Stories

Pivot Roasters coffee beans tumble in a drum roaster.

Rural Innovation ExchangeArts and Culture

Pivot Roasters: A Blue Water Area business with global roots

Liz FredendallThursday, January 30, 2025

Local entrepreneur Rachael Odish shares her journey launching Pivot Roasters, a Port Huron-based business offering high-quality coffee products worldwide.

Partner Content

Big Abe LeBlanc in front of the truck he used to deliver fresh fish to customers.

Rural Innovation ExchangeSustainability

Big Abe's Net

Ellie Katz | Interlochen Public RadioThursday, January 30, 2025

What happened on a September morning more than three decades to change fishing on the Great Lakes forever?

Feature Story

(From left) Keith Rothstein, Menaka Abel, and Wooyoung Jung

Rural Innovation Exchange

Lakeshore Advantage adds fresh expertise to drive regional growth

The LakeshoreThursday, January 30, 2025

Lakeshore Advantage welcomes three industry leaders to its board, adding expertise in energy, retail, and food processing industries.

Feature Story

Catalyst MidlandEntrepreneurship

Midland Young Professionals Program expands membership and community impact

Mikaila BluewThursday, January 30, 2025

The Midland Business Alliance’s MYPros program celebrates success with over 100 new members, $200,000 toward local businesses, and big plans for 2025.

Feature Story

Catalyst MidlandArts and Culture

‘Space Explorers: The Infinite’ touches down exclusively in Midland

Misty BarronThursday, January 30, 2025

Step into genuine ISS footage, witness Earth from orbit, and join astronauts’ daily routines at Space Explorers: The Infinite, an exclusive Midland virtual reality exhibition.

In The News

Southwest MichiganSustainability

Rare interdunal wetlands under threat from development, climate change in Michigan

Sam KappThursday, January 30, 2025

Wetlands located near freshwater dunes are 'globally imperiled,' according to Dr. Tiffany Schriever, a freshwater ecologist and WMU Associate Professor. Michigan's interdunal wetlands are home to rich and rare ecological diversity and need protection.

Feature Story

Southwest MichiganCommunity Development

Kalamazoo’s homeless face cold waves -- natural and political

Al JonesThursday, January 30, 2025

As the unhoused struggle to get out of the cold they also facethe harsh possibility of a loss of services from local and state organizations as the new Trump administration looks to freeze federal grants and loans. The status of the funding freeze is fast-moving and may have changed by the time you read this story.

Longform

Concentrate - Ann Arbor/YpsiArts and Culture

Riverside Arts Center bolsters public art in Ypsi with new sculpture and mural by local artists

Rylee BarnsdaleWednesday, January 29, 2025

The mural by Ann Arbor artist T’onna Clemons and the sculpture by Ypsilanti artists Bryant and Sharon Tubbs reflect Riverside Arts Center's mission to make art accessible to the Ypsilanti community.

Longform

Luther Blackburn with Katelyn Zak in front of her home that had its lead service lines replaced by YCUA.

Concentrate - Ann Arbor/YpsiHealthy Communities

Initiative aims to identify lead plumbing in Ypsi-area homes

Sarah RiggWednesday, January 29, 2025

Ypsi's drinking water itself is safe, but pipes on private property may still contain lead. The Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority is using state and federal funds to change that.

Longform

M-36 Coffee Roasters co-owner Ken Pargulski at their Whitmore Lake headquarters.

Concentrate - Ann Arbor/YpsiEntrepreneurship

Whitmore Lake's M-36 coffee roastery carries on legacy of Ann Arbor's Espresso Royale coffee shops

Drew SaundersWednesday, January 29, 2025

M-36 rose from Espresso Royale's ashes, resulting in the reopening of a former Espresso Royale location in Ann Arbor and the creation of a roastery that serves numerous other businesses.

Feature Story

An intern at work at Northern Michigan University.

UPword - UPCommunity Development

New NMU program aims to keep graduates in the U.P.

Jennifer Donovan Wednesday, January 29, 2025

A new program at Northern Michigan University -- Wildcat Collective Leaders of Honor and Ambition -- will pair students with businesses, providing them mentorship and internships to encourage them to remain in the U.P. after graduation.

Feature Story

UPword - UPEconomic Development

Limestone, golf, and a few things in between: Operation Action U.P. announces awards

Rosemary Parker Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Operation Action U.P. honors four businesses with its annual Excellence Awards. The recipients will receive the awards at Operation Action's annual meeting in February.

Development News

UPword - UP

Communities prepare for Match on Main grants

Brice BurgeWednesday, January 29, 2025

“The funds can be used for such things as renovating the interior of the business, developing an outdoor dining area, marketing, technical upgrades or working capital,” said Craig Woerpel, who is executive director of the Escanaba Downtown Development Authority.

Development News

NMU Center for Forensic Science Director Jane Harris (left) with Dr. Carolyn Isaac of MSU, collaborating on the assessment of one of the victims.

UPword - UP

NMU’s Harris praised for her work in identifying unnamed remains

Brice BurgeWednesday, January 29, 2025

“While we had over 50 team members participating in this dig, none of them was more valuable than Dr. Harris … Her professionalism and wealth of knowledge were amazing, and her willingness to teach was apparent,” the assistant director of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Office of Forensic Science wrote in a letter.

UPword - UP