Anne Stanton

Features Anne Stanton James Parrent went on a rampage of identify theft

This week, the Express begins its Ripped-Off series that will alert consumers to pocketbook predators. We’ll draw on true stories from people around the region. Of course, the more stories the better, so call Anne Stanton toll-free at 1-877-244-8787 if you’d like to share your own.

By Anne Stanton

Gary Houda doesn’t mince words when describing James Parrent, the rip-off artist who used to work for him: “He’s garbage.”
Houda owns the Used Car Factory on U.S. 31 North. In 2004, he hired James Parrent and trusted him to sell and detail cars for him. But Parrent was a three-time felon, and used the Car Factory as his personal headquarters to steal the identities and bank account numbers of customers.

Features Anne Stanton Ever toy with the idea of starting your own business as a farmer or simply growing your own affordable, organic fruits, herbs and flowers?
A workshop on hoophouse farming is being offered to inspire wanna-be farmers or those who already farm and could use an extra three to four months of growing time.
A hoophouse — made of PVC pipes, plastic, and sometimes wood — is really a poor man’s version of a greenhouse. The structures are of particular benefit in Northern Michigan with its long, cold winters. The plastic protects plants from excessive rain, wind and frost, and raises daytime temperatures by at least five to 10 degrees. This gives farmers more growing time at both ends of the growing season.

Features Anne Stanton For all of you interested in the environment and the future of the Great Lakes, the weekend of November 14 is for you! There are two back-to-back events that are fun and affordable.
The first event on Friday, November 14, will set up a legal fund that will allow area environmental groups to take immediate action to stop water, air, land, or wildlife from being destroyed.
The second event on Sunday, November 16, will launch a broad-based, nonpartisan public education drive to protect the Great Lakes from the commercial sale of water.
Here are the details.

Art Anne Stanton With the name “Copy Queenz,” this new business is proud to declare its female ownership.
But the name has caused some awkward moments with a few people, said owner Cindy Lyskawa.
“A man, from another shop, asked us if we only wanted female customers because we’re doing the ‘female thing.’ I thought, ‘What is he talking about?’ Then I realized, it must be our name. Other people have walked in and said they were expecting to see two big guys dressed in women’s clothing.”

Features Anne Stanton The Great Depression was just around the corner when Carol Atkins and her family moved into a newly built home in a new Toledo subdivision in 1929.
Atkins, only six, quickly realized she lived on an island of good fortune. Her father was a doctor, and her family prospered, while others struggled to find enough to eat. Their lovely home stood alone in the field until the economy improved years later. Atkins knew she had done nothing to earn her comfort. She was just lucky.

Features Anne Stanton A gigantic hole in the heart of Petoskey was supposed to have turned into a city showpiece by now.
But the hole remains, and on November 3, the Petoskey City Council can opt out of its interest in the $60 million project.
Two men who are running for mayor have different views of how to deal with the hole and the developers of Petoskey Pointe, a project on hold that includes condos, a hotel, restaurant, and spa.
Mayor Dale Meyer would rather not focus on how the city dug itself into this hole, quite literally. He prefers to look forward, not backward. His challenger, Ted Pall, says he wants to examine “past mistakes,” to protect the citizens of Petoskey in the future. He believes the city can avoid a profound misstep by taking advantage of the contractual opening on November 3.

Features Anne Stanton Breast cancer is no party, but raising money to help those grappling with the disease is, well … great fun, said Jane Rolf, who organized the Breast Health Fair in the upcoming annual Remembrance Run.
Along with the Breast Health Fair, the October 4 event at features a run or walk (not timed), prizes and lots of pink merchandise. The Traverse City Track Club sponsors the event, with men in spiffy black running tights and tuxes helping out on the course.
Runners can eat all the calories they just burned up with Moomer’s homemade ice cream and Espresso Bay coffee drinks

Features Anne Stanton When the developers of Bay Harbor Resort received the go-ahead to build a resort for the rich on top of an ancient mess of cement kiln dust, the DNR was in a “conundrum.”
The cement kiln dust had tested as inert, meaning that run-off water didn’t pick up known toxins from the cement kiln dust, said Bob Wagner, the DEQ supervisor for the ongoing clean-up at Bay Harbor Resort.
Yet, there were significant red flags. Arsenic-laden water was seeping from two of the piles (cited in a DNR memo of 12/14/94) and samples of cement kiln dust contained elevated levels of heavy metals. There was a Congressional report the year before, which raised serious concerns of the presence of dioxins and furans (among the most toxic of toxins) in kiln dust at 11 former cement production sites across the country.

