News

Your connection to northern Michigan news.

Northern Michigan officials expect quick election results with extra staff to handle mail-in ballots

By • Aug 4, 2020
Dan Wanschura

Clerks across the northwest lower Michigan region say they’re getting a lot of mail-in ballots for Tuesday’s primary.

“We have more than doubled the number of absentee ballots that have been cast for this election compared to the August 2016 election,” Traverse City Clerk Benjamin Marentette said.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Michigan Secretary of State has pushed for voters to use absentee ballots. As of July 28, the state has given out 1,977,116 absentee ballots. For context, by July of 2016 the state had only given out 546,032.

Stateside: Primary preview; Great Lakes art book; MI’s first transgender Teacher of the Year

By • Aug 3, 2020

Today on Stateside, we'll talk about the biggest races and issues on the August 4 primary ballot. Plus, a conversation with the Michigan Teacher of the Year about the return to school and what it means for his students to have a transgender adult to look up to in their lives.

Tuesday primaries will 'stress test' Michigan election system

By • Aug 3, 2020

Don’t wait. Drop off your ballot in person. It’s too late to put it in the mail if you want it to be counted. That’s the advice elections officials are giving voters in advance of Tuesday’s primaries when a record number of votes will be cast via absentee ballot. 


The Romance of the Stars: this week on the Storyteller's Night Sky

By Mary Stewart Adams • Aug 3, 2020

The Moon comes to Full Phase Monday, August 3rd at noon, then it wanes through the night sky, catching up with Mars next Sunday, before arriving in the vicinity of Venus, our brilliant morning star, later next week.

Pandemic frees up Traverse City trio to release new album

By • Aug 3, 2020
From left to right, David Chown, Laurie Sears and Miriam Picó released a new album recently called, 'Live at St. Andrews'.
Lancaster Photography

A trio of Traverse City artists are out with a new album called "Live at St. Andrews." It features David Chown, Miriam Picó and Laurie Sears during a 2018 show at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Beulah.


Grand Traverse County voters could swing the Michigan House, plus other key primary races Up North

By • Jul 31, 2020
Max Johnston / Interlochen Public Radio

Michigan’s primary is Tuesday, August 4. Voters across the state will head to the polls or mail in their ballots on state and national office and local proposals.


Stateside: Rural schools’ challenges reopening; Shakespeare on Zoom; federal troops in Detroit

By • Jul 28, 2020

Today on Stateside, we discuss the many legal questions surrounding the president’s authority to send federal agents into a city like Portland, or Detroit. Plus, we talk to the superintendent of schools in Whitefish Township about the unique challenges rural districts face in reopening.

(Subscribe to Stateside on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or with this RSS link)

Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.

Stateside: Reopening schools debate; systemic racism in the arts; UM athlete sexual abuse claims

By • Jul 28, 2020

Today on Stateside, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been vocal about her decision to only reopen schools if public health officials agree it is safe.

What are the discussions happening between the Governor and the Republican led legislature regarding schools and education funding? Plus a conversation with former Detroit Institute of Arts and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit employees about systemic racism in art institutions. Also, we spoke with the reporter who wrote about University of Michigan football star Jon Vaughn’s story of survival in “an ecosystem of abuse.”

Republicans Signal They're Willing To Cut Census Counting Short

By • Jul 28, 2020

Republicans in Congress are signaling that the Census Bureau cannot take the extra time it has said it needs to count every person living in the U.S. amid the coronavirus pandemic — even if that risks leaving some residents out of the 2020 census.

Why Lake Michigan was ten degrees hotter than it should have been

By • Jul 28, 2020
Joshua Stevens, NASA Earth Observatory

 

If you took a dip in Lake Michigan in early July you might have noticed the water felt pretty nice.

The Star of Abundance marks halfway Point in the Season: this week on the Storyteller's Night Sky

By Mary Stewart Adams • Jul 27, 2020

The star Spica appears high in the southwest about 45 minutes after sunset at this time, which means we’re drawing close to the halfway point in the summer season.

The halfway point in summer is the cross quarter day known as Lammas, for loaf mass, which indicates that this mid-season is all about bread and the wheat harvest. Traditionally at loaf mass, the season’s first wheat would be ground into flour then baked into bread and offered at the sacred site as a blessing for the remaining harvest. Later, the farmer’s wife would be tossed in a blanket with the last sheaf, to bring good luck in the subsequent threshing.

Northern Michigan artists decorate masks for patients and healthcare workers

By Aaron Selbig • Jul 24, 2020
Aaron Selbig

Local artists are making tough times a little brighter for patients and health care workers at Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital in Frankfort. A collection of 23 hand-decorated masks was delivered to the hospital Monday. The masks are part of a contest called “Make a Mask, Make a Difference,” held by the Oliver Art Center. 

