These are interesting times for the expression of civil liberty. The tension between individual risk and personal responsibility and public safety and enforcement has always existed. The public health restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic raised a furor over whether the government can really enforce such restrictions without public consent. In theory, public health laws …

How do you enforce common sense and personal responsibility when it comes to safety? Read More »

George Morrow of Cheboygan, at the tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, wrote a message to the world in 1926: “Will the person who finds this bottle return this paper…” He put the message in a green bottle like so many people in human history. Some have dropped urgent messages like Are Wiking, a …

At a time when we are connected almost anywhere, instantaneously, we’re fascinated by ancient messages in a bottle Read More »

I haven’t seen “Porky’s Duck Hunt,” the animated movie that introduced Daffy Duck to the Looney Tunes family, which may be why I never really thought that Daffy was a duck. Daffy squawked more like a goose and looked goofy like, well, Goofy looked like a dog. It certainly didn’t prevent me from enjoying his …

Is Daffy a duck? Read More »

It may not be as challenging as swimming the English Channel, but a British citizen, apparently desperate to obtain an American work visa, swam across the St. Clair River from Ontario on June 5, only to apprehended by Port Huron Police in the area of the Blue Water Bridge. The man must have been a …

Crossing an international current to find work Read More »

McCarty’s Cove lies at the foot of Michigan Street in Marquette, Michigan. It is a place where Glenn Stevens has found solace at various times in his life — a scene that is featured on the cover of his book of photographs, Michigan Street. He returned to that place last summer when the world came …

You’ll know when you get there: McCarty’s Cove, Manny’s Machine… Read More »

Beachcombers walking along the shoreline of the Great Lakes look for interesting rocks (Petosky stones, if you’re in northern Michigan), beach glass for jewelry, and driftwood in interesting shapes. Often, a birthday balloon will wash up with lake weed. And invariably there will a plastic bottle and other litter. While hiking along the Lake Michigan …

Lakeshore litter inspires business students to form start-up Read More »

Productivity is something we understand in the manufacturing culture. So, when an environmental descriptor explains that an estuary is one of the most productive places in ecology, we take notice. Well, some of us do. The largest freshwater estuary, at the confluence of the Fox River and Green Bay, is in the initial stages of becoming …

Estuaries redefine productivity for a manufacturing region Read More »

Albert Schweitzer, the 20th century humanitarian, did his work through an ethical framework he called “reverence for life.” By that, he meant all forms of life. It’s always amazing to learn about stories in which human beings, known for creating many ways of killing and torturing human and other beings, will risk their lives to …

International effort saves dog, reminds us of our humanity Read More »

Next month, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be looking for the return of Joe Biden. Not the president of the United States, but an orphaned piping plover, abandoned by its mother in June, rescued by the Service, and hatched at the Detroit Zoo. Joe was rehabilitated on North Manitou Island, in Lake Michigan, a …

Return of the piping plover Read More »

If there is such a thing as a winner in climate change, the Great Lakes region is poised to be a desirable alternative to places that have become inhospitable to heat, drought, wildfires, and rising ocean waters. It always was a temperate region, much colder in the north, but only for a few months, and …

Great Lakes region: The next great migration? Read More »