For a retiree on a fixed income, increasing electricity bills mean less money for groceries or prescriptions. For farmers and small business owners, it adds another expense to the cost of staying in business. Protecting these customers should be a priority from the beginning of any major development. While ensuring America has the infrastructure needed to support its AI leadership should not excuse overlooking the people who already call a community home, nor should families

The latest M-STEP scores should stop every parent cold. Less than 40 percent of Michigan third-graders are proficient in reading. On the spring 2026 English Language Arts test, just 38.2 percent scored proficient, the lowest third-grade reading result in the exam's 12-year history and down again from 38.9 percent the year before.

Why getting involved matters as the school year takes off

This fall, you're going to hear a lot of plans to lower costs for Michigan families. Plans are easy. Passing them is the hard part. As chair of the House Energy Committee, I'd rather show you what my committee has done and tell you what's coming next.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the story of Ichabod Crane and his unfortunate encounter with the Headless Horseman. As a kid in October I remember learning this piece of Americana. But I never knew the last line. It is frightening, and worthy of reflection. The community accepts that Ichabod Crane is missing, likely carried off by some otherworldly specter. Then it says, “As he was a bachelor, and in nobody’s debt, nobody troubled his head any more about him.”

September marks the beginning of the end of our garden. Plants have gone to seed or dried up, and it’s time to rip everything out for next year. I’m always surprised when this time comes—because I always find something I did not expect. One year I found a basil plant growing that I hadn’t planted. Another year I found a crop of tomatoes hiding among the leaves that I had missed. This year, it was bush beans—almost a half peck!—and more jalapeños.

Last week, I joined Benton Harbor’s mayor, city leadership, and first responders to commemorate the 25th anniversary of September 11th. It was an opportunity to remember the lives lost, recognize those who answered the call to help, and thank our first responders who continue protecting our communities today, like Dr. Paul Delle. Dr. Delle was an EMT in Brooklyn who responded when the attacks on September 11th occurred. Today, he is an ER Doc and firefighter right here in Sou

Here’s a little common sense Lansing could use more of: the person paying the heating bill should get to decide how their home is heated. A report funded by your tax dollars and prepared for the Whitmer administration’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy sees it differently. It calls for 2.8 million heat pumps in Michigan homes by 2040, with every state department measuring its decisions against that goal. It wants the energy code rewritten so new homes can’t

Session came back last week. Families in Southwest Michigan expected a session about costs, roads, and kids who still cannot read. Senate Democrats used their first real floor day to pass nine bills their own governor vetoed this summer. The package sat in limbo for more than 18 months. That is not a plan to make it in Michigan.

I had a delightful walk and talk through the Tri-City Record with Karl Bayer, former editor and publisher, earlier this week. He stopped in, and we talked about just a few of the many things this building has seen over the years. There sure is a lot. Old documents, advertising books, photographs, hand drawn cartoons from years past… The list goes on. Open a drawer, move a box, pull something off a shelf and there’s a decent chance you’re going to find something that makes yo

There’s something special about Southwest Michigan in September. The days get a little shorter, the mornings get a little cooler, college football is back, and across our communities, farmers are working from sunrise to sunset to bring in another year’s harvest. For those of us who live here, harvest is more than a season on the calendar. It’s part of who we are. As a member of a fourth-generation farming family, I know that harvest represents far more than what we see fro

As each week comes and goes, I’m realizing more and more that Thursday doesn’t really care what else is happening around it. Two things we can always promise are that the paper comes out each week and time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking. I’ve been at the paper for six years, but seeing the whole operation through this new editor lens has made me realize just how steady the rhythm really is. We can be having a great week or a not-so-great week. Everything can fall perfect

This Friday marks 25 years since the morning of September 11, 2001. For those of us old enough to remember it, the details have not faded. Most Michiganders can still tell you exactly where they were standing when they learned what was happening, and how the rest of that day felt. Nearly 3,000 people were killed. They went to work that morning, or boarded a flight, and never came home. More than 400 police officers, firefighters, and paramedics died running into buildings th

Twenty-five years ago, our nation was forever changed. On the morning of September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people said goodbye to their friends, families, and loved ones for what would be the last time. For those of us who saw these tragic events unfold on national TV, the memories remain vivid. We remember watching in disbelief as a second plane struck the World Trade Center. We remember the smoke rising from the Pentagon and learning that another plane had gone down near Sha

One of my history textbooks in middle school introduced me to the phrase, “Lest We Forget.” It was a war propaganda poster from the Great War, and it depicted the tragedy of the Lusitania. If you don’t know what that is (as I didn’t when I first saw it), the RMS Lusitania was a transatlantic passenger cruiser that was sunk by a German U-Boat, leading to the deaths of nearly 1,200 passengers. These were not soldiers or military personnel, but civilians caught in the crossfire.