Patrick Sullivan | Author

Building A Better Benzie

Feb. 25, 2017

Nadine LaMont works, on average, three jobs to survive in Benzie County. Over the decades, she’s had as many as six housekeeping and waitressing jobs at one time. Now she’s decided it’s too hard to make ends meet in northern Michigan. She wants to move back to Arizona, whe… Read More >>

Old Mission Mysteries

Feb. 18, 2017

Brooklyn-born writer Stephen Lewis still carries the East Coast in his gruff voice, but for the last 15 years, he’s made Old Mission his home. The iconic peninsula is the setting for his most recent novel, a follow-up to a murder mystery he published a decade ago.

Lewis, a 75-… Read More >>

Out Of The Loop

Feb. 11, 2017

Discharges of water from geothermal energy systems at two Traverse City properties have raised questions about whether this green technology could have an environmental downside.

Staff at Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay take their mission to monitor the area’s waters serio… Read More >>

An Empire Bank Heist

Feb. 4, 2017

William Minore launched a Gofundme campaign to raise $20,000 to make a film calling for an environmental revolution. On the page, he made a desperate plea for money, though he said he was really more interested in getting his message out.

The earth is in crisis, Minore wrote. He add… Read More >>

A Tale of Two Legacies

Jan. 21, 2017

Petoskey resident John Tanton represents different things to different people.

In his hometown, he’s a celebrated conservationist, a co-founder of the Little Traverse Conservancy who has spent his life dedicated to environmental causes. Case in point, he his wife Mary Lou made… Read More >>

Speed and snow

Jan. 14, 2017

The passenger in a rally race might have the tougher of the two jobs. All the driver has to do, after all, is drive.

Sure, it’s challenging to keep control at 90 or 100 mph on straightaways and to lose as little speed as possible on the corners, but it’s the co-driver wh… Read More >>

Out of shape and at risk

Jan. 7, 2017

Kathy Rogols didn’t do much for several years after a doctor told her she was prediabetic. The status was a looming specter in her life, but on her own she found it tough to make the changes she knew she needed to make.

A year ago, the 58-year-old Fife Lake resident received a… Read More >>

'Just trying to get through the week’

Jan. 7, 2017

Ryan Dobry Hunt had to cancel the first interview.

She’d agreed to meet to talk about her nonprofit that helps people who are financially struggling with Type 1 diabetes.

But she had a blood sugar emergency.

A malfunctioning insulin pump caused her to get too m… Read More >>

Gaylord: A boomtown Up North

Dec. 31, 2016

Gaylord native Gary Scott had moved to Indiana, where he and some partners started a business to invest in distressed properties. He was talking to a banker in Detroit about real estate in Bloomington when he asked what kind of deals might be available in northern Michigan. The banker menti… Read More >>

Message in the bottles

Dec. 17, 2016

The law responsible for Michigan’s famous 10-cent deposit on bottles and cans turned 40 this year (and the “Seinfeld” episode that makes fun of it turned 20), but that doesn’t mean the debate over its scope or effectiveness has been settled.

Environmentalists… Read More >>

Art scene runs deep

Dec. 10, 2016

Shanny Schmidt dipped her toe into the local art scene last summer when she hosted a modern art show in rented space during the Traverse City Film Festival. This month, she dove into the deep end.

Schmidt made the bold move of opening a contemporary art gallery on Union Street. She&… Read More >>

Bahle’s at 140

Nov. 30, 2016

When Bahle’s of Suttons Bay celebrated its centennial in 1976, Owen Bahle’s five children had moved away, and the business was struggling in a village filled with shuttered storefronts. Bahle decided his store needed to be reinvented. And maybe if he turned around his stor… Read More >>

Millions of donors' dollars flow through northern Michigan

Nov. 21, 2016

It you haven’t heard about all of the money being raised for nonprofit projects around northern Michigan recently, it’s probably because your bank account is too small.
In recent years there’s been an explosion in capital campaigns, or pushes to raise enormous sums of… Read More >>

Sun, wind and a cutthroat business on the bay

Nov. 17, 2016

Saburi Boyer was in a coma when he stopped making payments on a contract he’d signed with an East Grand Traverse Bay resort owner to ensure his parasailing operation wouldn’t be run out of business.

Boyer’s wife, Danielle, didn’t like the messages demanding p… Read More >>

A Traverse City Film Festival Oral History

July 27, 2014

Celebrity sightings.… Read More >>

A Traverse City Film Festival Oral History

July 20, 2014

It appeared from nowhere. It crawled from dinner party conversations. It took sh… Read More >>