News

Features Patrick Sullivan She lost the home she built on the Old Mission Peninsula. She lost her business, French Manor Senior Living, an assisted living facility in Traverse City, when a bank note came due and she had no cash. The business is currently operated by different owners.

Features Patrick Sullivan Penny and Shandy Spencer spent around $74,000 to construct a 112-foot windmill that rises above their lavender farm north of Cedar. They got the windmill last November in response to federal incentives and because they wanted to generate sustainable, green energy, even if it cost more than electricity from fossil fuels.

Features Erin Crowell It’s once again that time of year when we whip out the credit cards, cash and checkbooks to splurge on our loved ones – which can leave little left over for ourselves. For women hoping to dress up for a holiday party or New Years Eve bash, this can pose quite the financial predicament.

Letters

Buy ‘Made in USA’

I love buying products made in the U.S.A. In a second-hand store the other day, I realized my generation missed out on the good feeling of holding something of great quality, turning it over, and seeing, “Made in U.S.A.”

But there is a brilliant and bold loophole, second-hand stores. They are proliferating here in Traverse City! Brilliant because it is more cost effective to buy quality used products. Bold because buying something made 50 years ago in the U.S.A., that still works better than something made at present, in country X, or shall I just say it, China, is a bold statement in itself...

Features Patrick Sullivan Two natural gas drilling operations underway in Kalkaska County

Something is happening in the remote reaches of Kalkaska County that could have big implications for Northern Michigan.

If two Encana Corp. natural gas wells prove productive and profitable, they could be among the first of scores of deep shale fracking wells across the region.

Features Elizabeth Buzzelli Waiting inside—usually there’s a bell—the owner takes great pleasure in finding the reader just the perfect book: “Ah yes, of course we have that splendid novel . . .”

Letters

Welfare for the rich

One often sees in the media signs by the Tea Party calling Obama a socialist. Our socialistic policies began with the New Deal with its subsidies during bad economic times. Since then our economy has improved, but the subsidies continue to this day. For example, every $1 of profits earned by corn sweeteners costs consumers $10, and every $1 of profits earned by its ethanol operation costs taxpayers $30.

In 2011 the Tea Party was the reform party. Earmarks were blocked in the 2011 budget because the Tea Party insisted upon it. There is an Office of Congressional Ethics, the only independent watchdog ensuring that members live up to ethical rules because the Tea Party insisted upon it...

Letters

Military cannot resign

Recently on NPR’s Talk of the Nation (10/24) author Bob Woodward said that senior military leaders have threatened to resign over President Obama’s announcement that troops would leave Iraq this year. The 2011 withdraw timeline was established in December 2008 between President Bush and the Iraqi government – and endorsed by President-Elect Obama.

For military officers to threaten resignation not only is an overt attempt to subvert the authority of the President, but is a renunciation of the officer’s oath to “support and defend the Constitution.” Article Two of the Constitution establishes the President as the Commander-in-Chief of the military...

Features Erin Crowell When you come to the house of Karen Mertaugh, chances are you’ll be greeted by a dog, a cat or even a school of fish housed on the west-side wall – all before setting foot in the actual home.

Features Rick Coates Larry Poulin is an American hero, but based on his living conditions one would not know it. Now 90, the WWII veteran and former POW has an array of medals including a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, which was presented to him by President Harry S. Truman.

Letters

Vote YES on Proposal 1

My son came home for Thanksgiving this year and asked to sit down with my wife and me. He had an important decision to share with us. Christopher is a 29-year-old practicing attorney in Milwaukee. “I’m going to join the Army if the congress rescinds the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law.”

Chris has always wanted to serve his country but could not enlist 10 years ago because he was honest with the Army recruiter. Chris is gay. The armed forces no longer discriminate against gay soldiers. Chris just finished his basic training and Officer Candidate School (OCS) after training for 20 weeks in the hot Georgia sun. He is one of the first openly gay officers in the US Army (2nd Lieutenant). Chris’ unit is slated to depart for Afghanistan in January 2013...

Letters

The 99%

As the 99% of citizens who are not millionaire/billionaires we have, and still do, bail out bankers to the tune of billions. We bail out private corporations. We give billions in welfare payments to farmers and the corporate billionaires who run corporate farms. We give billions to Israel, billions to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 1% of the richest Americans pay less that half in taxes that we 99% do as a percentage of income. We give away billions to insurance companies and executives, we give billions to drug manufactures, doctors, and hospitals. We give billions to Wall Street bankers...

Features Rick Coates Carly Lewis was two weeks shy of her 17th birthday when she was killed. She would have been a senior at Traverse City High School this year. Her violent murder sent shock waves around Northern Michigan and her family, friends and the Traverse City community continue to mourn her loss as the murder trial of the suspect is expected to wrap up this week.

Features Robert Downes They were so wrong. Because today, Internet legal issues have exploded to include everything from online defamation that can wreck your reputation, to the theft of your website’s domain name or on-line infringement of your intellectual property, such as trademarks, copyrights and patents.

Features Patrick Sullivan It’s the same job held by Erin House, a special assistant attorney general who is responsible for criminal sexual conduct cases in Leelanau and Antrim counties, and who recently prosecuted Jere Clark in Bellaire, the subject of a July 11 feature in the Express.