Newspaper Blues, Mesothelioma Risks, Unfair Airfares, Boathouse Battle, and an Embattled Newsroom

HARD-CORE NEWSPAPER lovers in Marquette County are grieving.

After December 28th, out-of-town newspapers will no longer be trucked up here, except on Sundays.

Mader News Agency, the Green Bay newspaper distributor, says it doesn't make economic sense for them to make the trip anymore. The trucks will bring the papers as far as Iron Mountain but no farther.

Maybe we can find the Pony Express or a team of sled dogs to finish up the last 50 miles or so.

If we needed further evidence that the paper version of newspapers is dying, this is it. Mader says publishing and printing costs are too high, circulation is declining, and free Internet access to news is cutting into newspaper readership.

On the surface and in the short run, this is good news for the Mining Journal. It'll be the only game in town.

But for those of us who've been desperately clinging to our pulp-based New York Times or Detroit Free Press or USA Today, well....we'll now have to join the rest of the under-50 crowd, and click on to our computers or iPads for news.
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IT'S NOT LIKE we didn't know that mining could be hazardous to your health, but the latest study provides a few more facts.

It's a $5 million dollar, six year study conducted by the University of Minnesota and funded by the Minnesota state legislature.

The findings? Miners on the Iron Range of Minnesota working around taconite dust are more than twice as likely as the average person to get mesothelioma, a rare cancer.

The good news? The afflicted miners' families were not affected by the taconite exposure, nor were the surrounding communities. Just the miners themselves who were exposed to high levels of airborne mineral fibers.

The researchers strongly recommend that potentially exposed miners use respirators and other protective gear.

Cliffs Natural Resources says that's precisely what they do here in Marquette County: use respirators and conduct regular screenings with chest x-rays and breathing tests. Cliffs, which cooperated with this latest study, also says it supports continued studies on taconite exposure.

One other, unexpected finding in the Minnesota study: miners exposed to the ultra-fine dust particles had a 30% higher death rate from heart disease than the average worker.

Again, sadly, no huge surprise. Working at a mine is an inherently risky job.
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A QUICK COMPARISON of Delta airfares, roundtrip, to Detroit:

Leave Escanaba Dec 19, return Dec 21
     $447
Leave Marquette Dec 19, return Dec 21
    $584
That's a difference of $137.

Leave Escanaba Jan 1, return Jan 8
    $213
Leave Marquette Jan 1, return Jan 8
    $385
Difference? $172.

Leave Escanaba Dec 29, return Dec 31
    $517
Leave Marquette Dec 29, return Dec 31
    $1083
A difference of a mere $566. Pocket change.

It's crazy. The reason for the disparity, of course, is that Escanaba's airport (as well as Iron Mountain's and Houghton's) is federally subsidized. It gets almost three million dollars a year to keep the airlines at their facility, and keep their airfares artificially low.

It's all part of the Essential Air Service program, designed to guarantee air service to rural communities. Which is great, except that it punishes BIG, MASSIVE, HUGE airports like Sawyer International, which isn't considered small enough to qualify for EAS money.

Yeah, we're really big, like three flights a day.

Sawyer management also points out that our airfares are driven up because of supply and demand. Flights out of Marquette are usually full. Escanaba's aren't.

So that begs the question, why don't they bring more planes up here? That's a possibility.

Not only that, but with fuel prices now plummeting, maybe Delta and American will finally cut us a break on fares.

Yeah, and pigs will finally learn how to fly.
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IT AIN'T OVER til it's over.

That's the lesson the Upper Peninsula Community Rowing Club has learned yet again.

The rowers thought they were all set to start raising private funds to build a boat storage house (to be owned by the city) on the beach next to the Hampton Inn.

The City Commission, after a long, tedious process, finally approved the plan allowing the club to build the boathouse and then lease it back from the city. High-fives all around.

Well, the opposition never quite went away, and they're now circulating petitions to revoke the lease, or put it up for a vote of the people. The opponents have a daunting challenge--they need more than 1300 signatures of registered Marquette voters within a month or so. That's 10% of the voters.

Meantime, the two sides are hurling charges of misrepresentation, lies, and intimidation at each other.

Although it's debatable, the boathouse, as planned, does not seem obtrusive or unsightly. It'll cost taxpayers nothing. It'll provide boat storage space for the public (for a fee) and for the NMU rowing team, and also access for the handicapped. And it'll keep the rowers--a genuine asset to the community--in town.

Sure seems like a great idea, but if you believe that Marquette's coastline should be pristine and inviolable--and the rowers should just take a hike--then maybe another building on our shores is a problem.

Something else that's hurt the rowers' cause: the building of the Founders Landing condos a couple of years ago to a height that wasn't expected. A lot of residents were irate about it at the time but city officials, in response, just seemed to shrug their shoulders.

Distrust of our government? Nah, it doesn't seem possible.
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THE ORIGINAL REPORT out of ABC 10's newsroom was "hard times and mutiny."

Turns out that was a bit over-stated, but there is dissension within, and it concerns the new news director Greg Peterson, who's been known to step on a few toes from time to time.

