Latest Northern Michigan News

There are polka bands across the country, particularly in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan.  Where there are Polish-American communities in Michigan, there is usually polka music and dance.

Judy and Her Suchey Brothers are a polka band from the Alpena area. They've been playing together for 45 years.

The end of this week brings the end of this month, but not before the ringed planet Saturn opposes the Sun and the Moon comes to Full Phase.

Saturn and the Moon are locked in a beautiful harmony, and they’ll appear right next to each other in the evening sky this week, especially Thursday, June 28th, looking southeast an hour after sunset. 

There’s something unique happening this week just after the Sun stands still at its Solstice moment early Thursday morning: Venus and Mars will fall into position on opposite sides of the Earth, drawing our attention to the great mystery of understanding the beloved.

The last New Moon of the Spring happens this week on Wednesday, and for the occasion, the night sky is getting decked out in its favorite jewels: the evening star and the starry crown. And in between, a beautiful imagination develops over the Western edge of the world, where the ancient goddesses known as the Hours join in the dances of the gods. 

Next month, the planet Mars will make one of its closest-ever approaches to the Earth, and this week, to get ready, the red planet rises at midnight in the region of Capricorn, appearing as a mighty warrior guarding the ancient gateway of the gods.

In 1678, the Godiva Procession was instituted in Coventry, England to commemorate and honor Lady Godiva, who rode naked on horseback through the main street to protest her husband’s intent to raise taxes on the poor. Nearly 200 years later, in 1842, Alfred Tennyson found himself waiting on a train in Coventry and penned his iconic poem about it, which we can imagine is being written across the evening sky this week as the moon comes to full phase and sweeps past the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. 

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was the sister of President John F. Kennedy, and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy. With her husband Sargent Shriver, she had five children, including journalist Maria Shriver. Guest Eileen McNamara worked at the Boston Globe for 30 years as a reporter and columnist. Her latest book is called “Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World.” Eileen talks this hour with Interlochen Public Radio reporter Morgan Springer. Morgan asked Eileen why she gets angry when people lump all the Kennedy sisters together.

Nine moths ago, on August 21st in 2017, the Moon eclipsed the Sun and its shadow entirely bisected the United States, from sea to shining sea. Since nine months is the amount of time it takes for a normal human gestation, it’s fitting to consider that phenomenon then, and see what’s going on now.

This week the stage is set for some love tricks among the planets, with Jupiter and Venus facing one another across the great horizon of stars, and the crescent Moon sweeping in, to witness the goings on.

The set up of Moon and planets this week brings to mind an intriguing myth from the Ancient world that has to do with the God of the Olympians Jupiter/Zeus and his trick to get even with the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Venus/Aphrodite.  Here’s the set up:

At age 23, Drew Philp moved to Detroit and bought a house for $500. He spent the next few years renovating it, living without heat or electricity. Drew wrote a book about his experience, called “A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City.” He talks this hour with WTCM NewsTalk 580 radio host Ron Jolly. Ron asked Drew where he grew up.

Jupiter comes to its annual opposition with the Sun this week, a king among gods, who’s appearing these nights as though he were stepping into the southern tray of the scales in the constellation Libra. Such a set up begs for a tale from “The Storyteller’s Night Sky” so here’s one!

The mighty constellation Hercules is rising up in the night sky this week, in the east after 10 pm, and bearing mystery in his wake.

Before the Ancient Greeks saw the hero Hercules in this region of sky, the constellation was known as the Kneeler, because the figure appears upside down on bended knee.