Daniel Wanschura

This spring, a lot of fanfare accompanied the announcement the Pit Spitters baseball team was coming to Traverse City. Billboards went up declaring, “New Team. New Fun.” Now free pocket schedules can be found at just about any gas station you stop at in northern Michigan. But for all these efforts and the team’s recent 18-game winning streak, fans have been slow to respond.

Over the past few years, Michiganders have become all too familiar with a class of chemicals known as per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. They’re toxic chemicals that have been found in water and land across the state.

Michigan has complicated laws when it comes to private beaches and public access, and the rules for inland lakes are different from the Great Lakes.

Ever since it opened in 1991, the Dennos Museum Center has had one executive director: Eugene Jenneman. After all these years, he's retiring at the end of June. Jenneman’s path to become an art connoisseur took a different route than most would expect.

When military veterans leave the service, many of them struggle with their return to civilian life. Adam Ingrao was no different.

During the Holocaust, some six million Jewish people were killed. Some of them were musicians. 

Currently, the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra has a violin which made it through the Holocaust. The violin is a rich brown color and has a beautiful inlaid Star of David decorating the back of it.

Lawrence Brownlee is using his clout to make opera more relevant for today’s audiences. The world-renowned tenor co-wrote a piece about being black in America called, "Cycles of My Being." Brownlee performed at Interlochen Center for the Arts on Thursday.

This week on Points North, millions of people cross the Straits of Mackinac each year. But it’s also a highway for thousands of raptors - or birds of prey - that migrate over the Straits each spring.

Plus, after beating his own addiction to drugs, an advocate trains others to respond to an overdose.

The Accidentals are releasing a new live album on April 28. It comes as the Traverse City-based band heads to the U.K. for its first international tour.

This week on Points North, learn about how one northern Michigan county tackled school safety by putting police officers in their schools. Plus, head out to Lake Leelanau to watch ice boaters enjoy the final days of the season.

A bill introduced in the State Senate earlier this year would reverse the ban on deer baiting in Michigan.

There used to be Anishinabek art in the Clinch Park Tunnel in downtown Traverse City. But in 2013, the tunnel was remodeled and the art was painted over. Now, the Traverse City Arts Commission is returning native American art to the tunnel. 

March Madness begins this week. The huge college basketball tournament starts with 68 teams and will eventually end with one national champion. But for some in northern Michigan, March Madness means more than basketball. For 10-year-old Ricky Bristol, who lives in East Jordan, it means practicing his violin.

Charlevoix native Jetty Rae is out with a new album called "Stardust." It’s a children’s album, and the songs have a light, mellow, drifting sound to them.

Controversy surrounding the Traverse City Film Festival continues.  

In an email sent to the public Sunday night, founder Michael Moore alleges that an unnamed employee misused more than $250,000.

Last fall the state changed the way it processes benefits like food stamps and emergency heating assistance.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services created a new system called the “universal caseload.” State officials said it would be quicker and more efficient, but that hasn't been the case.

Deer hunting is declining in Michigan. In the late 1990’s, almost 800,000 people were hunting deer in the state. Twenty years later, that number has dropped by around 25 percent.

A new ban on deer baiting is likely to further that trend. 

But the Michigan Department of Natural Resources says the ban is necessary for the long-term health of the state’s deer herd.

A new contemporary music ensemble has formed at Interlochen Arts Academy. On Friday night, the group will perform a piece called “Workers Union,” written by Louis Andriessen in 1975.

Last Saturday, nearly 1,600 hungry people stopped by the Park Place Hotel in Traverse City. It was the 28th annual Downtown Chili Cook-Off and this year visitors tasted 20 different varieties from local restaurants.