Saturday, April 25, 2026

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COMMENTARY

BP's pollution of lakes must be put to an end

Enjoy a dive into Lake Michigan this summer. Before I do, I'd like to thank Richard Librizzi for pointing our attention toward British Petroleum Co. Ltd.'s attempts at increasing the daily garbage it heaps into Lake Michigan in "Corporations polluting Michigan's water sources" (SN 7/26). BP wants to increase its daily ammonia discharge by about 1,600 pounds, while it would bump up its daily release of suspended solids, like lead, by about 5,000 pounds, according to The Chicago Tribune. This is all while BP advertises it actually gives a damn about the environment.

COMMENTARY

Focus on tests hurting U.S. students

Because of No Child Left Behind laws, schools are spending less time teaching history, science and art to focus on reading and arithmetic for annual tests. Since the 2001-02 school year, when NCLB was enacted, 44 percent of U.S.

COMMENTARY

Tragedy remembered

The summer of 1967 - some remember it as the Summer of Love. For others, the thoughts of a carefree, idealistic summer are pushed aside by thoughts of a more somber nature. Those thoughts center around burning buildings, police brutality and violence based primarily on race. This week marks the anniversary of the civil disturbance in Detroit. The flash point of the riot occurred when police shut down an after hours club, or a "blind pig." But the reasons for the riots run much deeper than that. Racial discrimination, segregation, poor housing and disenfranchisement all played important parts in the city's explosion that July. For years before the riot, Detroit was undergoing a drastic change.

COMMENTARY

Bible passages show signs of immoral actions

This is in response to "Non-Christian teachings cause of world tragedies" (SN 7/26). Apparently, John Hayden lacks the ability to look critically at what really serves as the root of all evil. Want to know where the justified evil comes from?

COMMENTARY

Gouging residents for sports coverage unfair

Shame on Comcast for wanting to bump up Big Ten Network games to a higher tier. They already charge too much because they have a lock on cable in East Lansing, Lansing and Meridian Township. It's too late, but this is an example of what happens when you are the only cable provider and have a contract with the local unit of government.

COMMENTARY

Non-Christian teachings cause of world tragedies

John Bice devotes nearly half of "Benefits of faith" (SN 7/13), to the proposition that life has no evident meaning beyond "biological reproduction." The "unique benefit" of religion, he asserts, is to soothe the resulting anxiety by supplying a "human-centered" master scheme in which our endeavors may find purpose.

COMMENTARY

Higher thresholds don't make for better students

I would like to express my concern dealing with the recent increase of grade-point averages for graduating with honor and high honor. First, I would like to say the school officials' idea is good - making students more competitive and pushing them to do more work.

COMMENTARY

Embezzlers deserve harsher penalty

In the third incident of its sort since 2005, MSU is investigating another embezzlement - this time, in the College of Education. MSU police are investigating an employee in the college who may have embezzled about $19,000 by making unauthorized personal charges with a department credit card.

COMMENTARY

Setting standards

An energy bill without improved fuel economy standards simply won't make a serious dent in our oil dependency or help consumers at the pump.

COMMENTARY

Cause of decline

People have long complained about the supposed decline of American morality. They play a game of connect the dots with pornographic images, newspaper headlines of school shootings, rampant sex in high school, bad manners and the swindling coworkers to an overall picture of Sodom and Gomorrah.

COMMENTARY

Federal student funding trumps private lenders

The House and Senate have passed bills that could dramatically refigure the financing of a college education. Out: The $18 billion to $19 billion in subsidies the federal government would have doled out to companies that provide student loans. In: $17 billion to $18 billion in aid to students. Differences between the House and Senate bills will have to be worked out in a conference committee.

COMMENTARY

Students should fund education on their own

Recent criticism of the Michigan Legislature for reducing state funding for higher education is wrong, as are claims that students are being gouged by the state. In fact, students benefit the most from the current policy of funding state universities partly through tax revenues.

COMMENTARY

Legislators' actions show recalls are necessary

I am writing in response to "Recalls shouldn't be used as threats" (SN 7/23). For years, our governor and Legislature have mismanaged the budget, refused to make critical reforms and continued to seek tax and fee increases. Their failure to address the unsustainable level of teacher pensions and health care benefits results in millions of dollars being redirected away from the classroom every year. Their failure to expand school choice and increase educational opportunities condemns tens of thousands of children to failing schools. Their failure to stand up to the big labor raises the cost of doing business in this state.

COMMENTARY

Designs for new art museum unfit for campus

In response to Colleen Maxwell's article "5 compete to design museum" (SN 7/19), why did MSU bother to fly anyone in? The conceptual designs of these five architectural firms are nothing more than egotistical expressions of their own personal bias.

COMMENTARY

A plea for transit

I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago. As someone who spends most of his time in Detroit, it's only natural I make some comparisons between these big cities and our state's own urban cornerstone.

COMMENTARY

Abstinence-only education must end

It should be common knowledge that performing the same task time after time will not garner new results. Many schools are teaching abstinence-only education in hopes of preventing teenagers from having sex. The New York Times reported last week that, despite the prominence of abstinence education, there has been no sign that teenagers are waiting to have sex.