Katie Huston

Features Katie Huston “Going to Africa? Are you crazy?”
I’m sure that’s what more than a few people thought when I moved to South Africa for eleven months to study and travel. We associate Africa with poverty, corruption, violence, and AIDS. And I’m not here to argue that everything is fine and dandy on the Mother Continent; these are very real issues.

Features Katie Huston So you want to reduce your transportation costs and save the environment, but you’re not about to invest in a new gadget or hybrid car? Consider an alternative that doesn’t require any new gadgets or investments - namely, ride sharing.
The Northwest Michigan Transportation Alliance (NMTA) has set up a website, www.nmride.net, where people can request and offer rides. The website also offers tips, etiquette, and safety information.
Although the program has been around since October 2006, not a lot of people have tapped into it yet. “It’s just in its infancy, and we hope it’s going to grow bigger and catch on,” said Michelle Goetz Grahl, director of NMTA. “Unfortunately, with this kind of thing, you need sort of a critical mass before those matches really happen, and we’re not there yet.”

Features Katie Huston “I got hooked on Segways because of the joy of the glide,” Kathleen Russell says. “It’s always fun to share that with others.”
Russell is the owner of Segway by KAR in downtown Traverse City, where she sells and rents the self-balancing, two-wheeled machines. She stands on a Segway and zips around a pole with ease as I wonder, “How does it stay up?”
As though reading my thoughts, she shows me a flashing diamond of green lights on the platform. “That shows that the gyroscopes are reading the platform 100 times a minute,” she explains.
She opened Segway by KAR in August 2006. The dealership serves 15 counties in Michigan and two in Ohio, and offers six models, which range in price from $5,145 to $5,645. Accessories like golf bags and backpacks are also available.

Features Katie Huston What makes Poets’ Night Out so special, said founder Sandy Robey, is the wide range of people it attracts. “There’s 12-year-olds, there’s people in their 80s and 90s.”
“You have farmers and lawyers. You have adults from all walks of life,” added co-founder Jody Clark.
Starting this week, the annual poetry contest and reading will accept submissions as it gears up for its 11th year. The Poets’ Night Out event of public readings will be held on Sunday, Nov. 11 at the City Opera House in Traverse City.

Features Katie Huston When Garth Ward steps on his accelerator, he can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than 10 seconds. His 20-mile commute used to cost him $18.75 per trip. Now, he’s paying a mere 37 cents.
Ward, a resident of Garfield Township, is the proud owner of an electric vehicle – a Corbin Sparrow. “People don’t realize I move down the road for a penny a mile, and the only thing I have to do is plug it in and fill the windshield fluid,” he says.

Features Katie Huston You’ve finally picked a college, enrolled in classes, and chosen your dorm. You know you need a computer, an alarm clock, and a cell phone (so you can call your mom every day, right?). Before you head back to school, here are a few more things you don’t want to forget:

Features Katie Huston When I left for college three years ago, my brain was packed with advice: from parents, from teachers, from older friends. As it turned out, though, there were some things I just had to learn the hard way – for myself. Here’s the advice I wish I could go back in time and give to my college-bound self...

Art Katie Huston “Coffee?” Noel Trapp offers before I’ve even pulled out my notepad. He looks like a beatnik poet in a shirt that says “Viva Barrista” over a skull and... crossbones? What are those, I ask?
“Portafilters,” he tells me. Portafilters? I don’t know this lingo; I only began drinking coffee a few months ago. And what is a barrista?
Portafilters hold the coffee grounds in an espresso machine. And a barrista is an expert at preparing espresso-based coffee drinks, I find out, as Trapp pours the frothy milk into my latte in a way that creates a foamy white heart on top.

Features Katie Huston Until a year ago, the train station in TC was home to the Grand Traverse dinner train, paying homage to transportation of the past. Now, the station houses ecompany, an electric vehicle rental company and dealership that’s looking to the future.
“We are late getting on board in America,” says Ella Cooper, the vice president of ecompany. “When you go to Japan, an electric vehicle is not an oddity.”
Cooper and president Martin Lagina launched their business on May 15. They’ve got a fleet of nine: six two-seaters, and three that fit a family of four.
The vehicles, which are about half the size of a conventional car, are known as “neighborhood electric vehicles,” or “NVs,” because they’re designed for city driving – they have a top speed of 25 miles per hour and can travel 35-40 miles on a set of fully-charged batteries.

Region Watch Katie Huston New rules for anglers
A foreign pathogen that causes fish to bleed internally will have a big impact on recreational anglers this summer.
Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) is not a native disease to Michigan waters, but it was discovered in Lake Huron in 2005. Department of Natural Resources biologists believe the disease has also found its way into Lake Michigan. It has the potential to devastate entire fish populations.
To prevent the spread of VHS, anglers must make sure they do not release fish caught in VHS-infested waters into any waters that are listed as free of the disease. The transport of bait is prohibited, and anglers must make sure bait obtained in a VHS-positive area is only used on other VHS-positive areas.
“The invasion of exotic species is one of the gravest dangers facing the Great Lakes today,” said Jennifer McKay, a policy specialist at Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council in Petoskey. More than 180 invasive species have entered the Great Lakes since the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Chicago Shipping Canal. Currently, a new invasive species enters the Great Lakes every eight months.