Features Anne Stanton The late David Hacker, a hard-nosed reporter for the Detroit Free Press, used to say, “Be careful of what you wish for. You might just get it.”
So, perhaps, it is with the developers of the posh Bay Harbor Resort. In the early 1990s, a plan was hatched by developer David Johnson and the CMS Land Company to turn a 1,200-acre moonscape—the former site of a cement plant near Petoskey—into a posh resort. They sought permission to treat the cement dust like dirt since the DEQ had earlier ruled the dust inert.
Their timing was right. Governor John Engler was in power, and so was his policy of minimal environmental oversight. Those in the DNR and DEQ who pushed too hard to apply the rules were often fired or quietly put into a small corner office.
In July of 1994, the state Department of Natural Resources signed a “Covenant of Not to Sue” with Boyne USA and the CMS Land Company, a common practice to encourage development of polluted industrial sites. Soon the five miles of Lake Michigan shoreline became America’s most astonishing makeover.

Features Anne Stanton When Jessica Edwards decided to take her two-year-old son to the emergency room last November, her abusive boyfriend vowed revenge. He’d do everything in his power to take her son away from her, along with their unborn child.
And he did.
The children are now in foster care and Edwards sees them twice a week for one hour each.
The story of Edwards, an attractive young woman with a wild adolescence, is not black and white. The argument to take her children away could be made either way in court.
But Edwards, 23, was robbed of her day in court because of a state law that gave her boyfriend, Quincy Hurst, the power to waive her right to a trial.
Edwards’ story provides a glimpse into how she lost her children in a system that she views as baffling and unfair.

Features Anne Stanton There’s been a quiet shake-up in the region’s media world and here’s the bottom line: you’ll be seeing more news about bake sales and Pop Warner football, and less local hard news on the environment, crime, and political corruption.
The reason for the shift, according to insiders at both papers: the Traverse City Record-Eagle is locked in an advertising war with the Grand Traverse Insider, a newbie paper that specializes in pillowy soft news.
Some of the Record-Eagle’s loss is due to the bad economy. Real estate and auto ad sales are tumbling across the country. The myriad of specialty publications has also cut into sales — the Northern Express, the Business News, GT Woman, Bay Area Times, Traverse Magazine, and Grand Traverse Edibles, to name a few. Radio and TV also compete for ad dollars.

Features Anne Stanton Two months ago, my oldest brother called me to say the doctors had finally figured out why the lining of my dad’s outer lung kept filling up with fluid.
He had mesothelioma, a cancer caused from exposure to asbestos. It was hard to detect because the hundreds of little tumors were no bigger than little tiny pencil points.
I found the diagnosis very strange since my father was a state trooper and didn’t work around asbestos. He did recall putting in a new furnace in the basement of our old house in Davison. He thought there might have been asbestos tucked around the vents, but he wasn’t sure. Or maybe it was the two years in his early 20s when he worked for a dairy. He thought the pipes might have been lined with the killer white stuff.
I am old enough to have seen death before. Some of my friends were young, some old. My grief was deep, but simple. I’d miss them very much. But the reason I am writing this is because I had problems this time around. My feelings were so… complicated.

Features Anne Stanton Everything about the new 2 Lads winery is bold, edgy and eye-catching. You could say the same about the hip, 30-something owners, Chris Baldyga and Cornel Olivier.
The winery reflects the inner them.
Two Lads is about 14 miles north on Old Mission Peninsula and well worth the trip up the skinny strip of land, which offers shimmering views of the east and west bays. If you haven’t been on Old Mission in awhile, vineyards are everywhere—a veritable Napa Valley of the north.
Two Lads sits atop a large hill off Smokey Hollow Road. You can’t miss the huge angular, flat-roofed building rising up from a grassy mound with monstrous panes of concrete, steel, aluminum and flashes of orange. Inside is black leather furniture, more orange, and clever accents of cork. Baldyga explained that he and his partner prefer the spare, minimalist lines so as not to clutter up the experience of wine tasting.
The building’s bi-level design capitalizes on gravity to move the wine from the machines where the grapes are squeezed to a cavernous basement where it’s fermented in steel vats or oak barrels. An art gallery off the tasting room features the work of photographer Paul Osborne, who also designed the very cool wine label. Osborne, also in his 30s, has retired—at least temporarily—to
St. Croix Island, where he spends his days kiteboarding.

Features Anne Stanton Sally Stilwill is a Three Cups of Tea groupie and she’s not afraid to admit it.
After reading Greg Mortenson’s book in 2007 in a book club, she flew to Washington D.C. and shelled out $350 so that she and her daughter could personally hear and meet him in the flesh.
After his speech, Mortenson signed a copy of her daughter’s book, a New York Times bestseller, with this advice: “When your heart speaks, take good notes.”

Features Anne Stanton When the winds of Hurricane Katrina began to blow and dark clouds threw shadows over the hot streets of New Orleans, Kimberly Roberts grabbed a used $20 video camera that she bought the day before.
Roberts roamed the neighborhood, capturing the nervous looks of little girls and old men. The drizzle morphed into a torrential rain and Roberts was forced to take refuge in her ramshackle attic, along with her husband, Scott, and neighbors. She kept taping the raging floodwaters and awaited rescue that never came. Her most dramatic footage includes a do-gooder guy draped over a punching bag and ferrying her neighbors to higher land.
“It’s unbelievable. She somehow keeps the camera dry while all this is going on,” said filmmaker Tia Lessin.