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Heavily armed security boats patrol winding Milwaukee River during GOP convention
Read full article: Heavily armed security boats patrol winding Milwaukee River during GOP conventionSecurity planners for the Republican National Convention have had to contend with the winding river that snakes through downtown Milwaukee and near the Fiserv Center convention site.
Toys, silverware from 1800s? Great Lakes shipwreck explorer takes us back to the past
Read full article: Toys, silverware from 1800s? Great Lakes shipwreck explorer takes us back to the pastThe objects are from a shipwreck located in Lake Michigan that represent a link to life back sometime in the 1800s.
Much of America asks: Where did winter go? Spring starts early as US winter was warmest on record
Read full article: Much of America asks: Where did winter go? Spring starts early as US winter was warmest on recordAcross much of America and especially in the normally chilly north, the country went through the winter months without, well, winter.
Fewer fish and more algae? Scientists seek to understand impacts of historic lack of Great Lakes ice
Read full article: Fewer fish and more algae? Scientists seek to understand impacts of historic lack of Great Lakes iceAn unusually warm winter has left the Great Lakes all but devoid of ice and sent scientists scrambling to understand the possible consequences as climate change accelerates.
Oregon braces for freezing rain while cold temperatures elsewhere strain electric grids
Read full article: Oregon braces for freezing rain while cold temperatures elsewhere strain electric gridsParts of Oregon are bracing for freezing rain after a weekend of extreme winds knocked down trees and cut power to thousands.
Historians race to find Great Lakes shipwrecks before quagga mussels destroy the sites
Read full article: Historians race to find Great Lakes shipwrecks before quagga mussels destroy the sitesHistorians are racing to locate Great Lakes shipwrecks before a seemingly unstoppable invasive mussel destroys them and erases part of the region's heritage.
Opponents of COVID restrictions took over a Michigan county. They want deep cuts to health funding
Read full article: Opponents of COVID restrictions took over a Michigan county. They want deep cuts to health fundingThe public health department in Ottawa County in Michigan is facing deep cuts to its funding.
Tornado touches down near Chicago's O'Hare airport, disrupting hundreds of flights
Read full article: Tornado touches down near Chicago's O'Hare airport, disrupting hundreds of flightsA National Weather Service team will survey damage in northeast Illinois, where fierce winds from suspected tornadoes ripped roofs from buildings, downed trees and sent residents scrambling for safety as sirens sounded.
Canadian wildfires are causing the worst air in the US in cities like Chicago and Detroit
Read full article: Canadian wildfires are causing the worst air in the US in cities like Chicago and DetroitDrifting smoke from the ongoing wildfires across Canada is creating curtains of haze and raising air quality concerns throughout the Great Lakes region, and in parts of the central and eastern United States.
BP subsidiary agrees to record $40M penalty and pollution-cutting steps at Lake Michigan refinery
Read full article: BP subsidiary agrees to record $40M penalty and pollution-cutting steps at Lake Michigan refineryFederal officials say a BP subsidiary will pay a $40 million penalty and install technology to control the release of benzene and other contaminants at its Whiting oil refinery in northern Indiana.
He made it! Paddleboarding 28 hours, over 44 miles — now just one Great Lake left to conquer on his quest
Read full article: He made it! Paddleboarding 28 hours, over 44 miles — now just one Great Lake left to conquer on his questIt took nearly 28 hours and more than 44 miles, but a Canadian man is now one step away from completing his quest to cross all five Great Lakes via paddleboard.
Record-setting attempt to paddleboard across all 5 Great Lakes continues this week
Read full article: Record-setting attempt to paddleboard across all 5 Great Lakes continues this weekMike Shoreman will depart from Union Pier, Michigan on Tuesday night, with plans to finish along Chicago’s North Avenue Beach at around noon Wednesday.
Milwaukee gets recommendation to host 2024 GOP convention
Read full article: Milwaukee gets recommendation to host 2024 GOP conventionMilwaukee moved another step closer to hosting the 2024 Republican National Convention when a site selection committee unanimously recommended the event be held there rather than Nashville.
Canadian man with disability on mission to cross all 5 Great Lakes by paddleboard
Read full article: Canadian man with disability on mission to cross all 5 Great Lakes by paddleboardAn avid paddleboarder, Mike Shoreman was told he could never paddleboard again. But he didn’t pay attention to that edict and now is trying to make history.
