Will you be 18 by August 7? Are you registered to vote?
The future is yours! Don’t leave it up to us older generations to decide for you! We’ve already made a ton of mistakes that you will have to pay for. Our government and its systems can be very complicated. If you want to have a voice but don’t know where to start, here are some suggestions:
Sally Wagoner Registered and Active Voter By Ken DeLaat Go Tig’s. I love this team, the current members of the club whose players don the Olde English ‘D’. They’re my favorite kind of competitors. They’re scrappy, fearless and undaunted by defeat. A radical change from the past few glory years when expectations far outweighed performance and there seemed to be a tightening about the neck during crucial games. Those years saw a cavalcade of superstars parading through the locker room, few Hall of Famers to be sure (exceptions being JV and Max I’d say) but All Stars. Guys who were (and are) some of the best in the league. Now scattered to LA, Boston,Houston and D.C. or retired ala Prince, Shef,and the huge signing mistake known as Joe Nathan. These were all (for the most part) fine players but in many ways the team had kind of stopped being fun. The disappointment of ‘almost’ and ‘what might have been’ collapsed into ‘way not close’ and ‘what will never be’ last season culminating more than a decade of close calls with those teams. They did the right thing, abandoned hope and slashed payroll while trying to build a foundering minor league system. Be patient they said, this will take awhile. “We’re going to rebuild” I knew what that meant. It meant a repeat of the Trammel years when the poor guy was given a ragtag group of someday’s, never were’s and incredibly futile moundmen. Bobby Higginson another contractual disaster, was still around and Dmitri Young was their lone All Star, a guy they liked so much they cut him a month before they captured the pennant in the redemption season of ‘06. Their ace? Mike Maroth who fashioned a 5.73 earned run average into 21 of the 119 Tiger losses that year. Jeremy Bonderman came in a close second losing 19. So we entered this season a bit cautiously. Throughout spring training attention was paid to the lineups and the jockeying for position that was going on. Then came the opener. The lineup was pretty unfamiliar and they dropped their first 3 in close and entertaining contests with the Pirates. Then they won 4 of 5 before losing 5 straight. Since then it’s been that kind of season. A few wins combined with an equal amount of losses as they attempt to catch up to that elusive .500 mark. But, man, they are fun to watch. They run, they hustle, they’re slashers at the plate and the pitching has ranged from outstanding to awful but mostly a tad above average. Their third sacker Candelario is a personal favorite and came here in a trade made by the Tiger GM who swapped his son to the Cubs to bring him here. Yep. His son. Their young players are going through a learning curve but have shown some flashes of brilliance while players who have kicked around the fringe of the Bigs have come through far more consistently than expected by nearly everyone but themselves. There is the uplifting return of Miguel Cabrera and the blue collar approach of Victor Martinez, leftovers from the purge because of their bloated untradeable contracts. They’re adding just enough firepower to this youthful lineup and their veteran presence certainly doesn’t hurt either though they each hit some of the longest singles imaginable.. Then there is Gardy, the best manager in baseball for such a team. He spun miracles out of the Twin Cities with limited talent and has not only kept this team believing, he also provides a welcome presence in the post game interviews with a sense of humor to go with a vast baseball knowledge. This team works hard, plays every out and makes much stronger lineups earn any victories they get. They win games with a fun kind of flair and lose them with a sense of aplomb that tomorrow will be another day. They aren’t going anywhere. It’s still a rebuilding year and year one at that.The starting pitching won’t hold up over a whole season and the bullpen while effective from time to time still lacks consistency particularly in the closer role.. The young hitters will likely encounter lengthy slumps and a 6 month season can weigh on anyone’s enthusiasm. Then there are the teams ahead of them. The Red Sox, Indians, Astros and the ever hated Yanks as well as a few other teams in the West with plausibly more postseason promise than this squad. So, no World Series nor even a good chance to be playing beyond their last day of September season finale in Milwaukee with the Brewers. However, they are more than likely to escape the cellar (of course the White Sox are terrible the Royals not much better) and will give opponents all they can handle most nights. So grab a scorecard and root for Leonys, Niko, Dixon, Viktor (Reyes not Martinez) and former Whitecap Artie Lewicki. Follow them as they begin to sort out who will be in their future plans and as they aspire to defy those who had them hovering near the bottom. Catch Gardy’s post game chats. Like I said this isn’t a great team, but its not a horrible one either. And believe me the Tigers of this year bear no resemblance to that bleak rebuild season 15 years prior. While the present day Tig’s have won 31 games (as of June 9th) the ‘03 squad won their 31st on August 12th. It was the lone win in a 16 game stretch that ended 12 days later with a 10-9 win (#32) on a walk off homer by Brandon Inge. Yep. Brandon Inge. By Megan Wirts I should not be a homeowner. There are so many things that need constant care and upkeep and so many things that can and will go wrong. Being the home owner means you are the one that has to fix the things and I’m the kind of home owner that doesn’t know how to fix any of the things! It’s similar to parenting in the whole, “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING!!!” vein. I don’t know if anyone tried to show me important grown up stuff and I was just a distracted teenager that didn’t pay attention to things like how to properly clean an oven or change the filter on a furnace, but I didn’t know how to do either of those things until recently. My husband and I bought our first home over 16 years ago. We were newly engaged and this was going to be where we began our life together. It was a brand new double wide on about 2 acres with a pond in the backyard. It was close to our jobs and not too far from our families. It was perfect. We thought we were doing an awesome job taking care of our house, until the heater stopped working and I thought a pilot light was something a person that flies airplanes uses to see at night time. Then it got really cold and our pipes froze and we had a small baby with no water and no heat. When we realized one of us needed to go under the house into the crawl space filled with creepy crawly things, like spiders, mice and probably a large black pit that will suck you in and steal your soul, we did what any mature couple does, we played rock-paper-scissors