Features

Features Patrick Sullivan

There was one more thing to take care of after a man purchased a home on M-75 in the picturesque Village of Walloon in 2008. The new homeowner had to make sure that when he turned on his taps, water would come out.

Before that could happen, however, he was told by the local water utility that he would have to pay the previous owner’s water bill.

And he would also owe an administrative charge.

Features Kristi Kates “I read in Popular Science that ruby was made from aluminum oxide and chrome oxide,” he explains, “And I had noticed that the sandpaper my father used was covered with aluminum oxide. So I scraped some of it from the sandpaper and put a small piece of chrome from a car bumper in with it, and put it on a firebrick. I used an acetylene/ oxygen torch to melt it, and presto! At the age of 12, I had made my very first red colored ruby. It wasn’t clear like good ruby - but it was ruby.”

Features Rick Coates Typically, resolutions are for individuals, but maybe now is the time for Northern Michigan to have a New Year’s Resolution. I have a suggestion. The time is right for Northern Michigan to work collectively to become the “culinary,” “cultural” and “craft-farming” capital of the country.

Features Rick Coates It is a parent’s worst nightmare, that knock on the door, that phone call with the words: “your child has been in a serious car accident.”

That nightmare happened for my family a couple of weeks ago. As I rushed to the scene of the accident on a highway just south of Traverse City, my first sight was several flashing lights of emergency vehicles.

Features Patrick Sullivan When the victim saw the photo of Walter -- which is different than the booking photo that’s been released to the media -- she made an immediate ID. She broke down crying and repeatedly said, “It was him,” according to a brief filed by prosecutor Alan Schneider.

Features Patrick Sullivan

When Gary Howe learned the Grand Traverse County Road Commission planned to spend some money to improve Lafranier Road, he decided he wanted to have some input.  Howe proposed a walking tour of Lafranier with local planners, transportation specialists and a couple members of the road commission. The Northern Express tagged along on the snowy morning of Nov. 28.

Features Bob Otwell Last fall, my wife Laura and I embarked on an adventure. With good health and time available, we cleared our schedules and relied on friends and family to fill in on the home front. We dropped our youngest daughter off at college, and took off for a 10-month, 9,000-mile journey around the perimeter of the USA on touring bicycles.

Features John L. Russell

The docks have been pulled from the lakes, and the boats are covered and stored for the winter.

It’s time to go sailing. Iceboating, to be more precise.

Features Patrick Sullivan Warning -- This story contains graphic sexual content.
The 25-year-old woman had been slipping into homelessness for some time. In the past eight years she’d racked up a record of misdemeanor convictions -- a couple of cases of minor in possession of alcohol, a drunk driving, a domestic violence case, and a false pretenses case.

She cared a lot about her boyfriend, she later testified at his preliminary hearing on sex assault charges in August. At least when he was sober.

Features Rick Coates There’s a saying that “blood is thicker than water,” and the Bihlman Bros. plan to prove that with their new reality TV show “Blood Brothers.”

Features Patrick Sullivan Circuit Court Judge Philip Rodgers went further, telling Bigger: “Did you live a big lifestyle? Were you sitting out next to the cement pond with a BMW parked in the driveway? No, you weren’t. You lived a pretty crummy lifestyle, from time to time in a camper in your daughter’s front driveway.

Features Patrick Sullivan Michael Knudsen and his friends had no reason to believe that death was waiting for them when they jumped into West Grand Traverse Bay inside a marina breakwall in August, 2011.

A $50 million lawsuit filed on behalf of Knudsen’s estate describes the teenager’s harrowing last few moments alive...

Features Robert Downes

Billy Strings was practically born into bluegrass: his mother’s water broke while she was attending a birthday party packed with musicians and baby Billy was born with the echo of guitars and banjos in his ears.

Either that or Billy made a deal with a dark stranger at a lonely crossroads at midnight… Whatever the case, he has an almost supernatural ability on guitar, banjo and mandolin that has set the region’s bluegrass and folk scene on fire.

Features Erin Crowell

Did you know? Long before Tim Allen was promoting Michigan with his smooth, hypnotic-like voice, our state’s first Pure Michigan campaign was drawing visitors as early as the 1800s.

On Friday, Nov. 16, Michael Federspiel will discuss how local entrepreneurs teamed with railroad and steamship companies to market the Little Traverse Bay region over 100 years ago.

Features Patrick Sullivan In August, bulldozers and graders and dump trucks rumbled along Wood Road to a parcel that used to be part woods and part meadow. To the utter surprise of most neighbors, workers started construction of a deep-shale, horizontal fracturing natural gas well at the site, located in Kalkaska County’s Rapid River Township.