Noah Fowle

Features Noah Fowle Obama in Michigan: President’s speech at U-M draws conflicting ideologies
By Noah Fowle
On May 1, President Barack Obama arrived on the Ann Arbor campus at the University of Michigan (U-M) to deliver the commencement address amid a seething political climate. Consider that in the wake of his hard-won health care reform, Obama’s approval ratings have sunk from the highs following his historic 2009 inauguration. Plus, a trio of East Coast special election victories by Republican candidates has fed a growing grassroots conservative movement, hoping for yet another pendulum shift among the country’s voters.

Features Noah Fowle Resurrecting the Petoskey Lighthouse
By Noah Fowle
Blown away by a storm in 1924, Petoskey’s last lighthouse was later
replaced with a more utilitarian designed directional light. Yet a local
effort is growing to find a place for a replica structure somewhere along
the city’s Little Traverse Bay coastline.  

Features Noah Fowle On its 20-day tour across the United States, the Tea Party Express had a simple goal: to show its distaste with the current direction of the federal government in Washington D.C.
While the route for the tour was set earlier this year, organizers paid significant attention to Michigan, planning 10 stops. Momentum swelled behind the movement as it traveled through the Upper Peninsula the same week that Rep. Bart Stupak made his announcement he would not seek re-election this year. It also stopped in Petoskey, Charlevoix and Traverse City.
The Tea Party has been gaining momentum ever since the February 2009 rant by financial commentator Rick Santelli on CNBC. During the recent tour, the Tea Party movement pledged to spend upwards of $250,000 in an ad campaign aimed at defeating Stupak, including multiple events in Northern Michigan. It hit a high point prior to its Traverse City stop last week when Stupak, an 18-year member of Congress and lynchpin to the health care bill’s passage, bowed out of this year’s race.

Features Noah Fowle Petoskey’s Rooster Ruckus
Feathers fly in dispute over a pet chicken in Petoskey
By Noah Fowle
Look what a rooster has undone.
The growth of the urban agriculture movement may make hens more popular and acceptable as household pets, but the same cannot be said for their male counterparts. Just ask Sharon and Andy Peters, a Northern Michigan couple in the midst of a lengthy court battle over their pet rooster, Beaker.

Features Noah Fowle TC Takes Urban Chickens Under its Wing
By Noah Fowle
With interest in local agriculture growing and more people interested in knowing where their food comes from, Traverse City is on the cusp of a popular movement with the passage of its chicken ordinance in September.
Russell Soyring, the Traverse City planning director said there has been little activity in his office about the issue since the ordinance passed despite the fact that it changes rules kept in place for more than 50 years to keep chickens out of the city limits.