Features

Features Erin Crowell Winter Sports Calendar: A guide to putting your best foot forward
By Erin Crowell
Hear that?
Didn’t think so – It’s hard to hear your foot landing in soft powder
as you run a snowshoe race or mid-glide in the North American Vasa.
The point is, just because the temperature has dropped doesn’t mean
you should do the same with your motivation.
Here’s a list of winter races to keep you going:

Features Erin Crowell Winter’s Best Bets: Some can’t-miss events for the snowy season
By Erin Crowell
Author W.J. Vogel once wrote, “To shorten winter, borrow some money
due in spring.”
Sure, we like to complain about living in one of the frozen upper
crusts of the country, knees trembling as we brush the powder off our
cars and snap the thermostat to “blazing.”

Features Rick Coates Nightmare on the Border
Liz Larios deported to drug-riddled town in Mexico
By Rick Coates
For all practical purposes Liz Larios considers herself an American.
She graduated from Traverse City Central High School and has lived in
the United States for the past 18 years since the age of six. Since
high school, she has been holding down two jobs to pay her bills and
planned on marrying her boyfriend of six years, Russell Horn, sometime
next year. There was just one problem, the 24-year-old Traverse City
resident was born in Mexico.

Features Anne Stanton Winds of Fortune: 12,000-acre wind farm planned for Manistee and Benzie counties
By Anne Stanton
Over the years, Jim and Carol March have traipsed in the hills of
their Arcadia hay fields with energy company reps who talked of
building a wind turbine on the farm’s hilly ridge. But after getting
the couple’s hopes up high, the company reps disappeared and refused
their phone calls.

Features Erin Cowell Feel the Burn… Literally!: SmartLipo uses lasers to melt fat and speed recovery
By Erin Crowell
Three years ago, Melissa Kasarskis of Irons woke up to find a large
mass on her left and right hip, just below the skin.
“I looked down and saw this huge looking tumor and I freaked out,”
said the 43-year-old mother of two.

Features Robert Downes Let the Sun Shine: The Grow Store trips the light fantastic
By Robert Downes
If Paul Watson has a pair of green thumbs, it’s because he spent 31 years as a commercial indoor grower, raising basil under artificial lights in Benzie County for local restaurants.
“Indoor growing is a lot of fun,” he says. “My passion for this started out with plugging in my first light bulb in 1980.”
Today, Paul’s thumbs are getting even greener from a crop of dollars provided by customers at The Grow Store he owns with his wife Kim. At times, as many as 20-30 customers pack the store near Chum’s Corners, south of Traverse City, seeking high-quality equipment for indoor growing, as well as the Watsons’ advice.
“We are as surprised as anyone by our success,” he says of the business which got its start in April of 2009. “We’ve got a huge amount of inventory as well as the knowledge to share about indoor growing.”
In fact, things are going so well that the Watsons plan to open a new 10,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse in mid December a half-mile down the road. In addition to a wealth of organic gardening materials and lighting equipment (which are literally stacked to the ceiling in the present store), the new location will offer displays of growing plants, with both hydroponic and soil-based systems for the enlightenment of customers.

Features Rick Coates Mixed Message: Why is BYOB okay at TC events, but not at restaurants?
By Rick Coates
Earlier this year when the Traverse City Police Department began enforcing a confusing Michigan statute on alcohol consumed at non-licensed establishments, mixed messages were sent throughout the community.
For instance, will stores be allowed to serve alcohol at the popular downtown Traverse City Men’s Night (December 16), as has been the tradition in past years?
How about the tailgating with alcohol that takes place at every high school football game at Thirlby Field, also in the city limits? What about tailgating at Interlochen prior to concerts?
According to the interpretation of various Michigan statutes by officers of the Traverse City Police Department, all of these events would be a violation of Michigan laws, possibly resulting in a misdemeanor for the consumer and a felony for the establishment.
The legal underpinning is called “consideration,” which occurs whenever an establishment gives away or allows someone to bring alcohol onto their property when they are collecting money for an event, selling merchandise or a meal.

Features Anne Stanton The Book Angel: Margaret Kelly created a book club for the region’s homeless
 By Anne Stanton
About a year ago, an energetic librarian bustled up to Tom Ockert, a
59-year-old homeless man, who spent most of his daytime hours in the
Traverse Area District Library -- not only because it’s a warm place
to stay, but also because he loves to read.

Features Rick Coates Northern Gifts:Great ideas from local merchants
By Rick Coates
Each holiday season we’re all faced with the same dilemma: what to get
the person who seems to have everything or is just plain impossible to
buy for.
Of course some of us are also looking for that “wow’ factor; a
truly unique gift that is memorable, especially for those office
Christmas gift exchange parties.

Features Anne Stanton High Anxiety
By Anne Stanton
With anxious thoughts jabbing their minds awake each morning, some
people don’t need alarm clocks any longer. Just ask Mary Sue Feldman,
a Traverse City woman who has hit bottom with $50 in her checking
account, no car, and no job.

Features Kristi Kates Dark Sky Park: She’s preserving the star shine at The Headlands in Emmet County
By Kristi Kates
Residents of many rural communities in Northern Michigan are fortunate
to benefit from less light pollution than that which occurs in and
around major cities. One Harbor Springs resident hopes to keep it that
way.

Features Erin Cowell The Bay Film Series
By Erin Crowell
For Northern Michigan and beyond, summer rolls in big tourist crowds and blockbuster films.
The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay is on that list of blockbuster providers during the summer; but come the colder months—unlike its big chain brothers—The Bay raises its curtain to the unfamiliar and thought-provoking world of international indie films.
Dim the lights and enjoy The Bay Film Series, The Bay Theatre’s annual selection of international and independent films showing one weekend of every month from September through April. Featuring a variety of genres from countries all over the world, the series offers a chance to experience the cinema in a different way.
“People get to see some films that they otherwise never would have access to,” said Denise Sica, manager of the Bay Theatre. “Sometimes it’s a comedy, sometimes a drama, sometimes it’s a documentary… it’s nice to have a mix of first-run movies coming out for summer, but this is an opportunity to experience and appreciate the unknown.”

Features UpNorth TV hosts a Teleganza! Goal is a new mobile van to cover local events
How do you make yourself stand out in the world of cable TV with its
100-plus channels and endless reality TV shows? For public access
Channels 97 and 992, the solution lies in becoming more relevant to
local viewers.

Features Kristi Kates The Scoundrels of Interlochen
By Kristi Kates
When asked what the most appealing element of Interlochen’s up-coming
production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: The Musical will be,
Interlochen Director of Theater David Montee’s answer is as speedy as
the con-artist characters in the play itself.

Features Rick Coates Spill the Wine... Bottle ban wrecking the party for Northern Michigan businesses
By Rick Coates
Here in the heart of Michigan’s wine country, diners and restaurateurs
are taking heat from local police for a ‘bring your own bottle’
practice that’s popular -- and legal -- across the nation.