Munson Healthcare treating fewer COVID-19 patients, some with less severe symptoms

By • Jul 22, 2020
Courtesy MUNSON HEALTHCARE

 

While COVID-19 cases continue to rise steadily in northern Michigan, Munson Healthcare is treating fewer patients and reports it has enough resources to treat those who need hospital care.

Stateside: Pandemic complicates U.S. Census; parents, teens, and smartphone trackers

By • Jul 22, 2020

Today on Stateside, while the United States Census of 2020 is still being counted, Michigan responses are higher than the national average. But some communities in the state are vulnerable to being left out of the official count, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, how the inequalities Black Michiganders discussed at the state’s first Convention of Colored Citizens in 1843 compare with those Black Americans still face today. Plus, kids and parents negotiate privacy and trust in the age of smartphone tracking.

Kids These Days: Let's talk about teens and phones

By • Jul 22, 2020

 

 

Let’s talk about teens and phones.

Cell phones have always been there throughout their lives.

They use them all the time, but may never talk about how they use them. The unspoken rules, expectations of social media; how phones impact relationships.

Traverse City Commission approves restrictions on vacation rentals

By • Jul 21, 2020
traversecitymi.gov

Traverse City commissioners unanimously approved restrictions on vacation home rentals in some parts of the city Monday night. 

Areas zoned C-1 office-service and C-2 neighborhood center will now only be allowed one unit or 25 percent of a development for short-term use, provided the rest of the units are used for long-term housing. 

Drive-by art hits Upper Peninsula highway

By • Jul 21, 2020
Art from U.P. artist Katie Eberts is featured on a billboard on U.S. Highway 2 in the Upper Peninsula. The billboards went up last month thanks to the non-profit, Save Art Space.
Dan Wanschura / Interlochen Public Radio

After crossing the Mackinac Bridge and heading west on US Highway 2 in St. Ignace, I’m looking for something I was told would be just outside of town.

 

Believe it or not, I’ve come to this part of Michigan to look at a billboard.

  

Interlochen Arts Academy partners with the Broad Institute for COVID-19 testing

By • Jul 21, 2020
Interlochen Center for the Arts

Interlochen Arts Academy will test all of its students and staff for COVID-19 this August with help from a Boston lab.

Comet NEOWISE Under the Belly of the Great Bear: this week on the Storyteller's Night Sky

By Mary Stewart Adams • Jul 20, 2020

The big news in night sky this week was going to be Saturn’s annual opposition, but then Comet NEOWISE survived its closest approach to the Sun and trumpeted into naked-eye visibility, so now I want to talk about this unpredictable messenger from space instead.

Leland teens join health department to stop spread of COVID-19

By • Jul 19, 2020
The Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department

 

Helene Mitchell, a 17-year-old resident of Leland, kept her friend group small this summer to avoid the coronavirus.

Still her friend tested positive and she was exposed.

Stateside: Abusive culture of Karolyi Ranch; advice for problems big and small

By • Jul 17, 2020

Today on Stateside, we had a conversation with Jordyn Wieber, an Olympic champion gymnast from Michigan, and one of the central figures in ESPN’s new podcast series "Heavy Medals". Plus, a new podcast from Detroit producer Zak Rosen called "The Best Advice Show".

(Subscribe to Stateside on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or with this RSS link)

Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.

Retail workers deal with increased harassment over enforcing mask order

By • Jul 16, 2020
Shari Bernstein

This week a shopper in Meijer in Acme threatened an employee with a knife, upset he was told to wear a mask.

In Lansing, a man was stabbed and in May, a security guard at a Flint dollar store was shot to death.

Federal Flint case against Snyder will go forward

By • Jul 15, 2020

A federal appeals court won’t give former Governor Rick Snyder a new hearing in a class action lawsuit over the Flint water crisis. That means the lawsuit filed against Snyder and former state Treasurer Andy Dillon can go forward.

Stateside: Proposal to halve Lansing PD’s budget; “Deep Cover” podcast; MI’s death penalty h

By • Jul 14, 2020

Today on Stateside, we discussed how two recent Supreme Court decisions may impact cases in Michigan. Plus, last night, Lansing City Council heard public comments on a proposal to cut police funding in the city by 50 percent over the next several years.

(Subscribe to Stateside on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or with this RSS link)

Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.

Man arrested for allegedly pulling knife over face mask dispute at Traverse City area Meijer

By • Jul 14, 2020
Peter Payette / Interlochen Public Radio

 

Authorities say they have arrested a man who pulled a knife on a Meijer employee in northern Michigan after she asked him to wear a mask.

The alleged incident occurred on Sunday afternoon, when a Kalkaska County man went shopping for groceries at the Meijer in Acme Township.

Grand Traverse County Detective Captain Randy Fewless says one employee would not let the man go in the store.

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