Business & Economy
Line 5 carries nearly 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas daily from Superior, Wisconsin, through Michigan and on to Sarnia, Ontario.

Ice makes oil spills harder to detect, easier to contain

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ICE & OIL SPILLS: What happens if oil spills under ice in freshwater? The question rises in prominence as controversy continues overEmbrudge’s Line 5 beneath the Straits of Mackinac. We hear about Line 5 and an earlier Kalamazoo River pipeline spill from Enbridge, MSU, the Kalamazoo Watershed, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Ottawa Indians and Michigan Water Environment Association. By Cameryn Cass. FOR SAULT STE. MARIE, ST. IGNACE, BAY MILLS, MARQUETTE, CHEBOYGAN, TRAVERSE CITY, IRON RIVER, ALPENA AND ALL POINTS.

Arts & Entertainment
Tor and the raven posing together on a beach.

Children’s book features furry and feathered friendship on the Great Lakes

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TOR & RAVEN: A new illustrated children’s book set in Northern Michigan tells the story of a dog and a raven that befriended each other. Scenes are set at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the Platte River and Fishtown in Leland. One author lives part of the year in Empire and the other, whose family homesteaded in Leelanau County in the 1880s, grew up in the area. For news and feature sections. FOR LEELANAU, TRAVERSE CITY AND ALL POINTS.

Arts & Entertainment
A map details the nine major rock climbing opportunities that the Upper Peninsula offers.

A growing fad in ‘flat’ Michigan: rock climbing

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ROCK CLIMBING: Despite Michigan’s stereotype as a “flat” state, interest in rock climbing is booming, especially in the Upper Peninsula where Michigan’s first climber-owned park opened near Marquette and Munising hosts an annual ice fest. Climbers in Grand Ledge want the city to better maintain the Ledges there. We hear from climbing groups and the DNR. For news, sports and feature sections. By Cameryn Cass. FOR MARQUETTE, BAY MILLS, IRON MOUNTAIN, SAULT STE. MARIE, CHEBOYGAN, ST. IGNACE, LANSING CITY PULSE AND ALL POINTS.

Capital News Service
Mass timber advocates hope that Michigan State’s STEM Teaching and Learning Facility will be a place where contractors can learn to build with the more sustainable alternative.

An ancient building material could be the wave of the future

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MASS TIMBER: Using timber instead of steel or concrete in construction can reduce carbon footprints dramatically. Nationwide, demand for what is called mass timber tripled between 2018 and 2021 and last year, Michigan State University opened the state’s first mass timber building in the state. We interview the director of MassTimber@MSU, the head of the Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville, the Michigan Environmental Council and the board chair of the Michigan Forest Biomaterials Institute. By Cameryn Cass. FOR LANSING, ST. IGNACE, SAULT SAINTE MARIE AND ALL POINTS.

Energy
Pigeon River Country State Forest, home of the Bluesource/DNR Big Wild Forest Carbon Project.

Carbon offsets: Success or scam?

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CARBON OFFSETS: A DNR program that lets utilities such as DTE Energy and other businesses buy carbon offset credits is under fire from the Sierra Club, which labels it a scam. Carbon offsets involve allowing trees, which sequester climate-harming carbon, to grow longer and larger. Critics say Michigan’s program doesn’t always keep trees growing any longer than they already would under current harvest plans. They say it is far more effective to reduce carbon emissions that worsen climate change. The DNR defends the project underway in the Pigeon River State Forest north of Gaylord, the U.P.’s Keweenaw Peninsula and Charlevoix and Emmet counties. By Camryn Cass. FOR PETOSKEY, HARBOR SPRINGS, CHEBOYGAN, MONTMORENCY, ALPENA, MICHIGAN FARM NEWS, IRON MOUNTAIN, MARQUETTE, BAY MILLS, CRAWFORD COUNTY, ALCONA and ALL POINTS.

Environment
An Eat Safe Fish advisory poster for the Saginaw Bay area.

Only half of Great Lakes residents are aware of advisories for safely eating fish 

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FISH ADVISORIES: The Great Lakes Basin draws millions of anglers each year to fish in its lakes, rivers and streams, and millions more of the region’s residents eat those fish. The problem is, only about half of them are aware of fish consumption advisories. We hear from experts, including the Eat Safe Fish toxicologist at the state Department of Health and Human Services. Includes references to Kalamazoo River, Huron River, Oscoda and Detroit. By Cameryn Cass. FOR ALPENA, ALCONA, MONROE, SAULT STE. MARIE, BAY MILLS, MARQUETTE, LEELANAU, HARBOR SPRINGS, PETOSKEY, TRAVERSE CITY, CHEBOYGAN, HOLLAND, MANISTEE, OCEANA COUNTY, BENZIE COUNTY, LUDINGTON, DETROIT and ALL POINTS.

