Anne Stanton
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Bay Harbor conundrum
Features
The Bay Harbor conundrum?
It all comes down to mercury
By Anne Stanton 9/28/09
Some day, an ambitious reporter will write a story about Bay Harbor, a luxurious resort and golf course that emerged from the detritus of an old cement plant.
The book would no doubt touch on the backdoor intertwining of politics and money, but this week’s chapter in Express will focus on how key players are trying to find a way to locally dispose of water contaminated by the mountains of buried cement kiln dust.
Each day, CMS Energy, an early partner in the resort, collects 200,000 gallons of leachate at Bay Harbor Resort and nearby East Park. (Still under study is exactly how much of the contaminated water still runs into Little Traverse Bay).
The company is now looking in earnest to find a way to get rid of the leachate in Petoskey, rather than trucking it to Traverse City and Johannesburg, a tiny town near Gaylord.
But first, a recap of recent progress. The beach at East Park reopened this summer in a ceremony that drew both protesters and celebrants of the nearly $10 million clean-up effort. In July, there were no pH readings above the level of nine along the entire shoreline. In August, there was just one reading that exceeded the 9.0 level, and that was in an isolated area west of the golf course, said CMS Energy spokesman Tim Petroskey. (When the pH is above 9.0, fish have trouble getting oxygen from water.)
It all comes down to mercury
By Anne Stanton 9/28/09
Some day, an ambitious reporter will write a story about Bay Harbor, a luxurious resort and golf course that emerged from the detritus of an old cement plant.
The book would no doubt touch on the backdoor intertwining of politics and money, but this week’s chapter in Express will focus on how key players are trying to find a way to locally dispose of water contaminated by the mountains of buried cement kiln dust.
Each day, CMS Energy, an early partner in the resort, collects 200,000 gallons of leachate at Bay Harbor Resort and nearby East Park. (Still under study is exactly how much of the contaminated water still runs into Little Traverse Bay).
The company is now looking in earnest to find a way to get rid of the leachate in Petoskey, rather than trucking it to Traverse City and Johannesburg, a tiny town near Gaylord.
But first, a recap of recent progress. The beach at East Park reopened this summer in a ceremony that drew both protesters and celebrants of the nearly $10 million clean-up effort. In July, there were no pH readings above the level of nine along the entire shoreline. In August, there was just one reading that exceeded the 9.0 level, and that was in an isolated area west of the golf course, said CMS Energy spokesman Tim Petroskey. (When the pH is above 9.0, fish have trouble getting oxygen from water.)
Monday, September 28, 2009
Leelanau County sighting: cougar or housecat?
Features
Leelanau County sighting:
Cougar or housecat?
By Anne Stanton 9/28/09
On Labor Day, Jerome Wiater, a respected orthopedic surgeon, took a picture of what he believed to be a cougar about 75 yards from the edge of his backyard.
Dr. Wiater and his son, Christian, saw the animal in Burdickville sauntering along County Road 675, just before it intersects with County Road 616.
But was it really a cougar?
Both the state Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, an advocacy group for the preservation and protection of cougars, completed their analyses of the photos this week.
Here’s what they said:
Cougar or housecat?
By Anne Stanton 9/28/09
On Labor Day, Jerome Wiater, a respected orthopedic surgeon, took a picture of what he believed to be a cougar about 75 yards from the edge of his backyard.
Dr. Wiater and his son, Christian, saw the animal in Burdickville sauntering along County Road 675, just before it intersects with County Road 616.
But was it really a cougar?
Both the state Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, an advocacy group for the preservation and protection of cougars, completed their analyses of the photos this week.
Here’s what they said:
Monday, September 28, 2009
Paddle your own canoe
Features
Paddle Your Own Canoe
By Anne Stanton 9/28/09
Dreams can take awhile to make their way to reality, but Stephen Brede, at age 58, decided it was time.
The Petoskey writer had always wanted to make a big canoe trip. So last winter, he planned a summer trip to circumnavigate Lake Huron, and on June 21, he pushed off.
