Express Staff

Features Express Staff -- November 15th is a holy day!
-- You go to a public place with “hat hair“ and don‘t care.
-- You collect unemployment.

Region Watch Express Staff Protesters head for Washington

Citizens opposed to the pending war in Iraq will voice their opinions at a massive rally in Washington, D.C., on January 18, with a bus scheduled to make the round-trip from Traverse City.
Sponsored by the local Mideast: Just Peace organization, the 54 seat charter bus leaves Traverse City on Friday, January 17 for Washington D.C. returning mid-day on Sunday, January 19. Up to 500,000 people are expected at the demonstration.

Region Watch Express Staff High school lesson in free speech

Quoting from the likes of Mahatma Gandhi can apparently put students in hot water in high school these days, as Troy Stewart found out when the Marquette High School senior was suspended for speaking out against the proposed war in Iraq at a pep rally.
The Oct. 18 suspension was put on hold by a Marquette County judge to determine whether the school had violated Stewart’s First Amendment right to free speech.
What kind of dangerous talk did Stewart fill his fellow students’ ears with? The beginning of his speech is as follows:

Region Watch Express Staff Computer waste
What should a responsible person do with their electronic relics?
Recycle them at Grand Traverse County‘s Computer and Electronics Recycling
Event on November 9 in Traverse City.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, over 4.3 million tons of
electronic waste was discarded in 1999. They project that 63 million more
computers will require disposal by 2005. At present, 75% of our electronic
waste sits piled in basements and attics awaiting better disposal options
than the local landfill.
Residents who want to “do the right thing“ by recycling their old computers
and electronic equipment must make a reservation to attend the collection.
A $5 fee per item will be charged in order to help cover the cost
of shipping and recycling the equipment. Call the Resource Recovery hotline
at 922-2052.

Region Watch Express Staff A ‘precedent-setting vote’ in Bear Creek

The fate of a proposed shopping center and housing development outside Petoskey may hang in the balance of the Nov. 5 election when voters from Bear Creek Township decide a referendum on rezoning the site of the project.
Over one year ago, the township board voted against rezoning the Strathmore Co. site to allow a 175,000-square-foot “big box” store development along with 224 low-income housing apartments and 36 duplexes. Opponents of the project believe that threats of a lawsuit by Strathmore against the township prompted the board to reverse its position a year later.

Music Express Staff If you‘re a veteran of Cherry Festivals past, you know that Traverse City‘s annual cherrypalooza offers not just one but two music festivals throughout the week.
That means several big-ticket, high-profile concerts held outside at Turtle Creek Casino in Williamsburg this year, as well as nightly almost-free concerts at the Open Space by the bay in downtown Traverse City.
Each concert series has its fans, and generally some surprises: last year‘s big concerts featured such offbeat notables as Fuel and Steel Pulse, while the downtown series always manages to unearth an archeological treasure from rock‘s substrata, with past performers including Eric Burdon, Maria Muldaur, Todd Rundgren and Leon Russell.

Features Express Staff When it comes to people, we‘ve got plenty. Hundreds of surveys for our annual Reader‘s Choice awards gave us thousands of names to choose from for everything from Best Waitperson to Top Cop. Just like the “Cheers“ song claims, Northern Michigan is a place where everybody seems to know your name, although often it‘s just a first name. Sometimes readers also like to pull our leg on the survey, voting for people who‘ve been controversial in their communities during the course of the year. Whatever, it‘s all good, so here‘s our readers‘ choices for the Best People of 2002:

Best Local Hero:
The year of the 911 Attack was a reflective one for readers who aptly chose local Firefighters and Postal Workers as Best Local Heroes. Look for stories on pages 10 and 20 on the reaction to 911 by firefighters in Petoskey and postal workers in Traverse City.
Other local heroes who received an above average number of votes included:
-- Marty Moody, Boyne City School Board Trustee and community service volunteer
-- Coach Larry Sellers of TC, who faced trial for a road rage incident
-- Ray Minervini, redeveloper of Building 50
-- Margaret Dodd, Mayor of Traverse City