Features Robert Downes The hottest new tourism trend in Northern Michigan comes on two wheels with a fanny pack.

You can see that trend yourself on any drive along the Lake Michigan shoreline north of Charlevoix, where dozens of cyclists pack the Wheelway Trail each day.

Letters

Irony & Oklahoma

A lady from Oklahoma sent in a pronatural gas/fracking response letter in your August 13th issue. I wonder, do they have something called irony in Oklahoma?

I ask this because it makes perfect sense that someone from a dry, flat, hot, nearly treeless place like Oklahoma would want to vacation in a land of verdant forests, rolling hills and immense stretches of clean water like our Michigan. The irony comes in when she lectures us on how wonderful natural gas drilling/fracking is, and that those of us who are rightly terrified of it are “unenlightened.”

Lady, the only way we can keep this area a vacation/everyday living paradise is to stop fracking cold...

Features Rick Coates Recently, I was asked what I thought about service in Northern Michigan and I responded, “it depends on the day.” One day I experience exceptional service, the next day I have a less than satisfactory experience. I wrote an article five years ago giving Northern Michigan a C-minus grade for its service industry.

Features Patrick Sullivan Some environmentalists are alarmed after it was learned that thousands of gallons of flowback wastewater from two high-volume, deep-shale hydraulic fracking wells in Kalkaska County was sprayed on roads throughout the region to control dust.

Letters

Blowing in the wind

I am writing to support Proposition 3, which requires Michigan’s utilities to get 25% of their power from renewable sources by 2025. I don’t think that our utilities, in flatly rejecting Proposition 3, have fairly evaluated the considerable renewable resources that exist in our state.

Take wind, for example. If you look at a wind map of Michigan, (Google “Michigan 50 meter wind map”) you will see that just offshore Michigan is surrounded by winds that are classified as excellent to outstanding. Offshore wind power is rapidly being developed by Denmark, Germany and the U.K. The technology could readily be adapted to the coast of Michigan.

Very little will happen, however, unless we commit ourselves to a significant increase in the production of renewable electric power. There needs to be a market in order for investors and manufacturers to show interest. Proposition 3 will create that market...

Letters

Climate change & Prop 3

Climate change is real. This year’s catastrophes are a mere preview of things to come, and a warning to quit procrastinating and demand action.

Scientific consensus states that anything above 350 ppm will permanently change our climate. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon are now over 392 ppm and rising.

Feed-back loops from methane releases are self-reinforcing. More methane means more heat, leading to more releases. Growing evidence indicates we have already triggered this disastrous pattern...

Features Patrick Sullivan The race for the Michigan’s 1st Congressional seat is one of the hardest fought in the nation this election cycle, and the result is that Michigan residents from Marquette to Manistee have been besieged with television advertisements from each of them and political organizations working on their behalf.

Letters

Vote yes for clean energy ... 'Simple Life' not so simple ... Lessons of the past ... Climate action & Prop 3 ... Facts, not propaganda ... The propositions ... McDowell & business ... Republican tax hike  ... Greening of Detroit ... Vote for Kirsten Keilitz ...  Coffia's clean campaign ... Melanie Stanton the best ... Prop 2 protects our jobs ... 'Extra, Extra...'

Features Erin Crowell

Did you know? Long before Tim Allen was promoting Michigan with his smooth, hypnotic-like voice, our state’s first Pure Michigan campaign was drawing visitors as early as the 1800s.

On Friday, Nov. 16, Michael Federspiel will discuss how local entrepreneurs teamed with railroad and steamship companies to market the Little Traverse Bay region over 100 years ago.

Features Rick Coates There’s a saying that “blood is thicker than water,” and the Bihlman Bros. plan to prove that with their new reality TV show “Blood Brothers.”