Ruth, his wife, noted that his launch date coincided with their first wedding anniversary. That’s not to say, she wasn’t fully behind the effort and would have joined him, except that she didn’t feel she was a strong enough paddler.
In fact, she had her own worries about Brede, who had spent so much time planning the route, supplies, and equipment that he had little time to paddle or work out. She cautioned him to take it easy the first few weeks, particularly after hearing about a kayaker starting out this spring on a 3,800-mile Great Lakes expedition. The kayaker gave up after three weeks, plagued by tendon problems in his arms.
By Anne Stanton 9/28/09
Dreams can take awhile to make their way to reality, but Stephen Brede, at age 58, decided it was time.
The Petoskey writer had always wanted to make a big canoe trip. So last winter, he planned a summer trip to circumnavigate Lake Huron, and on June 21, he pushed off.
Ruth, his wife, noted that his launch date coincided with their first wedding anniversary. That’s not to say, she wasn’t fully behind the effort and would have joined him, except that she didn’t feel she was a strong enough paddler.
In fact, she had her own worries about Brede, who had spent so much time planning the route, supplies, and equipment that he had little time to paddle or work out. She cautioned him to take it easy the first few weeks, particularly after hearing about a kayaker starting out this spring on a 3,800-mile Great Lakes expedition. The kayaker gave up after three weeks, plagued by tendon problems in his arms.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Hunting down bed bugs
Features
Hunting down Bed Bugs
By Anne Stanton 9/21/09
Not unlike humans, dogs need a purpose driven life. So concludes Jim Rutherford, a Manistee dog trainer and pest inspector, who believes—after five years of working with animals—that dogs and humans have a lot in common.
The life purpose of his dogs? To sniff out pests.
Jack, a.ka. the Chubby Checker, is a certified bed bug canine detector. His beloved dog, Zeus, a yellow lab, is certified to sniff out termites and carpenter ants, but had to take an early retirement due to illness. B.B. King, a chocolate lab, is learning the bed bug business slowly, but with enthusiasm. And Walter the Wonder Dog, is a really quick study. He’s getting trained to help a New York City exterminator stamp out bed bugs.
Rutherford is the president of Action Termite & Pest Control and the Action Canine Institute. His business is situated on a little dirt road south of Manistee, but he’ll soon move to Freesoil a mile away, where he plans to relocate his offices and open a dog park. He envisions it as a place where folks can take their pets for agility training or a walk during winter.
Rutherford, whose first love was golf, came into pests and dog training by accident, or fortune, depending on how you look at it.
By Anne Stanton 9/21/09
Not unlike humans, dogs need a purpose driven life. So concludes Jim Rutherford, a Manistee dog trainer and pest inspector, who believes—after five years of working with animals—that dogs and humans have a lot in common.
The life purpose of his dogs? To sniff out pests.
Jack, a.ka. the Chubby Checker, is a certified bed bug canine detector. His beloved dog, Zeus, a yellow lab, is certified to sniff out termites and carpenter ants, but had to take an early retirement due to illness. B.B. King, a chocolate lab, is learning the bed bug business slowly, but with enthusiasm. And Walter the Wonder Dog, is a really quick study. He’s getting trained to help a New York City exterminator stamp out bed bugs.
Rutherford is the president of Action Termite & Pest Control and the Action Canine Institute. His business is situated on a little dirt road south of Manistee, but he’ll soon move to Freesoil a mile away, where he plans to relocate his offices and open a dog park. He envisions it as a place where folks can take their pets for agility training or a walk during winter.
Rutherford, whose first love was golf, came into pests and dog training by accident, or fortune, depending on how you look at it.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Cougar in Leelanau County
Features
Cougar in Leelanau County?
smile and say… growl
By Anne Stanton 9/14/09
Labor Day. Perfect weather. Mid-afternoon. Christian Wiater and his dad, Jerome, a downstate orthopedic surgeon, were in the backyard of their summer home. They were walking to Big Glen Lake where Wiater planned to water ski. Dad had a camera in hand for photos.
