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Raising lung cancer awareness during November

Community Voices

One of the best things you can do for overall good health is to quit smoking or never start in the first place. November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and the Great American Smokeout is on the third Thursday of November each year – Nov. 19 in 2026. The good news is that cigarette smoking rates have been declining for decades. Yet lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., accounting for about one in five of all cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. Each year, more people die of lung cancer than colon, breast and prostate cancers ...

Midges, habitat and purple light traps

Local Columns

This summer’s greatest discovery for our household wasn’t a new lure, some outdoors equipment, or even a new piece of hunting or angling technology, rather it was a plug-in nightlight for the cabin called a Zevo. While I’ll avoid the appearance of sponsoring or championing this ...

The hangover month

Community Voices

Of all the months of the year, November most closely resembles a hangover. This is not just because it follows the twin bacchanals of Oktoberfest and Halloween. It’s also due to the fact that here in the Northland average high temperatures are plummeting and days are growing shorter at a ...

Dealing with Global Darkening

Community Voices

We can’t deny it anymore. It’s getting darker. It’s darker earlier and longer. This weekend, with the time change, the darkening goes into hyper drive. It is Global Darkening. (I know. It’s half the globe. Work with me here.) There are Global Darkening deniers. They say it is scheme of left-wing woke socialists who want us to turn our lights on. I say the evidence is irrefutable. Look out the window, you darkening deniers. I guess this has happened before. That is little consolation. This plague of dimness seems oppressive even if it did happen a year ago and the year ...

Vote Seifert for state senator

Letters to the Editor

In the campaign for State Senate, I’ve been very impressed with Braxton Seifert. Votes are earned. Braxton Seifert has been working hard, accessible at dozens of parades, going door to door and many community events. That’s a huge contrast to his opponent. He’s pledged to have open town hall meetings, listening to everyone, regardless of party. That’s the type of leader we need. Being a loan officer at a bank, starting two businesses and being deeply involved in our community for his whole life testifies to the high quality person he is and I’m proud to vote for him. I ...

Insanity is doing the same thing . . .

Letters to the Editor

In Tragedy & Hope (1966) author Carroll Quigley wrote, “The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.” When visiting my 95-year-old father shortly after the 2000 General Election, he mentioned that he had cast a ballot for Ralph Nader. ...