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If you’re traveling to Grand Traverse County, please quarantine yourself. That’s the message from the Grand Traverse County Health Department. It's requesting a 14-day self-quarantine for anyone coming to the county from areas with high numbers of COVID-19 cases.

In January there was an unusual line-up of planets at one place in the zodiac that included the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto. Since then, they have all moved on, but due to the varying speeds of the planets in their orbits, it will appear to us that they all make a retrograde or backward motion, which will result in another meeting of planets in the same degree of the zodiac as in January, only the players will be slightly different. This time, it will only be Jupiter and Pluto.

School officials in Michigan will have to make some tough decisions very soon about the rest of the school year. One of them is whether to send layoff notices to teachers and other school staff who aren’t working.

That would save money for later in case the school year is extend to make up for days lost due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Traverse City singer songwriter Miriam Pico thought she was just writing a song to sing to her own kids. But now, kids in China are learning that song to help get through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Grand Traverse County is declaring a state of emergency due to the coronavirus. Chairman of the county board of commissioners Rob Hentschel said in a letter that the declaration will make state and federal funds available to buy much needed equipment for hospitals and medical providers. 

Across the state millions of Michiganders are staying at home after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a "stay at home" order for at least the next three weeks. But what if you don’t have a home? The order makes no mention of people experiencing homelessness.

Award-winning, Ukrainian-born soprano Antonina Chehovska wasn’t even thinking about opera until music professors at the Grand Rapids Community College noticed something special in her voice. 

Munson Medical Center in Traverse City has changed some of its policies for nurses working through the COVID-19 pandemic

Late last week, the hospital addressed a number of concerns raised by the Traverse City Munson Nurses Association (TCMNA).

The Health Department of Northwest Michigan is telling recent visitors to Bennethum's Northern Inn in Gaylord that they may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

A patient who has since tested positive for the disease spent time there on two recent occasions.

In a press release, the department said anyone who attended performances of the band Neshama at Bennethum's may have had "significant exposure" to COVID-19. Neshama peformed once on March 12 from 5 to 8 p.m. and again on March 14 from 8 to 10:30 p.m.

Update 3/25/20, 3:30pm: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, on Monday, March 23, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced temporary requirements “to suspend activities that are not necessary to sustain or protect life” through April 13, 2020. Under that order, limited forms of construction are still permissible, including projects necessary “to maintain and improve the safety, sanitation, and essential operations of residences.” A spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy says whether or not that includes shoreline construction “is dependent on the purpose and necessity of the shoreline work, and is case-specific.” He says contractors, their legal counsel and homeowners need to make that determination and if they are still unsure, contact the Governor’s office for more clarity.

At a time when many Michigan companies are slowing down due to the coronavirus pandemic, business is booming for contractors working along Lake Michigan’s shoreline.

They’re fighting a different crisis — trying to save people’s homes from extremely high water levels. But with so much demand, there’s little to stop unqualified contractors from jumping in on the action.

At this unusual moment in history there is an interesting array of celestial phenomena populating the morning sky and stirring the thought life.