Peterson has taken an aggressive approach to the news, which is not a bad thing. But at times, it's been a highly personalized and journalistically unsound approach, according to the critics.

They emphasize that Peterson knows news and has aggressively found news for ABC 10 but the presentation of the news has sometimes been sloppy, even unethical.

It should be noted that newsrooms are rarely mistaken for prayer circles or Kumbaya sing-alongs, but the rift at ABC 10 seems a little more serious than normal.

Strange: repeated attempts to contact Peterson on Tuesday failed. Staff members didn't know where he was or when he'd return, and he wasn't answering his cell phone.
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FOODIES REJOICE.

Spice Merchants, a brand new store featuring spices, teas, rubs, soups, chocolates and gifts, has opened downtown on Washington Street.

Looks pretty, smells great.

The owners are Mike and Carolyn Carl. She's a kitchen designer and he's been a commercial fisherman and schoolteacher. They both went to NMU, then migrated south to Florida before hearing the call to return north.

Now they're store owners, and Spice Merchants, which operates about 20 other stores, seems like a genuine enhancement to downtown, something that will attract both locals and tourists.

You looking for a Cranberry Maple Rub? Now you know where to go.

You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com

If you want to be notified when Word on the Street is posted, go to Word on the Street by Brian Cabell on Facebook, and "like" it.

Progress for the Teachers, Brush-off for the Rowers, and Beer for Carhartt

It ain't over 'til it's over but it looks like the Marquette teachers' contract dispute with the school board is moving closer to resolution.

It's about time.

Union rep Stuart Skauge says a meeting between the two sides on Tuesday was the most encouraging they've had to date. They made progress. They'll meet again May 29th.

Until now, the main obstacle to an agreement has been "steps" and "lanes" for teachers. "Steps" allow teachers, through seniority and experience, to increase their pay . "Lanes" provide a boost when the teachers further their education and boost their credentials.

Pretty basic stuff, common among school districts across the nation.

But the board wants to eliminate them. Surely, it seems, there's got to be value in experienced and credentialed teachers. Why not reward them?

And it's not like the teachers are demanding huge pay raises. Actually, their latest contract offer, prior to Tuesday's meeting, was a zero percent pay raise the first year...and a zero percent pay raise the second year. Zero.

Just keep the steps and lanes, they say. Reward a teacher for her experience and her desire to further her education.

Yes, there's an argument to be made for requiring greater accountability by teachers, and basing their pay more on their performance than their seniority. But until we come up with a fair and reasonable plan to do that, let's move on.

Marquette prides itself on being an enlightened and family-friendly city. An eleven month old unresolved teachers' dispute doesn't enhance our reputation.

It also keeps about $10,000 a week out of teachers' pockets. That's money that would likely be spent here in the community.
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It was dismaying to hear a couple of residents suggest on Wednesday that maybe the Upper Peninsula Community Rowing Club should just move out of Marquette and relocate instead to Teal Lake.

Seriously?

The comments came at a City Commission hearing on the club's now controversial proposal to build a boathouse with private funds at Founders Landing.

Yes, it is public land and we're all for preserving the coastline, but 60 foot boats need to be stored somewhere, out of the weather and away from possible vandals, and the boathouse, as designed, would not block any views and it would not hinder access to the beach. And it would be open to all residents.

And let's be honest, this isn't a Hilton or a Red Lobster or a T-shirt shop they're proposing to build. It's a boathouse.

If the Founders Landing site is too objectionable, fine. Come up with another location where the water's not too rough and there's enough room to turn the big boats around. The options are extremely limited.

But let's not suggest that these active, community-minded rowers who actually enhance our coastline should just pack up their boats and get out of town.
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What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word "Carhartt"?  It's probably not beer.

But later this year, the famed clothing maker, in conjunction with the New Holland Brewing Company, will be introducing a new Carhartt beer. It'll be called the Carhartt Woodsman, a barrel-aged pale ale.

Beer and sturdy work clothes--a natural fit.

We'll be celebrating the introduction of the new brew this October outside Breakers Roadhouse on Baraga Avenue.

A big party. Wear your Carhartts, drink your Woodsman.
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Speaking of Carhartt, Getz's, one of the biggest online distributors of Carhartt clothing in the nation, recently got a boost from the clothing company.

Carhartt announced that, starting June 1st, Amazon will no longer list about 40 Carhartt stores carrying their clothes. Instead, they'll list only five stores, and Getz's will be one of them.

That'll give Carhartt more control over their product distribution, and it'll  drive more business to Getz's.

Filson, the maker of upscale clothing and bags, recently worked out a similar deal on Amazon with Getz's.

Marquette's favorite clothing store continues to flex its muscles around the nation and around the world.
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No surprise here.

The Carmike theater complex is shutting down June 5th. No point in trying to compete with the fancy, new complex on the other side of town.

One of the managers at Carmike says none of her employees were hired by the new theater, so they're out of jobs.

As for the building itself, it's hardly an architectural gem. Basically a box. It'd be surprising if it wasn't razed.

You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com