Elisabeth Waldon
@elisabethwaldon
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News editor of @greenvilledn in Montcalm and Ionia counties. Small-town reporting since '01. FOIA/OMA enthusiast. Homeschool alumni/mom. "Be salt and light."
Greenville, MI
Joined August 2010
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Just overheard someone complain to a township supervisor, "I wish someone would stop inviting that Daily News reporter to all our meetings."
Fun fact: I'm not invited ... I just show up! Anyone can just show up! Isn't that just so annoying?!
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Another Wheatland Music Fest pic for you
@twhiddleston
fans. He sang "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" w/
@RodneyJCrowell
:
http://t.co/GsGYaITX2f
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Can we all just take a moment to appreciate how this explosive, well-researched, well-sourced investigative journalism was written by a laid-off ESPN reporter on his own time who then broke the news by posting it as an (extremely long) Facebook note? Someone hire this guy now.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer placed on administrative leave as school launches investigation after my report. If Meyer knew about domestic violence issues, he would have violated his contract & can be fired with cause
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Seen at Wheatland:
@twhiddleston
preparing for Hank Williams film by joining
@RodneyJCrowell
&
@sarahjarosz
onstage:
http://t.co/LRAmptRrT9
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.
@danielhenney
(Carson City-Crystal graduate who grew up in Carson City) lends his voice to
#BigHero6
opening Friday:
http://t.co/gRSXmGhdp8
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Honored to spend today at the hospital with my sis
@EmilyCWaldon
as she knocks out her second round of chemo. Wearing my
@PitchingNinja
T-shirt from
@RotoWear
of course! (extended availability now through March 6: )
#StandUpToCancer
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Thanks for all the likes ... and please support your local newspaper! We attend local government meetings so you can read about it and stay informed from the comfort of your own home 🤓
Shameless Daily News subscription plug:
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For the Daily News' annual cancer awareness issue this year, I wrote about my sister ❤️
"This is my reality now … how do I make the most of it?":
@EmilyCWaldon
looks back at how cancer journey changed her this year:
#StandUpToCancer
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I made BuzzFeed (
http://t.co/smc7zZeGth)
& Gawker (
http://t.co/X2Ij8F2ssi).
Tom Hiddleston has loyal fans. He was super friendly @ Wheatland
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Some things should go without saying, like: "You do not appear in court shirtless and smoking a cigarette."
DECLINING DECORUM: Ionia-Montcalm county judges shared some stories with me about striving to maintain order in the courtroom in the age of Zoom:
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Nice story about my sister who inspires me every day by the way she's fighting this battle and working to stay positive ❤
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Local twp official to me: Why don't you ever write anything positive about wind turbines? It's always negative.
Me: Have you read (insert names of multiple articles I've written over past year)
Twp official: Well, I didn't see those. I don't really read the paper very often.
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@GovWhitmer
said
@JoeBiden
mandate concerns her: “We’re an employer too, the state of MI. I know if that mandate happens, we’re going to lose state employees. That’s why I haven’t proposed a mandate. We have a lot of the same concerns...it’s going to be a problem for all of us."
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To all the people who complained and hollered at tonight's Pierson Twp meeting that they just found out about a proposed wind farm a few weeks ago (including 1 woman who says she works in the news media) ...
Hi, my name is Elisabeth, I've been covering this since last summer 👋
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Sorry
@APStylebook
, I'm still changing "over" to "more than" while proofing stories. Old habits die hard.
#rebelrebel
#partylikeajournalist
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Reporting and following up on the commission's baffling decision to go into closed session, and their doubling down on not releasing info, is not a "negative drumbeat" — it's reporting.
And it's not any journo's job to "start the applause" when the rules are actually followed.
OPINION: Media should cheer, not scold, Michigan’s redistricting commission
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Saw this big boy hanging out in a farm field on my way to cover Douglass Township Board tonight.
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Super proud of my boss,
@greenvilledn
publisher
@JulieAStaff
, who was named president of the
@MichiganPress
Board today! She is the third generation in her family to serve — her grandfather Dale Stafford was named MPA president in 1961, followed by his son John Stafford in 1989.
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Spent all day driving around Gratiot and Isabella counties for a story I've been chipping away at for a few months now with the goal of trying to answer the question: Do commercial wind turbines affect property values? Stay tuned ...
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Montcalm County Circuit Court judge
@Schafer_Ron_J
to man smoking a cig while waiting for arraignment via Zoom this morning: "You must not be a regular reader of the Daily News."
Man: "No."
Judge: "You should get yourself a subscription."
Background:
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I covered an inspirational assembly at Tri County High School today, led by first NCAA D1 basketball player with autism
@AI44LYD
from MSU.
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Congrats to my lil sis on her award from the Society for American Baseball Research for her in-depth story about minor league pay. Well deserved 👏⚾️😘
Over the moon.
Thank you,
@sabr
for this award and
@TheAthleticMLB
for the platform. I won’t lie, this is a dream come true.
(Shoutout to co-winner, the beautiful
@Bbl_Astrophyscs
for accepting on my behalf!)
Full article:
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In light of the Daily News being named
@MichiganPress
Newspaper of the Year (fourth year in a row!), I want to give a special shout-out to our sports reporter
@AlexFreebird
for his first MPA award (first place, at that!) for Best Sports Feature.
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Ionia County Judge Robert Sykes Jr. might as well be working under a big striped tent. He recently conducted a virtual hearing which ended with a 14-year-old giving him the finger.
“I feel as if I am the ringmaster in a never-ending Zoom circus,” he said:
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Covering Douglass Twp PC tonight.
Man thrown out for yelling/swearing, woman drops F bomb and starts crying, PC member asked to leave the table, plus FOIA/OMA debate with attorney.
We're barely half an hour in.
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Nice full-page ad by
@Google
,
@LocalMediaAssoc
and
@LMConsortium
in today's Daily News.
Thanks to all our subscribers for your support of local journalism. The pandemic has definitely been hard on newspapers, but we've also been blessed with 220 new subscribers this spring ❤️
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Typical government overreach ... 😉
(Note on the piano inside Cato Township Hall from last night's township board meeting)
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Always nice to hear from the chairman of the Douglass Township Planning Commission.
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I'm old enough to remember when Gov. Whitmer touted FOIA reform and signed Executive Directive 2019-11 with the goal of fostering a more user-friendly process within departments and agencies via transparency liaisons to facilitate public requests:
I will have a lot more to say about this but today is Exhibit 5,431,894 going back decades, of how governments in Michigan have turned FOIA into a shield instead of a simple, effective path for the public to obtain documents and information about their government.
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A NOTICE OF ADOPTION OF A WIND ENERGY ZONING ORDINANCE SHALL BE PUBLISHED IN A NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL CIRCULATION IN THE LOCAL UNIT OF GOVERNMENT WITHIN 15 DAYS AFTER ADOPTION AND THEN YOU CAN REFERENDUM IT, BUT IT CAN'T BE REFERENDUMED. ALSO THEY'RE WIND TURBINES, NOT WINDMILLS.
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Spotted fueling up this afternoon at Langston General Store:
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Here's a pic I took last week of my very good boy Rocky watching the sunset from our dock.
#NationalDogDay
#InternationalDogDay
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Big day for me: I have no less than three corrections running in today's Daily News.
I will take this opportunity to remind people that journalists make mistakes just like in any other profession; however, we make a point to publicly publish corrections to rectify the record.
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Paid-for advertisement thanking
@justinamash
and calling him "a GOP hero" is running on Saturday's classifieds page in the Daily News.
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So cool! Thank you for supporting local journalism, Lt. Gov.!
About a year ago, we made a decision to expand the Daily News coverage area from Montcalm County (and surrounding areas) into Ionia County, and it really seems to be catching on. Thanks for spreading the news. 🗞️📰
Okay,
@elisabethwaldon
, you got me. I just subscribed to
@greenvilledn
for a year because I appreciate and value local, daily reporting. Keep up the great work!
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Polls have closed in Montcalm and Ionia counties!
I'll be tweeting out as many local election results tonight as I can right here, stay tuned ...
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Everyone say hi to our new summer intern Sean (
@_SeanChase
), a CMU student and U.S. Army veteran. I took him on a tour of Lakeview, Edmore and Stanton this afternoon and he covered Douglass Township Board with me tonight and didn't run for the hills, so that's a good sign 😉
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ATTN EVERYONE: If you have a moment, please wish my little sister
@EmilyCWaldon
a happiest of birthdays today! She is a precious jewel in my life ❤️
(that's "innocent" Emily at center while sis Amber, at left, and I are seemingly in midst of plotting something mischievous ... )
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"It's not clear how decisions are being made. Our people don't have a voice." —
@JulieCalley
"She’s operating outside the Constitution." —
@RepJimLower
Local state reps explain why Michigan legislature is suing
@GovWhitmer
amid coronavirus pandemic:
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I covered Cato Twp Board tonight, where it nearly came to fisticuffs, similar to Pine Twp PC recently, sigh ...
This time it involved Montcalm County BOC Chairman Pat Carr (whose wife Kim is on the Cato Twp PC) & the husband/boyfriend of Brandi Clark-Hubbard (who is also on PC).
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Checked this one off the bucket list! An amazing Saturday night with
@prairie_home
at the spectacular
@FoxTheatreDet
:
http://t.co/EpEavTVP8q
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I specialize in going to meetings people are mildly interested in but don't care to attend, such as last night's Montcalm County Reapportionment Commission which is determining county commish districts based on census data.
