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Focusing this week on fire prevention

For Fire Prevention Week this week, the National Fire Protection Association has chosen the theme of “Charge into Fire Safety: Safe Charging is a Superpower,” stressing safe practices for rechargeable batteries. This has added resonance locally, as a house fire April 21 in Kingsford that killed 45-year-old Deanna Juranek is thought to have been caused when an electric bicycle recharging exploded on the enclosed front porch. “Many devices used in our daily lives — phones, tablets, laptops, tools, toys, e-bikes and scooters — run on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which ...

What to know about Prop 2 on Michigan’s ballot Nov. 3

Michigan is one of roughly half of the states in the country that allows citizens to collect signatures for voters to consider approving a law on the November statewide ballot. A certain threshold of signatures is required, as well as approval from the state’s board of canvassers. This year, voters will have a campaign finance law to consider — known as Prop 2 — that would prohibit many companies with government contracts, as well as state regulated utility companies, from making contributions to policymakers. The only other proposal facing voters is whether to hold a ...

Journalists draw fire for doing their jobs

Being a journalist isn’t a sure path to popularity. But we journalists don’t go into the profession to make new besties. Rather, to paraphrase William Shakespeare, we journalists have always suffered the slings and arrows of outraged people, and we still do. In recent years, however, it seems like individual journalists — not just their newspaper, broadcast or online outlet — are targets of snarky, snide, contemptuous, coarse and sometimes threatening remarks by people and institutions unhappy with how they do their jobs. President Donald Trump tells a Bloomberg News ...