EV battery maker LG will add up to 1,200 jobs in Michigan
Read full article: EV battery maker LG will add up to 1,200 jobs in MichiganElectric vehicle battery maker LG Energy Solution, a joint-venture partner with automaker General Motors, plans a $1.7 billion expansion in western Michigan that will add up to 1,200 jobs by 2025.
Tlaib running for new Detroit-area seat after redistricting
Read full article: Tlaib running for new Detroit-area seat after redistrictingRep. Rashida Tlaib says she will seek reelection in a new Detroit-area seat created through redistricting, an announcement that came hours after fellow Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence said she will retire from Congress.
The Great Lakes are warmer than they’ve ever been in early November: Why that’s a problem in several ways
Read full article: The Great Lakes are warmer than they’ve ever been in early November: Why that’s a problem in several waysSome parts of the Northern Great Lakes region were greeted by their first significant snowfall of the season earlier this week, but not even the arrival of the fluffy white stuff could mask these historic times for the Great Lakes themselves.
A giant sequoia tree in Northern Michigan? Yes, and it’s not only surviving, but thriving
Read full article: A giant sequoia tree in Northern Michigan? Yes, and it’s not only surviving, but thrivingThere is a thriving, giant sequoia tree located in the far north, in an area that can best be described as a frozen tundra during the winter.
Missouri tornado confirmed as storms swept into Illinois
Read full article: Missouri tornado confirmed as storms swept into IllinoisThe National Weather Service has confirmed a strong tornado hit the southeastern Missouri city of Fredericktown as strong storms that swept the state and moved into Illinois.
I took the high-speed ferry across Lake Michigan -- and it made for the coolest experience
Read full article: I took the high-speed ferry across Lake Michigan -- and it made for the coolest experienceMaybe you’re in Michigan, with family in Wisconsin (or vice versa). Or perhaps you’re planning some sort of trip across state lines, and you came across the idea of using a ferry to save some time around the Great Lakes.
Michigan approves Great Lakes oil pipeline tunnel permits
Read full article: Michigan approves Great Lakes oil pipeline tunnel permits(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Michigan's environmental agency said Friday it has approved construction of an underground tunnel to house a replacement for a controversial oil pipeline in a channel linking two of the Great Lakes. AdThe project requires permits from the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “We have issued permits designed to ensure that if a tunnel is constructed, it will be in strict compliance with relevant statutes and adhere to stringent protections against impacts to the Great Lakes,” Clark said. State officials emphasized the tunnel project was a separate legal matter from the dispute over the existing pipeline, which was laid in 1953. It has taken steps to prevent future anchor strikes and says the tunnel project would eliminate that danger.
Michigan governor seeks shutdown of Great Lakes oil pipeline
Read full article: Michigan governor seeks shutdown of Great Lakes oil pipelineGretchen Whitmer took legal action Friday to shut down a pipeline that carries oil beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes. “Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. "They have repeatedly violated the terms of the 1953 easement by ignoring structural problems that put our Great Lakes and our families at risk. One of the pipeline supports was damaged this summer, apparently by a boat cable. Placing the pipes beneath a busy shipping lane with no protective cover violated the state's duty to protect the public's interest in Great Lakes waters and bottomlands, the document said.
Biden's lessons learned: spending time, money in Midwest
Read full article: Biden's lessons learned: spending time, money in MidwestBiden's "campaign is doing a better job, even during COVID, of reaching out with the candidates and a voter-to-voter effort. Besides spending no time in Wisconsin and only five days in Michigan, Clinton didn't begin advertising in either until two weeks before the election. There's been more to Biden's sharper focus on Michigan and Wisconsin than showing up and spending money. Biden's Michigan campaign as well as national aides have contacted Kinloch more in the past two months than Clinton's did throughout all of 2016, he said. “They're looping everything we're doing individually together under the Biden campaign,” Kinloch said.
3 denied bond in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan governor
Read full article: 3 denied bond in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan governorIn a photo provided by the Michigan Office of the Governor, Michigan Gov. The governor delivered remarks addressing Michiganders after the Michigan Attorney General, Michigan State Police, U.S. Department of Justice, and FBI announced state and federal charges against 13 members of two militia groups who were preparing to kidnap and possibly kill the governor. She said she would rule at a later date on the bond status of the other two Michigan men, Adam Fox and Ty Garbin. A sixth defendant from Delaware, Barry Croft, was ordered Tuesday to be transferred to Michigan to face the charges. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler countered that it was a “serious plot” and argued that Franks should not be released.
