Spring has been taking its own sweet time getting to Iron County this year. In fact, just about everywhere in the Upper Midwest has been dealing with temperatures well below normal lately.
 That’s not entirely bad news, mind you. Especially if you know some people in North Dakota who had been fearing another round of spring flooding. The slow, gradual warm-up this spring is just what the climatologist ordered for the Red River.

With fingers crossed, shovels and snow blowers primed, we waited for “the” snowstorm of the season to hit our area.
     Once again, Mother Nature fooled us – and we let out a sigh of relief. Oh yes, we knew this was still March and big dumpings of snow was not only a possibility, but a definite reality. Remember last year?

There’s been a piece of legislation “making the rounds” recently that is not only worrisome, but somewhat frightening to Michigan’s governmental units.
     House Bill 4214 would “repeal the Local Government Fiscal Responsibility Act and create the ‘Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act,’ which similarly would provide for the review, management, and control of the financial and other operations of a local government…or a school district.”

News reports say close to 100,000 people turned out in Madison last Saturday for a demonstration on behalf of Wisconsin’s public union workers. But that battle seems to be over.
 A few days earlier, the Wisconsin Legislature approved Gov. Scott Walker’s highly controversial legislation that weakens collective bargaining rights for public employee unions.
 The bill also increases workers’ contributions to pension plans and health care. It was proposed to help address a $3.6 billion shortfall in the Wisconsin state budget.
 That part wasn’t controversial. Union officials were willing to go along with workers paying a bigger share of their benefits.

We’ve become a very angry country in the past couple of years. No one seems interested in resolving issues by putting them ALL out on the table for discussion and discourse.
  We’ve also seemed to have lost our sense of common courtesy and common decency. It used to be that our belief in our rights as citizens of a free country extended to our neighbors. We’ve lost that touch. We’re right and you’re wrong seems to be the prevailing philosophy.

Last summer, there were several programs available to residents to try out (if you haven’t already) compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) in their homes.
 Our 130-year association with the incandescent light bulb is ending. Under federal law, incandescent bulbs are being phased out beginning next year when American manufacturers no longer will be allowed to make 100-watt bulbs. This, according to msnbc.com, by Jan. 1, 2014, the only incandescent left on the market will be three-way bulbs, plant lights and appliance lights.

 Nothing we say in an editorial here in little ol’ Iron County is going to enlighten the policy-warriors and decisions-makers in Washington, in Lansing or—yes—in Madison. But we’ll just put this out for what it’s worth.

It’s always nice to have an elected official make a “local” stop, and the stop last week by President Obama to Marquette was a nice plug for the Upper Peninsula and for the technology innovations happening at Northern Michigan University.
 A number of us are alums of that institution and it was quite a treat to see the president at NMU, and it’s nice to know that higher education in our neck of the woods is not only staying current with the latest advances in technology but, as indicated with the president’s visit, is slightly ahead of the rest of the country.

It starts when I get an irritating feeling I’ve been hearing a word or phrase too many times, and in too many (and sometimes inappropriate) ways. I check the calendar, and sure enough, it’s time for the release of the annual Lake Superior State University Banished Words List. The 2011 list, is, as always, a wonderful compendium of “mis-use, over-use and general uselessness.”

 The sirens can roar at any time, and the trucks go out in any weather.
 We have known that about our volunteer firefighters for a long time. That’s part of the job. That’s what they do.
 But it took the coldest part of January to point out what that means.
 The sirens roared often recently when the temperature plunged below zero and stayed in the frigid zone around the clock for several days. Within minutes of each siren call, the trucks were rolling, and firefighters were scrambling to answer immediately.
 It didn’t matter if was in the middle of the night, and they were warm and snug in bed, maybe dreaming of the trout opener this spring. Didn’t matter if the Green Bay Packers were facing a critical situation late in a playoff game. Didn’t matter if their favorite supper was on the table.