Archive - Oct 1, 2008

By CRISTINA TRAPANI-SCOTT

It’s been a week since U.S. Army Inspector General Ken Kirchoff, Sr., of Tecumseh returned home after serving nearly a year in Iraq and still, the U.S. flags wave from the houses surrounding his family’s home in the Red Maple subdivision. The flags were displayed by neighbors who helped his wife, Kris, and their children, Katie and Ken, Jr., welcome Ken, Sr., home last Thursday.

The army reservist and father of two has served in the military for 22 years. He joined the air force reserves right out of high school in 1986, and he served for 13 years before becoming an army reservist. He was the first in his family to serve in the military. “It was just something that I wanted to do. It was instilled in me back in high school to do this and it hasn’t left me in 22 years,” he said. Now, his 19-year-old son, Ken, Jr., carries on the tradition, having been a member of Michigan’s Air National Guard.

In all his years with the air force and the army, however, Ken, Sr., had never been deployed to a war zone. He had come close, however. In 1989, he was waiting on a tarmac ready to head to Panama for the invasion, but Manuel Noriega surrendered just a few weeks after the invasion, and Ken’s team was never deployed. In 1990, he separated from active duty for a time just as the Persian Gulf War was getting underway. As an army reservist, Ken, Sr., was mobilized to Wisconsin in 2003 and trained military police there, who were then deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, but he did not go with them.

By DEB WUETHRICH

Approximately 75 people sat shoulder to shoulder in the Council Chambers at Tecumseh City Hall last Thursday night to take part in an information meeting presented by Comcast representatives. Tecumseh City Manager Kevin Welch invited the company to make the presentation in the hope that it would lessen public anxiety that has been observed regarding changes coming in the broadcasting industry.

Comcast governmental affairs manager Fred Eaton explained that consumers actually are facing two separate changes. First, Digital Television Transition (DTV), is a change enacted by Congress that affects broadcast channels such as ABC, NBC, and CBS, among others.

Eaton said since more programming can be placed on a digital versus analog technology, the move will free up spectrum capacity for cell phones and other wireless devices and emergency channels, while also providing a financial return for the government which plans to auction some of the remaining capacity. This change, scheduled to take place in February of 2009, will require a special converter box for televisions that are not hooked up to a cable of satellite or operate with antennas or rabbit ears. Those boxes will cost about $40, however, special $40 coupons are available toward purchase of these boxes. Applications for these coupons are available at Tecumseh City Hall. For those who are attached to a cable, the February change will not make a difference as it relates to the bottom 20 channels, Eaton said.

The other change is Comcast’s Digital Cable Migration, which will move expanded basic cable networks to digital only format. Reasons given for this change include the ability to expand programming and services, to enable more HD and digital channels, and faster Internet speeds.

By DEB WUETHRICH

Members of the Tecumseh City Council will soon be hearing a recommendation on a speed study conducted this past year on several of the city’s major streets. Tecumseh Police Chief Mack Haun said that after the state passed a new law last year regulating how speed limits were to be determined — through a process known as the 85th percentile or by access points — he and Department of Public Works Engineering Assistant Kathy Righter attended a meeting detailing the methods.

“We learned that if the speed limits in your community were established using one of those two methods, you didn’t have to do anything,” said Haun. “But we came back and discovered Tecumseh’s speed limits were not based on those.” Haun said this prompted a study of several of the city’s major streets. Over a period of time, Righter set up counters on various streets.

“I do driver counts every year anyway,” she said. “We have data going back to 2002.”  During the study, however, the city officials looked closely at the data, evaluating such conditions as whether the area housed a school, residences, or businesses. Speed limit changes will soon be recommended to Tecumseh City Council for several streets. The 25 mile per hour speed limit in subdivisions is statutory.

“We found with the study that most of the streets didn’t change. Some were right on,” said Haun. “Some did, though, and need to be tweaked.”

