Up North Lowdown

Five children from Grand Traverse County were sent out of state for mental health treatment — to a Missouri facility with a history of allegations of sexual and physical abuse. Now, the mother of one of those children speaks out, telling IPR she warned the court about the facility's past, but her son was sent there anyway.

We first met Leslie Meyers, aka "the Dam Lady," back in October — long before rising waters this spring that flooded many households downstream of the dam in Bellaire. When that happened, in April, it was Meyers who was tasked with orchestrating the emergency response, issuing evacuation preparedness orders, handling media contacts, and overseeing repairs to the 100 year old earthen berm that holds back the Upper Chain of Lakes in Antrim County. And after all that, her moniker has taken on a new weight.

The Traverse City Pit Spitters begin their season today in Kalamazoo. After two games there, the team comes to Traverse City for a Wednesday home opener against the Rockford Rivets. Last year the team had the second most wins in franchise history. But it's hard to how what will happen this year. Pit Spitters Manager Todd Reed explains why and talks about the importance of building a team around more than wins and losses.

A 12-hour concert this weekend will celebrate the life of Holly T. Bird, a lawyer, activist, tribal judge and former TCAPS school board member. Also: Our gardening segment returns, and we hear about more data center angst.

The state accuses Antrim County's clerk of mishandling voter registration data. The clerk, Victoria Bishop, says she's doing what voters elected her to do. Township clerks seem largely frustrated by the changes. Voters seem confused. And the state Bureau of Elections has threatened legal consequences. Votebeat reporter Hayley Harding joins us to talk about the laws governing how voter registrations are handled.

Gas prices are up and plane tickets are more expensive. For many, a summer vacation — the sort of thing northern Michigan's economy counts on to get by — might be in question this year. But some say high overall travel costs might actually help local tourism. Plus, what happens if you want to stay here? We take a look at northern Michigan's housing market as we head into summer.

IPR has learned that Antrim County Clerk Victoria Bishop canceled voter registrations, despite denying it to the state. Also, we visit the set of northern Michigan filmmaker Rich Brauer's latest movie — set at a retirement home. Brauer has been making films for decades and says he's quite far from retirement, thank you very much.

It’s election season for races you’ve probably never heard about — but can impact your energy bill.

Michigan’s rural energy cooperatives set rates, manage multi-million dollar budgets and decide reliability standards.

They're board of directors are voted in by co-op members but annual elections for these positions have low voter turnouts — as low as 10% for some energy co-ops.

This could be the year things start to change.

IPR climate change reporter Vivian La takes us to the hidden world of energy co-op elections.

Also, state legislatures forgive snow days and slash the essay portion of a state exam (11th graders across Michigan rejoice).

The Up North Lowdown is all about bringing you the news from your own back yard. But sometimes it's important to leave our back yards for a while and experience how the rest of the world operates.

That's exactly what our host Ed Ronco did this week. He was at the BBC, learning how they put together the Newshour. While he was there, he ran into BBC World Service host James Coomarasamy on the streets of London.

Also, news about a shifting trichloroethylene plume in Antrim County.

And claims of inadequate healthcare being provided by ICE at its North Lake Processing Center.

Due to recent closures of mental health facilities across the state, children experiencing mental health issues are being sent out of state for care.

In 2025, three children from Grand Traverse County were placed at the Lakeland Behavioral Health System in Missouri.

Abuse allegations were made against the facility every year from 2011 until 2024. They now have multiple lawsuits filed against them for this pattern of abuse.

IPR's Maxwell Howard sits down with Ellie Katz to discuss the details.

Also, candidates for Michigan's U.S. