This reporter was walking downtown on Saturday (January 31, 2026) just after noon and came upon a reasonable sized group in the middle of town at "Legacy Park" celebrating a distinctly Ludington celebration called Brrrewfest, where a score of breweries get together and allow folks to taste their wares for free, if you don't consider the $30 or $40 cover charge to get through the gate.…See More

 The January 26, 2026 meeting of the Ludington City Council might be remembered as being one of the sparsest in recent history as regards to action items.  In fact, the agenda packet shows that these amounted to a first presentation of a clarifying ordinance, approving a quote for electrical…See More

The biggest villains in this reporter's opinion are the ones who choose to be public servants and use that opportunity to protect themselves and their peers from accountability, transparency, and responsibility.Using procedures under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in early 2024, we requested from the Ludington Police Department (LPD) three different segments of body worn camera (BWC) footage of arrests made by LPD officers that, diplomatically put, did not go according to accepted…See More

Just got confirmation from city officials that a hidden problem I brought up ten years ago is not in my backyard; it's in my front yard.  Nowadays, when I get a letter from the City of Ludington, I expect something coming from the Mason County prosecutor soon to follow.  This reporter has been prosecuted three times over the last 16 months arising from charges crafted by the city's police department, each one a variation of a common theme of trespassing on public land, public land that was…See More

"We're putting the band back together."While this may have been the goal back in the classic 1980 movie "The Blues Brothers", it was not necessarily the objective when this reporter got a call from former Pere Marquette Charter Township (PMCT) Trustee Ron Soberalski asking me some questions about what's happening up in Hamlin Township.  He was hearing indications that the Hamlin Township's Board was undergoing some internal conflicts, read some of the Ludington Torch's articles on the topic and…See More

While we normally are concerned with keeping Mason County's public bodies accountable, transparent, and operating lawfully, we sometimes visit other Michigan communities that have problems which arise from public servants behaving badly.  And when servants are not acting good and faithful they deserve the crisp taste of the whip, at least that's what my dominatrix always tells me.Let's transport ourselves south to the Charter Township of Comstock in Kalamazoo County, where there is an active…See More