Enbridge says contractor vessels may have damaged pipeline
Read full article: Enbridge says contractor vessels may have damaged pipelinePipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Michigan attorney general's office and the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. A state judge granted a request from Nessel to close the line June 25 after Enbridge reported the damage. The Enbridge report said the nature of the damage and drag marks in the lakebed pointed to a cable or anchor from a small or moderately sized vessel. Enbridge says it has stepped up security measures in the straits since a 6-ton (5.44-metric tonne) barge and tugboat anchor struck Line 5 in April 2018. They have focused primarily on avoiding contact with larger vessels but are being expanded to prevent encounters with smaller ones, Duffy said.
Protests in Trump country test his hold in rural white areas
Read full article: Protests in Trump country test his hold in rural white areasFar from the industrial norths urban centers, hundreds of protests over black injustice have cropped up in small cities in rural areas. The protests in these Republican-leaning areas offer a test of the president's ability to reassemble his older, white voting bloc. No, you cant.Trump carried Pennsylvania by about 44,000 votes in 2016, in part with overwhelming support from a patchwork of rural, white counties. Dozens of protests have taken place in counties in these four battleground states that Trump flipped from Democrat to Republican. If Biden carries every state Clinton did in 2016 and reclaims Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, he would win a majority of the Electoral College votes.
Lack of social distancing leads to closure of parks, trails
Read full article: Lack of social distancing leads to closure of parks, trailsMayor Lori Lightfoot did not consider that the kind of postcard perfect scene that attracts visitors from around the world. “We know what happens when you don't social distance... ” Lightfoot told reporters after observing the waterside vista on Wednesday. On the North Carolina-Tennessee border, after more than 30,000 people arrived each day last weekend, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park closed down. Valley Forge National Historical Park in Pennsylvania closed its trails and access to the boardwalk in Long Beach, Long Island, has been blocked. That prompted the village's health department to order the parks and park facilities closed to everyone.
Gale-force winds, up to 20-foot waves likely on Lake Michigan
Read full article: Gale-force winds, up to 20-foot waves likely on Lake Michigan(CNN) - The second intense storm in a week is whipping up gale-force winds and waves as high as 20 feet across an already-high Lake Michigan. Waves already had hit 9 feet early Tuesday off the eastern Lake Michigan shore. The combination of above-average lake levels and gale-force winds will lead to another round of lakeshore flooding and beach erosion Tuesday through Thursday. Near-record lake levels leading to beach erosionAbove-average rainfall this year around Lake Michigan has raised the lake to near-record lake levels. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron will remain above the long-term average levels by 30 to 32 inches over the next six months, the US Army Corps of Engineers predicts.
American steel industry downgraded as trade war drags on
Read full article: American steel industry downgraded as trade war drags onNEW YORK - The steady decline of America's steel industry is continuing, despite President Donald Trump's efforts to protect it through tariffs on imports. The latest sign came on Thursday, when Moody's downgraded its outlook for the entire domestic industry to "negative" from "stable." Trump came into office in 2017 promising to revive the steel industry and save jobs. His tariffs 25% on most steel imports and 10% on most aluminum imports initially pushed prices higher. But the increased steel production and prices didn't last, and some steelmakers, including US Steel, have more recently closed mills.
Student recycles plastic waste into clothing
Read full article: Student recycles plastic waste into clothingANN ARBOR, Mich. - University of Michigan student Jackson Riegler is turning plastic waste from the Great Lakes into sustainable clothing. "The Great Lakes are really special and tremendously important to Michigan and our country." The economics student is aiming to prevent the prediction that seas will have more plastic than fish in the near future. The company donates 5 percent of all profits to nonprofit groups working to preserve the Great Lakes. "As plastic waste continues to build up domestically, we hope to inspire other companies to use U.S. plastic waste in their supply chains by taking charge as a leader in the industry and inspiring customers to live more sustainably."
Woman, dogs rescued after night below Lake Michigan bluff
Read full article: Woman, dogs rescued after night below Lake Michigan bluffA Coast Guard helicopter was used to rescue a woman and a dog from the bottom of a sandy bluff near Lake Michigan in northern Michigan. LAKE MICHIGAN (WNEM) - A Coast Guard helicopter was used to rescue a woman and a dog from the bottom of a sandy bluff near Lake Michigan in northern Michigan. The Coast Guard says the woman, her husband and three dogs spent Thursday night at the bottom of the bluff, near Ludington, after they couldn't climb up the loose soil and sand. The Coast Guard sent two helicopters, one from Muskegon and another from Traverse City. One helicopter was used to airlift the woman and a dog around 12:45 p.m.A local team from the fire department rescued the other two dogs.