If you’ve got a problem with the government, sometimes it’s best to go straight to the top. That was the thinking behind Lakeview High School eighth-grade student Mitchell Englund’s recent letter to President Obama. In that letter, Mitchell urged the president to do whatever he could to put a halt to “fracking,” the process by which chemicals are pumped under pressure into the earth with the intent of breaking up shale to gain access to natural gas reserves. That controversial process has been carried out extensively in states like Pennsylvania, sometimes with disastrous results, according to many environmentalists.

In an era of bag-your-own, robo-teller grocery shopping, where customer service is little more than a quaint memory, there are still locally owned stores that serve old-fashioned, in-person customer service, like Leppink’s. With locations in Belding, Lakeview, Stanton, Howard City and Ferrysburg, Leppink’s represents a throwback to a better time, when service was king and the customer’s needs came first.

When you’ve lived a life as rich and full as former Trufant resident Lynne Andrews-Britt, chances are you’re going to forget a thing or two along the way. Memory, like elusive mercury freed from a thermometer, has a way of slipping from our grasp just when we’d most like to hang onto it.

If all goes as planned, three area eyesores may soon be transformed into vibrant additions to their respective communities. Amble, Lakeview and Sheridan are about to enter into the second stage of an inspection process that could allow either new construction or demolition of existing structures at sites that have, until recently, been deemed too environmentally hazardous for development.

The tragic shooting incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14 has left many schools nationwide reviewing their own safety policies — including Lakeview. Officials from the Lakeview Police Department, Lakeview Community Schools and the village of Lakeview have been in talks to review current emergency plans and procedures and to explore additional security measures in the Lakeview school district.

Make all the jokes you want about girls and their alleged ineptitude when it comes to power tools — all evidence to the contrary was on display Wednesday evening at Lakeview High School. That’s where students in Dave Albert’s all-female “powder puff” shop class have spent the past several weeks putting together 20 toy motorcycles, which were then awarded to a select group of area children. The motorcycles, crafted from white pine and mahogany, were among the most carefully built and decorated toys Albert has seen during his time at Lakeview High School. The girls, Albert said, tended to be a bit more meticulous than their male counterparts.

Members of the Lakeview Community Schools Board of Education got a firsthand look Monday evening at the positive results Youth Challenge — a Battle Creek military academy — can have on “at risk” students. Lakeview High School Principal Gary Jensen introduced the board to student Preston Wirth, who recently completed six month’s training at the academy. Wirth attended Youth Challenge after Jensen suggested it following numerous school infractions on Wirth’s part.

Since the dawn of time, man has dreamed of flight. From the wax wings of Icarus to the first fleeting leap of faith that briefly separated Wilbur Wright from the fields of Kitty Hawk, men have yearned for the sky and the stars beyond it.

Despite losing the national presidential race Tuesday, local Republicans found delight in celebrating the re-election of one of their own. Rick Outman, R-Six Lakes, was re-elected to his 70th District post for a second term, besting challenger and former state representative Mike Huckleberry, D-Greenville. The tallied votes included 17,104 for Outman and 14,150 for Huckleberry (not including one precinct in Gratiot County, which remained unreported early Wednesday morning).

It’s a good thing for the musical world that Mark Swanson, as a young man, was broke. If he’d been able to run out and buy any guitar he’d wanted, he would never have learned to make them himself.