To Northport’s Idyll Farms. The farmstead’s Mont Idyll — a smooth and creamy cheese with a citrusy kick and “beautiful rind” painted with vegetable ash that’s already a winner of multiple American Cheese Society awards — was declared a Good Food Awards winner on Jan. 17, Idyll Farms co-owner…

Information is power.

To all northern Michigan residents honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and his message Monday, including Northwestern Michigan College’s Children’s Choir Cantus, which is among the 100 vocalists and musicians at the “MLK: A Musical Remembrance” event at the City Opera House.

Michigan has an incarceration problem — a structural flaw in how a system designed to protect and punish has evolved during the past six decades.

The U.S. Department of Commerce on Dec. 6 officially agreed with farmers’ and processors’ contention that dried tart cherries grown in Turkey were being sold in the U.S. at unfairly low prices.

When our reporter went to cover a story at Camp Grayling, she was told not to walk too closely to gauges measuring the toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — because the PFAS she likely has in, or on, her body would set them off.

To Terry Wooten. The National Writers Series selected Wooten, of Antrim County, to receive the 2020 Bill Montgomery Literary Service Award at its Jan. 31 author event. Wooten is recognized for his poetry and for creating the Stone Circle near Elk Rapids, as well as his performances and works…

Residents of northwest Lower Michigan spend a lot of time outdoors. The State of Michigan recently decided to spend a lot of money to improve our region’s outdoor recreation facilities.

To the people of Benzie County. A section of the Betsie Valley Trail that is soft, sunken and difficult for bicyclists will be reconstructed thanks to a $150,000 Michigan Department of Natural Resources Passport grant.

Listen to your mother.

We were ecstatic in 2018 when officials announced plans to convert a shuttered prison in southeast Grand Traverse County into a bustling manufacturing facility.

We’re not much for New Year’s resolutions.

To the National Writers Series. Approaching its 10-year anniversary, the NWS is a nonprofit that draws world-renowned authors — and beckons those just emerging — to the City Opera House stage for discussions that aim to bridge the gap between reader and writer.

Bah! Humbug! Christmas is over.

To the people of Kalkaska. Railroad Square in downtown Kalkaska got a green light last week from state economic development officials in the form of a $3.47 million federal grant from the Community Development Block Grant program. The plan is to overhaul a largely vacant stretch of land in t…

There is a special irony to the pain and destruction inflicted by high water levels in the Great Lakes.

Three female, or cow, elk were bedding down for the night in a snowy field when someone shot them, apparently after seeing them while driving by in a vehicle.

’Tis the season for year-end stories.

To the anonymous donor who plans to match dollar-for-dollar up to $30,000 during The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Matching Mondays campaign Dec. 16 and 23. This year’s goal is $175,000. All proceeds stay within the community.To the organization Freshwater Future in northern Lower Michigan, wh…

We all have heard warnings about the coming Asian carp-pocalypse, the looming threat of invasive fish species that linger in canals and river channels just a few miles from Lake Michigan.

Going to the fair should be fun. But part of the journey to the Northwestern Michigan Fairgrounds involves a highway intersection that can be scarier than a carnival ride.

To about 125 art students who sewed 100 pairs of mittens for their Mitten-A-Thon event on Thursday in the Kalkaska High School library to donate to Safe Harbor and Jubilee House, homeless outreach centers in Traverse City. Art teacher Monica Malbouef said students came up with the idea after…

There are plenty of jobs that simply shouldn’t be automated.

The Gallagher family recently protected 172 acres of its more than 400-acre holdings near Traverse City through a conservation easement with the nonprofit Leelanau Conservancy. Those 172 acres — on a ridge that overlooks Grand Traverse Bay from the west side of East Cherry Bend Road — will n…

To volunteers who skipped dinner to cook for the homeless. Joanne Tuck ran the Safe Harbor kitchen from 10 a.m. onward on Thanksgiving, leading a pro-bono crew from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in cutting potatoes, carving turkeys and getting yams in the oven.

Seeing is believing.

Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie. Comfort food rises to top of mind when we think of Thanksgiving.

This week, the annual holiday bustle settled over northern Michigan — a seasonal surge before we tuck in for another long, snowy winter.

To 10 Interlochen Arts Academy alumni among the nominees for the 2020 Grammy Awards: World Youth Symphony Orchestra Principal Conductor and Artistic Director Cristian Macelaru, Best Classical Instrumental Solo; Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and Music Director W…

Some people, particularly those working to carve out a good spin for their interests amid controversy, contend there are two sides to every story.

Have you ever been asked “what would you do with a million dollars?”

For those of us from families whose indignant and divisive politics make holidays hard-to-digest, Thanksgiving preparations involve more than bedeviling the eggs.

A new study shows that the population of sport fish — including bluegill, crappie and yellow perch — has dropped significantly in parts of the Upper Mississippi River that now are home to large numbers of Asian carp. That’s bad news for the Great Lakes fishery, where many fear Asian carp soo…

To Abe Ferris, of Acme, who is embarking on his new business selling painted ceramics. Ferris is 43, has cerebral palsy and requires a caregiver 24/7. But he has sought independence since his early 20s, he said.

Nobody can be everywhere at once, but it’s obvious the system in place to keep tabs on facilities that care for Michigan’s vulnerable adults falls woefully short.

We heard that legislators were already talking about what to do about snow day debt.