to the death. I won and my dear husband who is literally terrified of even the teeniest tiniest spider went into the cold dark underbelly of our home. When he reemerged covered in cobwebs and dust, we still had no idea what to do. We finally swallowed our pride and called my mom and we realized that being a grown up is filled with all kinds of things that you will just have to learn as you go. You would think that after the pilot light confusion we would try to become the most knowledgeable home owners in the world. Wrong. We went on with our life, had another baby, I started going to college and the busyness of life ran away with us. Then one day I was doing laundry, my most loathed and hated chore of all household chores, and my house burned down. MY HOUSE BURNED DOWN BECAUSE OF DOING LAUNDRY!! Laundry is the worst. Seriously though, this is a good lesson for all of us that do laundry and hate laundry, but don’t want our houses to burn down. Clean the lint! ALL THE LINT! Don’t just clean out the lint trap in the front, you need to take that machine apart and suck and blow out all the crap that is stuck in there. Then you need clean that tube thing that connects to the outside and suck all the junk out of that. You need to clean everything!! So our house burned down and it was messy, sad, and stressful and we made it through it. Then we had a new home built and we were like, “WE WILL TAKE CARE OF THIS HOUSE!!!”, and we really are trying. But then one day you notice that every time you walk into your house you start to sneeze, your eyes water and you mention it to your friends. So your friends asks you, “When was the last time you changed the filter on your furnace?” and you look at them like they have two heads because you are thinking, “My furnace has a filter?” That’s right friends, we did not know that our furnace had a filter. For 6 years, we lived in a house and not one time did we change the filter. I know, I know. When we pulled it out, it was covered in the thickest, clumpiest dust, pet hair and debris, including a granola bar wrapper, and we were shocked. We had no idea this was something we were supposed to do. We have now learned that so many things in our house have filters!! The only filters I was familiar with were coffee filters, because I care more about coffee than I do the air I breathe, and the filter I lack that goes from my brain to my mouth. Just last night my husband texted me that I needed to “drain the new filter for 15 minutes in the morning”. I responded, “Ok”. Then this morning I am looking at this text and I literally have no idea what filter he is talking about or how to drain it! WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FILTERS!!! Here’s to hoping my lack of homeowner knowledge doesn’t cause another house fire and that I figure out what this filter is I’m supposed to be draining right now. Girl scouts bearing cookies visit road commission Editor's Note: It came to our attention that our crew at our Road Commission came into a treasure trove of trefoils, a pile of peanut butter patties and a throng of thin mints of late so we asked N3 friend and NCRC Manager Kelly Smith to deliver the skinny on a (caramel) delite-ful day for all involved. Troop #4581 chose Newaygo county road commission as their “hometown hero” for this seasons cookie sales. The prize for being “the Chosen one” is a supply of girl scout cookies as well as a visit from the troop members themselves. We were very pleased to hear that the troop had chosen us, and when cookies became part of the reward it made it all the more special. While making the delivery, a tour of the facility was arranged for the scouts and the office staff had a great time with the troop showing them around the facility and equipment, they also took time to hand paint one of the snow plows. The staff of the road commission greatly appreciates the recognition from troop 4581, and of course the cookies, but most importantly the opportunity to spend some time with such a great group of fine young ladies and their awesome troop leaders and we look forward to many more encounters with groups such as them. Please come see us at some of future events we have planned for this summer listed below, and as always, Have a safe summer. Newaygo County Kids Day Sat. June 9th 12pm-3pm Brooks Park, Newaygo
White Cloud Library Thu June 14th 11am-12:30pm WC Library Hesperia 4th of July Wed July 4th Noon Hesperia Croton Summer Rec Tue July 10th 9:30am Croton Baby Food Fest Kids Expo Wed July 18th 10:30am-2pm Fremont Baby Food Fest Parade Sat July 21st 10:30am Fremont Photos By Kerry Hewitt and Melissa Homrich Tuesday deadline looms
Back in April State canvassers approved a ballot proposal to decriminalize recreational use of marijuana in Michigan. The proposal, backed by a committee called the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, likely is headed for the November ballot and polling has suggested a strong likelihood of its passage. As of the April decision date the legislature was given 40 days to come up with their own recreational use proposal or see the current ballot initiative be decided upon in November. That deadline is tomorrow night (June 5th) and while there seems to be some willingness on the part of the Senate to move forward (and quickly) on this, the House looks to provide more of a challenge to those who support the action. The ballot initiative aims at allowing adults aged 21 years or older to possess and use marijuana for recreational purposes and permits growing up to 12 marijuana plants. Retail businesses would be subject to a 10% excise sales tax and the revenue from the taxes would be directed to local governments, K-12 education, and the repair and maintenance of roads and bridges. Municipalities could choose to ban or limit marijuana establishments within their boundaries. The effort to carve out a piece of legislation allowing recreational use would give the state the ability to exercise more control over the legalization process likely using some of the same procedures put in place for the recent medical marijuana law. Polls conducted by EPIC-MRA show a growing trend among voters toward approval. A December 2014 poll showed a 50-46% margin in favor. By March of 2016 the gap had grown to 53-45% and in February of 2017 results came in at 57-40%. The latest poll taken this past February shows a 61-35% margin in favoring recreational use. Opposition remains strong, particularly in the House. and yet there seems to be recognition among many in Lansing that legalization is a war that has been lost. That perhaps the times call for alternative action and while both are bad choices, taking action legislatively is the least bad choice. So here we are. Will the voting citizens of our great state be given the opportunity to decide on the issue of recreational use of marijuana or will the Sens and Reps in Lansing move with an uncommon swiftness to circumvent its appearance on the ballot come November? We’ll know soon. |
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April 2024
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