 1,500 requiring Senate confirmation. Many positions will go to career bureaucrats who at least have some idea of what they&rs…
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Dec. 31, 2016 The new year always starts with more questions than answers, doesn’t it? Some political, some not. For example: ■ Did you know we’ve had a satellite called Cassini circling Saturn since 2004? ■ Who would have thought Donald Trump owns, or partially owns, less tha…
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Dec. 17, 2016 Christmas appears to have survived another year. Nativity scenes everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief. The claims that Christmas is being attacked sprout up annually. If such a battle has ever really existed, Christmas continues a long winning streak. That’s because Chris…
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Dec. 10, 2016 Michigan legislators, ever vigilant to the scourge of voter identity fraud, have introduced yet another bill making it more difficult for some Michiganders to vote. This is what passes for work during their lame-duck session. Lame-duck sessions, that period between the November elec…
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Dec. 1, 2016 Traverse City’s Downtown Development Authority wants to renew an expired tax increment financing plan covering the Old Town district. The previous TIF in that district lasted 30 years and expired in 2015. The DDA would like a new TIF for another 25 years. The DDA is es…
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Nov. 27, 2016 Ah, yes, the season of peace on earth. Uh-huh. We might think after 15,000 years of what we euphemistically call civilization we’d have found a better system of dispute resolution than killing each other. We would be wrong. Wars currently rage in various forms in at le…
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The Two Week Slump
Unions and Pot Farms and Beer, Oh My!
Environmental Backtracking
Be The President
We'll Pay an Import Tax
The March
Trusting Blindly
Reasons to move away from fossil fuels
Nominations and polls
Questions
Christmas of your choice
Very lame ducks
To TIF or not to TIF
No peace on earth