Jerome glanced through the sunlit woods and saw a cougar heading north toward the lake along the west shoulder of County Road 675, which dead-ends into a T-intersection with County Road 616. (The little intersection is known as Burdickville).
smile and say… growl
By Anne Stanton 9/14/09
Labor Day. Perfect weather. Mid-afternoon. Christian Wiater and his dad, Jerome, a downstate orthopedic surgeon, were in the backyard of their summer home. They were walking to Big Glen Lake where Wiater planned to water ski. Dad had a camera in hand for photos.
Jerome glanced through the sunlit woods and saw a cougar heading north toward the lake along the west shoulder of County Road 675, which dead-ends into a T-intersection with County Road 616. (The little intersection is known as Burdickville).
Monday, September 7, 2009
A sick story
Features
A Sick Story
One man’s perspective from the inside
By Anne Stanton 9/7/09
The tough health decisions get made quietly with little notice. I was in Livingston, Montana, last week, getting together with friends, including a popular river guide who regularly takes people out on the Yellowstone. His clients are rich folks who have health insurance up the wazoo. He turned down our offer for a late dinner, telling me that he can’t eat past 7 p.m., or he gets truly awful acid reflux and stomach pain. He won’t see a doctor because he doesn’t have health insurance.
Then there was my old neighbor, a pretty 38-year-old, who had muscle pain in her legs that sometimes crippled her. But she didn’t go to the doctor either. She feared a diagnosis would count against her as a pre-existing condition and she’d never get an insurance company to sign her on.
Joseph Sloan, a state worker, sees the back end to these stories.
One man’s perspective from the inside
By Anne Stanton 9/7/09
The tough health decisions get made quietly with little notice. I was in Livingston, Montana, last week, getting together with friends, including a popular river guide who regularly takes people out on the Yellowstone. His clients are rich folks who have health insurance up the wazoo. He turned down our offer for a late dinner, telling me that he can’t eat past 7 p.m., or he gets truly awful acid reflux and stomach pain. He won’t see a doctor because he doesn’t have health insurance.
Then there was my old neighbor, a pretty 38-year-old, who had muscle pain in her legs that sometimes crippled her. But she didn’t go to the doctor either. She feared a diagnosis would count against her as a pre-existing condition and she’d never get an insurance company to sign her on.
Joseph Sloan, a state worker, sees the back end to these stories.
Monday, August 31, 2009
A life with purpose/Andrew Johnston
Features
A life with purpose
Andrew Johnston lends a hand in the world’s most dangerous places
By Anne Stanton 8/31/09
For a guy who has seen the worst of the worst on our planet, Andrew Johnston is an easy-going sort of guy with an endearing quality of saying, “Yeah, yeah” before he responds to a reporter’s questions.
But that calm demeanor has brought him great success in Third World countries, which even the most seasoned of travelers fear to tread. Haiti. Liberia. Pakistan. And now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Johnston returned to the states recently to visit family and friends. He took some time with the Express to describe his work helping out survivors of civil war, disease, and a major earthquake.
His job of assuaging Third World misery was actually a hard one to get, but Johnston said luck and education played into it. For one, he began learning French in third grade at Pathfinder School, and then studied it intensively at Interlochen Arts Academy. French is spoken all over the world owing to French colonization.
As it turned out—and much to his own surprise—Johnston had a good head for management and math, majoring in economics at Columbia University. He worked on Wall Street in mergers and acquisitions at the age of 22, just out of college.
Andrew Johnston lends a hand in the world’s most dangerous places
By Anne Stanton 8/31/09
For a guy who has seen the worst of the worst on our planet, Andrew Johnston is an easy-going sort of guy with an endearing quality of saying, “Yeah, yeah” before he responds to a reporter’s questions.
But that calm demeanor has brought him great success in Third World countries, which even the most seasoned of travelers fear to tread. Haiti. Liberia. Pakistan. And now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Johnston returned to the states recently to visit family and friends. He took some time with the Express to describe his work helping out survivors of civil war, disease, and a major earthquake.
