"Enjoy our hip film festival and cool restaurants. See Mario Batali eating a pastrami sammy! You’re never more than a block away from a coffee shop or brew pub. Also, we don’t have anywhere for you to live!" In Traverse City there are competing forces at...
On August 8, BP unexpectedly shut down part of its Whiting, Indiana refinery where crude oil is turned into gasoline and transported throughout the Midwest. As a result, gas prices jumped – in the Traverse City region from $2.54 to $2.99 per gallon. Consumers were...
You may be approached this summer and asked to sign a petition that seeks to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Michigan. The group Let’s Ban Fracking claims the process used to extract oil and gas is a danger to human health...
I like to watch ABC’s "Shark Tank." It’s a day brightener, even while viewing at night. "Shark Tank" is an unapologetic salute to capitalism and the American way. Each week a few brave entrepreneurs enter the Tank trying to convince the multimillionaire Sharks to invest...
I’ve been pondering this new paradigm that has government granting tax breaks to businesses that promise to create jobs. Business benefits from lower taxes, politicians can benefit by posing as job creators, and taxpayers…well, if there are any benefits, they’re offset by paying the price...
By 2016, Michigan will lose 1.3 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power the combined populations of Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing! That alarming factoid is found in a new report on electric reliability from Public Sector Consultants (PSC) of Lansing. The report states that Michigan...
By Ron Jolly Nine years ago the Traverse City community came together to raise nearly $5 million to build the Goodwill Inn shelter. Leaders led, volunteers worked, and donors – big and small- gave! As a member of the Capital Campaign committee, I played a tiny...
The Michigan Land Use Institute wants it removed. The National Wildlife Federation and Mark Schauer, democratic candidate for governor, want it replaced. Yet, there’s nothing wrong with it. As Andy Griffith might say, “What it is, is a pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac.” Why all...
Festival Fatigue or Killing the Cash Cow?By Ron JollyIf you google "Traverse City festival fatigue" you'll find dozens of newspapers, radio stations and blog sites across the country posting stories about city resident Lou Colombo's attempt to reduce festival frequency and noise. His unrealized hope...
Two films square off on fracking, an issue that could possibly surface on the state's November ballot.There is a movement to ban fracking in Michigan even though oil and gas companies have fracked about 12,000 wells in the state over the past 50 years. Fracking...
