Features

Features Patrick Sullivan Former drug addict Jason Craig Blackmore was apparently getting his life back together and trying to emerge as a productive member of society when out of the blue he was arrested.

Features Erin Crowell Under the Wikipedia entry for “drone,” you will find such words as “chemical,” “warfare,” “target” and “humanoid” – words that send a chill down one’s spine when considering their recent presence in the media. Drones, or unmanned aerial systems (UAS) as they are technically referred to, are being heavily manufactured and put to use by the U.S. government, and in countries throughout the world.

Features Rick Coates This week thousands of athletes around Northern Michigan will begin their fall high school sports seasons. But there is rising concern about the direction and future of youth and high school athletics in our country.

Features Rick Coates Academy Award winning actress Susan Sarandon granted Rick Coates an exclusive pre- Traverse City Film Festival interview. The interview may be heard in its entirety on the Omelette & Friends Show Tuesday, July 31 at 7:30 am and again on Wednesday August 1 at 9 am.

Features Al Parker While much of America was grooving to the sultry “Summer of Love” sounds in 1967, Detroit was cranking out gritty, raw, pounding music from its epicenter, The Grande Ballroom.

Features Patrick Sullivan

It didn’t take long for police to make an arrest after someone broke into a shooting range in May and made off with five semiautomatic handguns.

Break-ins that involve stolen handguns tend to get a lot of police attention, and this one was no exception.

Features Erin Crowell

Last year at the Traverse City Film Festival, I volunteered at the State Theater. My shift, which consisted of taking tickets and counting occupants, had me working alongside a couple who were summering in the area.

Features Erin Crowell A small audience at the InsideOut Gallery in Traverse City sits in the dark. They are at tables and on lounge furniture, drinks in hand. Some lean back, a leg crossed. Others sit on the edge of seats, chins mounted on fists, eyes fixed to the stage that holds everyone’s attention in the room. Someone is telling a story.

Features Patrick Sullivan

British soldiers didn’t take Mackinac Island entirely by surprise 200 years ago, though they may as well have.

When the British invaded on July 17, 1812, they found the Americans unprepared because news of the war had not yet reached this frontier outpost, even though President James Madison had declared war on the British a month earlier.

Features Patrick Sullivan

When science fiction writer Ray Bradbury died last month, the world mourned the loss of a literary giant.

Northwestern Michigan College professor Garyn Roberts mourned the loss of a friend.

Roberts, an English instructor at Northwestern Michigan College, has been working on a biography of Bradbury and grew close to the author over the years. Recently, the Express sat down with Roberts to talk about Bradbury, science fiction and other literary forms that grew out of the “pulp” publications of the early 20th Century.

Features Al Parker As a youngster growing up in New York City, Richard Asher’s early artwork drew attention from his teacher. “I doodled on my test papers in elementary school and I got in trouble for it,” he recalls with a laugh. “I was not The Art Kid in my neighborhood.”

Features Patrick Sullivan

This is the second of two stories about a family in Elk Rapids who encountered a mortgage modification scam artist and wound up on the brink of losing their home. Last week, the Express looked at what happened to Pablo and Guadalupe Bocardo that caused their home to be foreclosed.

This week, we look at the efforts of their attorney to fight Fannie Mae to get their house back.

Features Erin Crowell From the time the leaves started to turn and drop to the rise in spring temperatures, Alan Newton sat down and spoke with 24 homeless people living in Traverse City. A few are on the street by choice; but all are there by circumstance. Some are drug addicts, others are alcoholics.

Features Patrick Sullivan This is the first of two stories about an Elk Rapids couple who encountered a mortgage modification scam artist and wound up on the brink of losing their home. This week, the Express looks at how becoming victims of fraud caused Pablo and Guadalupe Bocardo to have their home foreclosed. Next week, we will look at the efforts of their attorney, Jason Jenkinson, to fight Fannie Mae to get their house back.

Features Rick Coates Now in its fourth year, the Traverse City Wine & Art Festival was looking for something a little bigger for this year. They found it in Rusted Root. The roots-rock jam band will headline this year’s festival.