His job of assuaging Third World misery was actually a hard one to get, but Johnston said luck and education played into it. For one, he began learning French in third grade at Pathfinder School, and then studied it intensively at Interlochen Arts Academy. French is spoken all over the world owing to French colonization.
As it turned out—and much to his own surprise—Johnston had a good head for management and math, majoring in economics at Columbia University. He worked on Wall Street in mergers and acquisitions at the age of 22, just out of college.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Pot Shot
Features
Pot Shot
Northern Express articles trigger raid on medical marijuana grower
By Anne Stanton 8/24/09
About two weeks after appearing on the cover of Northern Express with his lush marijuana plants, Archie Kiel sat among the plants on his balcony chatting with a Kalkaska County Commissioner.
They noticed a helicopter flying low over the house -- so low that his plants started shaking. Kiel was about to call the police to complain when the police came to him. Police cars filled his driveway and about seven Traverse Narcotics Team officers walked up to his open door.
Kiel, who decided to go public in the Northern Express July 27 issue as a caregiver or supplier to medical marijuana patients, was about to be raided.
“They walked up with their hands on their guns and said they were checking into the fact that I was an illegal caregiver with too many plants,” Kiel said.
But the raid last Thursday was unlike anything anyone could recall in Michigan.
Northern Express articles trigger raid on medical marijuana grower
By Anne Stanton 8/24/09
About two weeks after appearing on the cover of Northern Express with his lush marijuana plants, Archie Kiel sat among the plants on his balcony chatting with a Kalkaska County Commissioner.
They noticed a helicopter flying low over the house -- so low that his plants started shaking. Kiel was about to call the police to complain when the police came to him. Police cars filled his driveway and about seven Traverse Narcotics Team officers walked up to his open door.
Kiel, who decided to go public in the Northern Express July 27 issue as a caregiver or supplier to medical marijuana patients, was about to be raided.
“They walked up with their hands on their guns and said they were checking into the fact that I was an illegal caregiver with too many plants,” Kiel said.
But the raid last Thursday was unlike anything anyone could recall in Michigan.
Monday, August 17, 2009
The debate over using weed killer on Lake Michigan reeds
Features
It’s a Jungle Out There...
The debate over using weed-killer on Lake Michigan’s reeds
By Anne Stanton 8/17/09
When you get put on hold at the Watershed Center of Grand Traverse Bay, you’ll hear bits of environmental advice such as avoiding lawn fertilizers near the bay.
But now the environmental group is supporting a plan to put Rodeo—pretty much the chemical equivalent of the weed-killer Roundup — into Lake Michigan in order to kill a reed called phragmites (frag-MIGHT-eez).
You can see patches of the 13-foot reeds swaying in shallow water from Northport to Charlevoix. Unlike the native phragmites that have been here for thousands of years, this European exotic plant arrived in the Atlantic seaports sometime in the early 1800s, according to research by Kristin Saltonsall of Yale University.
The debate over using weed-killer on Lake Michigan’s reeds
By Anne Stanton 8/17/09
When you get put on hold at the Watershed Center of Grand Traverse Bay, you’ll hear bits of environmental advice such as avoiding lawn fertilizers near the bay.
But now the environmental group is supporting a plan to put Rodeo—pretty much the chemical equivalent of the weed-killer Roundup — into Lake Michigan in order to kill a reed called phragmites (frag-MIGHT-eez).
You can see patches of the 13-foot reeds swaying in shallow water from Northport to Charlevoix. Unlike the native phragmites that have been here for thousands of years, this European exotic plant arrived in the Atlantic seaports sometime in the early 1800s, according to research by Kristin Saltonsall of Yale University.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Big Kenny has a big heart
Music
Big Kenny has a Big Heart...
...for the children in Darfur
By Anne Stanton 8/3/09
It’s one of those, “Isn’t it a small world” stories. Bart Lewis of Honor was in Nairobi two years ago at a private plane hangar on assignment with the Kenyan tourist bureau to find “good stories.” He noticed a film crew milling around and a guy standing alone with long hair and an oddball top hat.
