Traverse City Record-Eagle

Forum: Fair treatment for community TV
By JOE VANDERMEULEN: Charter will take the clean, high-value bandwidth occupied by our region's only Public Access Television station (Up North 2) and Northwestern Michigan College's Educational Access station (Channel 13) and exchange it for unused, interference-plagued bandwidth at channels 96 and 97. Surely, Charter owes this community something better than what we're now getting.
Forum: Reporting in Lansing getting scarce
By KEN WINTER: A former Lansing-based state government reporter recently observed that state government coverage by Michigan's largest news organizations continues to diminish. Some important stories hardly surface in today's news because news organizations have dramatically reduced newsroom staffs.
Forum: Now is not the time to cut P.A. 248
By SHERRI SOLOMON: While the financial impact of repealing Public Act No. 248 can be measured, it is impossible to quantify the cost of human suffering for those wanting, yet denied resources to maintain a healthy life. Since the recession began, we are seeing an increase in activity for people dealing with the pressure of job loss, home foreclosures and lost health insurance. Now is not the time for politicians to take away access to medications. We simply can't afford it.
Forum: Leaving old technology isn't easy
By TIM RANSBERGER: As the world moves from the old analog world to digital technology, most cable companies, including Charter, are carrying the over-the-air digital signals transmitted by local broadcasters and duplicating that signal into analog formats that can be viewed on older TV sets. We do that while also staying on the cutting edge of new digital technology.
Forum: Dam restoration important to area
In response to the Record-Eagle's editorial of Oct. 9, I take this opportunity to commend the paper for continuing to question and challenge the supposedly objective "public process" structured to "determine the fate of the Boardman River Dams."
Forum: Don't throw word-bombs
By PORTER ABBOTT: There are words that are like bombs -- words like capitalism, communism, fascism, Islam. They have perfectly good meanings, but are so loaded they can blow up reasonable discourse. As word-bombs, they all have the same meaning: Be Scared, Don't Think (BSDT).
Forum: No pure water, no 'Pure Michigan'
By DUNCAN CAMPBELL: Each of us has a favorite stream, river, lake or Great Lake -- the inland seas that make Michigan one of the world's most easily identifiable places. As the stewards of the world's largest fresh water reservoir, we know there is no pure Michigan without pure water.
Forum: Proactive public safety in TC a must
The correlation between what we have here in Traverse City and Anytown, USA, is not only the perception of safety but in fact the reality of public safety that we have achieved here. This, however, was not accomplished by accident but rather by an aggressive, proactive versus reactive police department.
Forum: Too many apples? Buy local
By JANICE BENSON: There's lots of talk about the abundant apple crop this year. And it appears the common message is this: too many apples. I don't know about you, but something about that just doesn't sit right. With all of the labor that goes into producing a crop, aren't farmers supposed to rejoice when everything goes well -- when they have a beautiful, juicy, bumper crop?