I was not very happy to see your coverage of the Lincoln game a few weeks ago.
Yes, we lost but as the home town paper you should be supporting us not shoving the loss in our faces with the Lincoln cheerleaders picture with the Bar b que the Indians sign.
Why do you feel it is necessary to rub the players noses in it? It is hard enough for any team in any sport to lose.

Now this week, you dump on the Tecumseh football players, the fans and the parents. I am extremely disappointed in you. All you see is one bad thing from one kid and all of Tecumseh is bad.

Did you fail to see the Adrian football players flip us off after the game? What about the smack talk and cheap shots their players took at our players? What about their fans? Not dishing on them? Just because there are some bad apples in the mix doesn’t mean everyone from Adrian is bad either. You would rather point out anything bad that one person from Tecumseh did wrong. Yes, it was stupid to bring a fake knife to the game and that was one persons mistake. Our superintendent can take care of that. Your article makes it sound like it is everyones fault. What about the fact that a certain school allows their players to play even after they have been in jail for drugs, or play even when they have failing grades?  You think that is okay too?

Did you see what happened this week at the Saline game? After half-time when our team came out to warm up, the entire Saline student body not only booed our team but THREW things at them. I didn’t see anyone doing anything about that!
Our young men have worked very hard all year and continue to work hard. I think you need to examine your real reasons for trashing our town, our students and our team. I am proud of the boys, whether they win or loose. They are wonderful young men.
GO INDIANS!

Cherie Biscupski
Tecumseh

1913. Under Democrat Woodrow Wilson the Federal Reserve central bank, which is not federal and has no reserves, is created in the dead of night.  A Democrat congress votes to abrogate its Constitutional Article 1 Section 8 responsibility to “To coin money, regulate the value thereof.” The Treasury, no longer restrained by money tied to precious metals, floats reams of bogus paper money, we go bust and The Great Depression results.

1977. Democrat Carter and a Democrat Congress pass the Community Reinvestment Act which demands banks make loans without regard to color or ability to repay.  The outcome of lending money to people who don’t have any is obvious but that doesn’t matter to those who decry “redlining.”

1993. Democrat Clinton puts coercive pressure on banks to loan to “flakes” in the name of “fairness.”  Sub-par loans are bundled and sold to Fannie, Freddie and Wall Street as securities.  This paper money along with Wall Street greed and Congressional incompetence, leads to zero down jumbo ARM loans to the unemployed and housing speculators so prices spiral up and up.

2004. Democrat after Democrat stands up and vigorously defends Fannie Mae’s solvency and applaud Chairman Franklin Raines while ignoring “accounting irregularities” that will cause Fannie to tank in four years.

2007.    The marginal begin to default as ARM’s come due and the economy begins to fail due to dim-witted trade, absurd energy policies and continued lack of guidance by the majority Democrat Congress.  The flakes stop paying and the system implodes.  Real estate values plummet, money dries up as banks and Fannie and Freddie go under because the paper they hold is worth less and less.

Election Day 2008 is just weeks away.  Please encourage all Tecumseh citizens to prepare for November 4, and at the same time, involve their children, neighbors, and friends in a discussion of the issues that are important to them at this time.  Here are some suggestions that are working for us.

• Prepare a list of issues important to you.
• Re-read some historical documents (like the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution) to help frame your understanding and beliefs.
• Read a variety of editorial opinions to get as balanced a media view as possible (e.g. the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal)
• Ignore all political TV ads
We believe that both John McCain and Barack Obama are well-meaning politicians.  The difference between them is the groups of people they represent and the effect these groups will have on the direction and policies of an administration.  We will choose our candidate based on how well we perceive his ideas match up with ours.  We are certain that all our neighbors will do the same.
Examples of issues important to us:
• Education – Quality, Affordability & Access
• Health Care – Universality, Quality & Cost
• Women’s Rights – Choice & Pay
• Government Leadership in National Priorities – Energy, Infrastructure & Science
• Government Accountability – Competency, Fiscal, & Ethical
• War and the Use of Military Power – Justification, Political Goals & Veterans’ Care
We hope to be standing in line with you at the polls in November.

John Ryan
Tecumseh