The celebrity—at least he guessed he was a celebrity—was wearing a vest that said, “Love everybody.” After talking to the camera crew, he learned the man was named Big Kenny, a country western singer who was there to provide supplies to the war weary people in Darfur and set up a new school.
...for the children in Darfur
By Anne Stanton 8/3/09
It’s one of those, “Isn’t it a small world” stories. Bart Lewis of Honor was in Nairobi two years ago at a private plane hangar on assignment with the Kenyan tourist bureau to find “good stories.” He noticed a film crew milling around and a guy standing alone with long hair and an oddball top hat.
The celebrity—at least he guessed he was a celebrity—was wearing a vest that said, “Love everybody.” After talking to the camera crew, he learned the man was named Big Kenny, a country western singer who was there to provide supplies to the war weary people in Darfur and set up a new school.
Monday, August 3, 2009
The highs & lows of medical marijuana
Features
The Highs and Lows of Medicinal Marijuana
By Anne Stanton 8/3/09
The conclusion of a two-part series about the impact of the medical
marijuana law.
Last week, Northern Express profiled two pot growers who have a “passion”
for marijuana. They love to grow it, they love to smoke it. They believe
it can make people feel better and even cure them.
By Anne Stanton 8/3/09
The conclusion of a two-part series about the impact of the medical
marijuana law.
Last week, Northern Express profiled two pot growers who have a “passion”
for marijuana. They love to grow it, they love to smoke it. They believe
it can make people feel better and even cure them.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Medical Marijuana: A growning industry
Features
A Growing Industry
3,000 registered marijuana patients seek out sources
By Anne Stanton 7/27/09
Now that people have had a couple of months to register as patients under
the new medical marijuana law, it makes you wonder: How does the whole
thing work? Do you just call up a pot grower and put in an order?
3,000 registered marijuana patients seek out sources
By Anne Stanton 7/27/09
Now that people have had a couple of months to register as patients under
the new medical marijuana law, it makes you wonder: How does the whole
thing work? Do you just call up a pot grower and put in an order?
Monday, July 20, 2009
Bill Pierce
Features
Bill Pierce: The Problem Solver
How a low-tech water filter is saving lives in the Third World
By Anne Stanton 7/20/09
Bill Pierce leads a quietly exciting life. But you might not get that
right away.
He’s pretty much a normal looking middle age guy—short and stocky with
white hair and a ruddy complexion. He’s the head of a small, but thriving
Kalkaska business and a Traverse City restaurant owner. He calls himself a
problem solver.
How a low-tech water filter is saving lives in the Third World
By Anne Stanton 7/20/09
Bill Pierce leads a quietly exciting life. But you might not get that
right away.
He’s pretty much a normal looking middle age guy—short and stocky with
white hair and a ruddy complexion. He’s the head of a small, but thriving
Kalkaska business and a Traverse City restaurant owner. He calls himself a
problem solver.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Is wind power right for you? Part 2
Features
PART TWO: Winds of Controversy
Is Wind Right for You?
By Anne Stanton 7/20/09
If heavy winds routinely bounce your children’s toys around the yard, your
home is probably a good candidate for wind power.
But how do you know for sure? And if you do get a wind turbine, should you
choose between a horizontal axis or a vertical axis wind turbine like the
new Windspire built in Manistee?
Is Wind Right for You?
By Anne Stanton 7/20/09
If heavy winds routinely bounce your children’s toys around the yard, your
home is probably a good candidate for wind power.
But how do you know for sure? And if you do get a wind turbine, should you
choose between a horizontal axis or a vertical axis wind turbine like the
new Windspire built in Manistee?
Monday, July 13, 2009
Mariah fights winds of controversy
Features
Mariah Fights Winds of Controversy
By Anne Stanton 7/13/09
Governor Jennifer Granholm is relying on the “green” industry to pull
Michigan out of its economic mire, but environmentalists say that careful
research is needed to get the most out of your money.
By Anne Stanton 7/13/09
Governor Jennifer Granholm is relying on the “green” industry to pull
Michigan out of its economic mire, but environmentalists say that careful
research is needed to get the most out of your money.
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