Business & Economy
Tahquamenon Falls State Park in Paradise in the Upper Peninsula.

Movement links nature to health care

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NATURE TIME: People feel better mentally if they connect with nature, a factor that is contributing to a boom in state park visitation. A new Canadian program provides free admission to people who are prescribed nature by their physicians, but Michigan isn’t ready yet to go the free route. Every home in Michigan is within a one-hour drive from at least one state park. We hear from the DNR and a Rochester clinical social worker specialist. By Cameryn Cass. FOR ALL POINTS.

News

15 free car seats make child passenger safety more accessible in DeWitt

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The DeWitt Township Fire Department will get 15 high-back booster seats this week in a program to promote child safety on the road. 

DeWitt’s high-back booster seats. Photo by Laura Plaza

The free booster seats will be available to eligible, low-income families, said Kara Rueckert, occupant protection program coordinator with Michigan’s Office of Highway Safety Planning, which administers the program funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

Though this program has been going on for some time, it’s just making its way to DeWitt. 

“I think people are just starting to find out that I’m a child passenger safety technician,” said Laura Plaza, the Dewitt Township Fire Department’s certified technician. “I’m having people starting to tag me in posts or reach out to me via phone or email to schedule car seat checks or installations.”  

Plaza said she’d do a check once every month or two in the past, but now she’s doing several a month. 

Plaza cites education about car seat safety as the reason for this rising interest, especially with first-time parents and hospitals that make sure newborns leave safely.  

Offering more education about car seat safety is a major goal of the Office of Highway Safety Planning. With education, it hopes to provide parents the tools to keep their children safe, said Rueckert. Already, Michigan’s Child Passenger Safety Law requires all children under 8 years old and below 4 foot, 9 inches to be secured in a car seat until their age or height exceeds minimum requirements. 

The height requirement, though, acts more as a recommendation, said Plaza. 

“Parents kind of graduate them from the forward-facing seats just to a seatbelt,” Plaza said.

Arts & Entertainment

Intimate concert venues to strengthen Lansing’s music community

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Cameryn CassLucas Powell

Jon PohlThe moose, by Jon Pohl

Cameryn CassKonstantin Polyakov

A warmly lit, wood-paneled room furnished with plump leather couches and a taxidermied moose above a stone fireplace makes for an unlikely concert venue.  

But a venue it was, if only for the evening. Lansing Living Room Sessions coordinated the concert with the Michigan Wildlife Center on Saturday night, allowing two local musicians the platform to share their music in a communal way. 

This personalized concert style is something the Living Room Sessions is trying to normalize, as inspired by the Lisbon Living Room Sessions in Portugal.  

Basically, it aims to create an uninhibited musical experience by bringing artists and listeners closer together in a more intimate space: living rooms, basements and other places that make you feel right at home, said Jon Pohl, a curator at Lansing Living Room Sessions. Pohl sees this way of music delivery as a way to “elevate the arts” in a special way.  

“It’s my belief that we’re fully living out our humanity when we’re being creative,” Pohl said. 

Lansing Living Room Sessions began in November 2019 and had coordinated only three shows before the pandemic put it on pause, Pohl said. Last August, it resumed and now organizes a show per month. 

Lucas Powell, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist musician, and Konstantin Polyakov, a guitarist and singer, performed on Saturday March 19, and highlighted the communal aspect of the house show performance style. 

“I want there to be a great music community in Lansing,” said Powell. Powell said a close-knit music community is something Lansing is lacking, which forces artists out of the area in search for better platforms. He said Lansing Living Room Sessions is helping foster a crucial sense of community.

News

Citizens crowd meeting; DeWitt police officer reinstated

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After being fired, a DeWitt police officer appealed the township’s decision with the community by his side. More than 75 community members were present to support the officer. Kelsey LesterCitizens gather along the walls and outside of the Township Board meeting. The news came as a shock to Officer Robert Stump and his family on Feb. 17, when he received the notice of his separation of employment after 14 years of service.