President Obama in Marquette Tomorrow

Marquette has been in the news a lot lately. Last week it involved the threat of a mass shooting on the Northern Michigan University campus (which thankfully, it was only an on-line threat) and now this week with the expected arrival of President Obama to Marquette on Thursday. Both items have made national headlines and I am happy to say that Obama's trip to the Upper Peninsula will bring bigger headlines and will involve a much more positive storyline than last week's story. Needless to say, security is heightened around Marquette and Northern Michigan University with the president's arrival. Air Force One is expected to land at Sawyer International Airport sometime around 11:45 AM. His visit will be short, but it's an exciting time for a region like the Upper Peninsula. It's not often that a sitting president of the United States visits.

So exactly why is President Obama visiting a small town like Marquette during the middle of winter? It involves a subject that he highlighted in his state of the union speech involving wireless internet access to rural areas. His goal is to see 98 percent of rural areas in the country have access to wireless internet. It's a lofty goal, but the city of Marquette and Northern Michigan University are perfect examples where it actually works. NMU has a WiMax wireless broadband internet system that allows students, faculty, and staff to connect to the internet county-wide. Northern is the only known university to set up such a network for its campus and President Obama is looking to highlight NMU's technological advances. There are also several tech-savvy businesses in the Marquette area that Obama will be visiting to see how their businesses have thrived thanks to the internet. It will definitely be an exciting time to be on NMU's campus.

Obama's visit will be the first time an incumbent president of the United States has come to the Upper Peninsula since George W. Bush campaigned in July 2004 at the Superior Dome. Prior to that, it wasn't until 1911, when William H. Taft visited the U.P. So as you can see, it's a pretty monumental occasion to get any president to come up here. And actually, out of all presidential visits to the Upper Peninsula, this will mark the first time that an incumbent president will NOT be campaigning. That's a pretty remarkable fact in of itself.

Many of the events set up for President Obama in Marquette are not open to the public and the speaking engagement at Vandament Arena is by invitation only. So for those lucky enough to get an invite or to be at one of the destinations where Obama will be visiting, it should prove to be one of those once-in-a-lifetime events. Marquette will be buzzing with excitement tomorrow, even though President Obama will only be in town for roughly three hours. Still, his visit will linger with the community for sometime. And with Marquette continuing to get a ton of press for being such an accommodating, livable community, having President Obama visit will help all the more in attracting new people to the area and also to help launch new businesses on the heals of the area's internet capabilities.

Update: Classes Resume at NMU

A day after an on-line anonymous blog posting targeted the Northern Michigan University campus for a potential shooting rampage, life gradually returns to normal for students, faculty, and staff of the university. Still, that doesn't mean the anxiety and jitters will immediately go away. It's never easy for things to return back to normal after such a frightening experience. Yes, there was no shooting, no hostage situation, and nobody was injured. But just knowing there's a potential threat out there and not knowing when or where it's going to take place is certainly scary. All in all, I must say NMU handled the situation well and the campus was locked down in no time.

Last night, Northern officials along with NMU Public Safety determined that the threat posted against the university was no longer serious enough to cancel classes for a second day. It appears that the blog posted targeting NMU was also similar in fashion to other threats against other schools in the United States. The investigation continues as to whom sent the message and whether the posting actually was credible. At the time, NMU officials felt that the posting was credible and called on a lock-down of the campus immediately after being tipped of the posting. The decision from NMU caused a ripple-effect across the city as all of Marquette public schools were closed in addition to Marquette General Hospital increasing its security measures.

As always when something like this happens in a community, rumors start flying about circumstances that just did not occur. One involved a hostage situation on campus, others involved deaths, the city of Marquette being on lockdown, and the need of the National Guard coming in to help deal with the situation. All of those were unfounded and simply not true. You have to wonder if people like to stir up even more trouble than what's already happening. They're taking advantage of a troubling situation to get noticed and to help spread rumors, which only help to make things worse. Thankfully everything ended up well in the Marquette community and all that the situation involved was this blog posting that was threatening to the NMU campus community.

Of course there are going to be those people who think the situation could've been handled better. It seems that no matter what happens and how quickly an area is evacuated and locked down, there's always room for improvement. All in all, I think NMU handled the situation very well and alerted people in a very fast manner. The threat targeted the campus for 10:11 AM and there was little, if any activity going on at that time, except students being locked down in their residential halls. What more can you expect in a situation like the one that occurred yesterday? As the saying goes, alls well that ends well. But that doesn't mean the anxiety experienced by students, faculty, and staff at NMU will be leaving right away. And who can blame them.

'Serious Threat' Closes NMU Campus

It's a crazy world we live in these days - as exhibited by the September 11 attacks on our country, attacks on our public transportation systems, and school shootings. A few months ago, there was a school hostage situation that hit close to home to many of us in the Upper Peninsula at Marinette High School. The hostage taker was killed from a self-inflicted gun shot wound, while the hostages themselves were uninjured. Thankfully that situation wasn't any worse than it could have been, but it was still bad enough. And having a situation like that happening so close to home really shakes a person up. And now we're dealing with a serious situation in the city of Marquette today...

The campus of Northern Michigan University has been shut down due to a serious threat it had received via a blog. According to NMU officials, they are unsure as to which part of the campus was being targeted so as a precaution, they have shut down the entire campus. The message posted on the blog apparently said that they would break the record of those killed during the shootings on the Virginia Tech campus during a rampage at NMU. One of the local news stations in the Marquette area, WLUC TV6, has not been able to locate the blog in question and so it is not known exactly what the blog says. It is very evident that officials at NMU have seen the blog posting, however. But NMU officials are taking the situation very seriously by closing the campus and restricting all activities until everything can be investigated.

In addition, because the NMU campus is close to several of the Marquette Area Public School buildings, Marquette schools will be dismissing early (most of the buildings have already released students as of this time). Marquette General Hospital is also very close to the NMU campus so they have greatly increased security in and around the facility but are not totally closed. Access can be made at five different points within the MGH building complex. If you have appointments, Marquette General is still open, but you may need to search around for an access point.

For continuing updates on the threat posed to the campus of NMU, please follow a few of the sites I have linked. I will not be able to update throughout the day, so these other sites will be your best bet. As of now, this has just been a safety precaution taken by officials at NMU to prevent a potentially serious situation to its students and staff. In this day and age, you can never be too safe. And yes, it just goes to show you that a situation like this can happen here in the Upper Peninsula. Thankfully, the authorities were alerted of the situation before something actually could happen. Preventive measures need to be taken to avert a potentially terrible situation here in Marquette.

UPDATE (12 PM): As per some rumors floating around out there - there has not been a hostage situation on NMU's campus and no arrests have taken place as of yet. The situation is under control. NMU officials remind people to stay away from the campus today and a determination on whether classes will be held tomorrow will be made later in the day. Marquette General is still open, just access to the various MGH building is restricted to five entryways. The Marquette YMCA facility is also closed, due to its close proximity to NMU's Berry Events Center. This closure also includes Marquette's Lakeview Arena. Traffic in and around NMU's campus and various Marquette Public School facilities has been hectic so please avoid those areas, if you can.

-WLUC TV-6 Facebook Page - Their website is currently down due to traffic demand. Their website is uppermichiganssource.com

-The Marquette Mining Journal