Audience was compromised of me! Story in Thursday's DN.
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Can confirm, it's not going well.
See stories about failed Coverage Village Mall auction attempts in 2019 here:
and here:
one of the worst small town planning schemes I’ve ever seen...in 1972 the town of Belding, MI demolished almost its entire historic downtown and built a miniature shopping mall called Covered Village Mall
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We are so excited to have a new reporter on staff! Tim McAllister (
@TimPMcAllister
), formerly of the Lowell Ledger, started working for the Daily News this week. He will primarily be covering Ionia County but he joined me for yesterday's Montcalm County BOC meeting. Welcome Tim!
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I was saddened to hear Joe Patino, former Montcalm County sheriff's detective and Stanton police chief, passed away today. He was a sweet guy, always kind to me and professional to work with.
My colleague
@brandonschreur
took this photo at Joe's retirement party this past Sept.
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A total of 17 Montcalm County residents and 13 Ionia County residents voted today - the first day of early voting in Michigan.
Polls are open again tomorrow through Feb. 25 at centralized locations in Stanton and Ionia.
Starting on Saturday, voters in Ionia and Montcalm counties have the option of early voting over a nine-day period leading up to the Feb. 27 election.
The new option comes after Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment in November 2022:
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Alternate headline: Media outlet realizes court-appointed public defenders are a thing that exists.
The guy who paraded a Confederate flag through the Capitol. “Zip tie guy.”
#OathKeepers
,
#ProudBoys
and the woman who stole Nancy Pelosi’s laptop. What do they all have in common? You’re paying for their defense.
#CapitolRiot
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Shout out to
@MillerJohnson
of Grand Rapids, Michigan, the counsel of record on this clever filing.
So,
@TheOnion
filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in defense of parody under the First Amendment… and it’s exactly what you’d expect.
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Township official to me after I wrote eight stories about his township this month: "You know there are 19 other townships in Montcalm County, right?"
Me: "Oh, I'm aware."
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Can't tell you how often I'm at county board meetings lately and overhear, "At least we're not Ottawa County."
Ottawa County Commissioner Joe Moss has posted a seven-page letter on complaints against Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs.
Some stunning allegations in here:
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Another killer concert by
@theavettbros
, my third time seeing them, second time seeing them at beautiful
@InterlochenArts
venue. So much good stuff still to unpack on the
#TrueSadness
album.
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I just filed my first FOIA request of the year ... for a local township board's meeting minutes, of all things.
The township has a website but doesn't bother posting meeting minutes on it, even though we are living in the year 2021.
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INBOX:
@RepMoolenaar
Goes To Bat For Baseball in Michigan!
I think it's cool Montcalm County's Congressman wants to help save minor league baseball. He plays on the Congressional baseball team too, here's a pic of him at the 2017 charity game (w/CMU gear).
(cc
@EmilyCWaldon
)
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I'm camped out in the Montcalm County Clerk's Office lobby for the night. Polls are now closed. I'll tweet local elections results as they trickle in, hopefully within an hour or so.
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On my way from a Ferris Township meeting to a Douglass Township meeting this evening, these two eagles flew by and I pulled over on the side of the road like a crazy person to take their pictures. They were kind enough to pose for me 🦅
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Being a small town journalist means sometimes you double as the photographer of the official Montcalm County Board of Commissioners portrait (2021).
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Proud to work alongside
@JulieAStaff
,
@darrinjayclark
,
@CorySmith_DN
,
@brandonschreur
,
@kdbota
,
@AlexFreebird
&
@MumzyStacie
... we have a great team 💪
The Daily News was named Newspaper of the Year in our class by the
@MichiganPress
today for the sixth year in a row. We are honored to be recognized among so many other outstanding newspapers and journalists statewide and we are thankful to our loyal readers and subscribers.
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Context matters... and the context of the comments in question here was literally a discussion between Gov. Whitmer and a business owner regarding their shared concerns about President Biden's federal vaccine mandate 🤷🏼♀️
Via
@politico
:
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Spotted: Kevin Sweeney, the former commander of the
@MichStatePolice
Lakeview Post, at left, during
@GovWhitmer
flood press conference tonight. Kevin was promoted to captain of the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division for the state of Michigan last month.
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So proud of my sis for the brave and positive way she's fighting this battle 🙌
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Covered a
@ComFirstFCU
groundbreaking today in Howard City and this little cutie stole the show with her grandpa,
@Trass480
.
cc
@Jourd_
@em_rass
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Just sent out 20 FOIA requests. How's your Friday going?
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Ionia-Montcalm Circuit Court chief judge to defendant: ‘Get yourself a subscription to the Daily News’:
(I mean, I couldn't NOT write about this ...)
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People may be surprised to know just how much of my job involves waiting alone in a hallway to make sure there's no Open Meetings Act violations before, during and after a closed session ☀️
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I'm just going to go ahead and assume that this guy hasn't hired an attorney.
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"It's out there on social media, so we can't ignore it."
Yes, you actually can ignore it and should refrain from reporting rumors until you can confirm them. That's like the most basic concept of journalism.
A nut graf that should live in journalistic infamy...
"Before we go any further ... We're not saying this story is true. We're not saying that it's not true. But it's out there on social media, so we can't ignore it."
via
@freep
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My 11-year-old daughter: What does it mean to be appointed?
Me: It's when a governor or a board gives someone a special task with a title.
Daughter: What is it called if you are removed?
Me: Fired, I guess?
Daughter: I would call it DIS-appointed. (laughs)
Me: Genius.
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I'm usually in and out of my small township precinct in 15 minutes or less. Today we're being told the wait time is an hour.
First time I had to search for parking in "downtown" Amble. I've never seen a voting line like this.
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Some hopeful news: Montcalm County has not reported a COVID-related death since Jan. 10.
That's an 11-day stretch, which hasn't happened since early October 2020.
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Reporting local news and sports takes time, effort, good judgment, an eye for accuracy & detail & community involvement. I'm glad the Daily News is joining the ranks of newspapers that charge for the work that goes into creating a quality newspaper (whether it's paper or online).
Starting Monday, visitors to our website () will have to pay for the news we provide.
It will be affordable: 99 cents for a single day of access, $5 for a month or $50 for a year.
MORE DETAILS:
SUBSCRIBE:
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In a Daily News interview,
@GovWhitmer
says she sees “a lot of red flags” in the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission process.
Whitmer called the commission attorney's arguments in favor of withholding information “very concerning":
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Nope.
I can write my heart out about heated controversies at county budget meetings, but the stories that cause our comment section to have a meltdown are about new restaurants coming to town.
Either way, regardless of whether our stories are sexy or not, we get paid the same.
Former Secretary of State Ruth Johnson says journalists are paid more if their stories get a lot of hits, incentivizing negative news and hit pieces.
“They’re pot stirrers, because they have to be.”
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Area dog blissfully unaware there was an election this week.
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And they say county board meetings are boring ...
But seriously, that series of FOIA-related stories dominated my work life (and my personal life) from mid-November 2019 to mid-February 2020 — and not in a good way.
#IndulgentThreadPart1
Our News Editor
@elisabethwaldon
also received first place awards for Best FOIA and for Public Notice Journalism.
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Someone literally brought bags and bags of fresh-popped buttery popcorn to tonight's Douglass Township Board meeting in a nod to all the drama here lately🍿
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First work day of 2020 and I've already sent out two FOIA requests to two different government agencies.
Here's hoping for a more transparent New Year. As residents and taxpayers, it's our right to know.
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Montcalm County has become the 30th county in Michigan (at last count) to approve a resolution opposing the state’s proposed takeover of utility-scale wind and solar projects from local municipalities:
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It's not getting any easier being a journalist, but it's still the best job in the world, IMO.
In honor of our win as Newspaper of the Year in our class (8 times in 9 years!), a short thread to recognize my colleagues who work hard to publish a quality daily newspaper.
1/?
The Daily News was named Newspaper of the Year in its class for the eighth time in nine years in Thursday’s
@MichiganPress
Better Newspaper Contest, taking home a total of 38 awards for editorial and advertising excellence:
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Text from a certain local official (there were an awful lot of pastries at yesterday's budget workshop):
🍩
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ELECTION SAFEGUARDS: The Montcalm County Clerk’s Office recently received a large shipment of personal protective equipment (PPE) from the
@MichSoS
for local clerks to use during Tuesday’s primary election: (cc
@Kmillard59
@JocelynBenson
)
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On a road trip with my dad and
@EmilyCWaldon
today.
Emily as we pass a Steak & Shake restaurant: I haven't been there in forever. I remember they have really skinny fries.
Our dad: Skinny fries? Isn't that a Bon Iver song?
😆
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The Daily News was honored to be nominated for an Ionia County Impact Award at the Ionia Chamber of Commerce Community Awards tonight.
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COLUMN: Based on some unfortunate incidents I’ve witnessed in this young but eventful year, I thought I’d compile a friendly list of tips about what to do (and, more importantly, what NOT to do) when you’re a township official hosting a Zoom meeting:
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JUST IN: Montcalm County voters approve sheriff’s millage:
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Who wants to read 1,800 words on Montcalm County's proposed FY 2020 budget?! Cos that's what I've been working on all day.
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Some good old-fashioned journalistic digging here. Well worth subscribing to the Detroit News for this story alone.
🧵
One of the major appropriations that we tracked was $20 million for a new nonprofit called Lower Town Riverfront Conservancy to help with a project in Ann Arbor.
However, the 2 House members from Ann Arbor didn't know the allocation made the budget.
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