Belated Happy Thanksgiving, Housing the Homeless, Line 5 and the UP, and Head Start Program Closes
– INFORMED BREVITY –
Belated Happy Thanksgiving and Let It Snow, Let It Snow
The first major snowstorm of the 2025/26 winter season hit the Upper Peninsula hard and steady. All the snow had a huge impact on the biggest travel holiday weekend of the year. Scores and scores of families could not get to their celebrations with families in the Upper Peninsula and many could not get out to other destinations around the nation to see and celebrate with their families.
Gogebic County had a record snowfall of 33 inches. My daughter, E, said to me that “with that much snow we might not see Gogebic until July.”
Housing the Homeless and the Unhoused/Unsheltered in the Upper Peninsula
So many urban and rural communities are this holiday season trying to figure out how to deal with increasing homeless/unhoused/unsheltered issues. Where shall each community house them? Who will pay for this housing and related services once they are housed? And that is just the beginning of the issues and problems related to this issue.
We would like to hear from you about what your community is doing to handle this issue and how is it working? Tell us about what problems your community has confronted and what successes you have had in the process. We will share your comments.
Kudos to Marquette Mayor Paul Schloegel, the City Commission and staff for how they have publicly discussed the options, problems and solutions for how the Marquette community will handle all this. They have engaged the public and have come up with some beginning ideas and solutions.
Line 5 and the UP
In the final weeks before the federal regulators was going to make final permitting decisions for the Line 5 pipeline tunnel project it threw a new proposal on the table. It proposed that the tunnel project should be scrapped and instead they proposed putting the pipeline in a smaller underground borehole. Environmentalists panned the idea. More to come.
Gogebic-Ontonagon Closes Head Start Program
The federal government did not renew a $1.5 million grant to the Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action Agency and the agency said without that grant they would have to close the free Headstart preschool program. The program has operated since 1965 in these two counties.
National Service, Veterans and Military Service
“In the U.S. 6% of adults are veterans, while active-duty service members comprise less than 1% of all adults. An estimated 64,000 young Americans and an additional 200,000 seniors volunteer for AmeriCorps, the primary umbrella organization for civilian service programs.”
Congressman Jason Crow, an Army veteran, said recently “When city kids get together with farm kids and white, Black, Asian, Latino, straight and gay people roll up their sleeves and build something together… that creates a foxhole mentality that breaks down barriers and connects us.” (Scott Galloway No Malice No Mercy, 11.15.2025)
There is a growing call for a mandatory national service for all young Americans that would include not only military service but other options like AmeriCorps.
Quotes That Make Us Go Hmmm
“To be an American is not to be someone, but to believe in something. That is why we are at heart a creedal nation, and that is why the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is so important.” Gordon Wood.
“And it is both right and proper, as we celebrate the last Thanksgiving of our first 250 years, to be thankful that we live in an exceptional nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” William Kristol.
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The closing of the Head Start program in Gogebic-Ontonagon headlines the fact that economically disadvantaged rural areas will bear the brunt of the effects of the Big Beautiful Bill and the current Presidential administration’s policies. Both counties also had medical clinics close critical services recently.
The bore hole should be a non starter as the line can’t be accessed for maintenance.
It should be a pipeline/road/rail tunnel, built at Enbridge’s expense, providing public benefit, corporate profit AND environmental risk mitigation.
Corporations were once (and should be again) chartered by state legislatures to provide a public benefit. A road/rail tunnel would physically connect Michigan and provide multiple types of economic benefit, from transportation. Road and rail lines would reduce prices to rural Michigan communities, provide transit options to better to everything from better health care to groceries. It would provide environmental risk mitigation by allowing access to the pipeline for maintenance AND would reduce emissions. And it could be a win-win-win public private partnership. The Mighty Mac is a wonder of modern engineering but a road rail tunnel would likely have lower maintenance costs.
We need to think beyond the limited scope of extending the useful life of an outdated pipeline. We need to restore corporate accountability by requiring corporations to provide public benefit. Michigan could ensure economic growth for the next century by requiring Enbridge to truly connect Michigan while making a profit and providing tangible environmental benefits to offset the emissions created by the fuels running in their pipeline. A road/rail/pipeline tunnel can do all of the above.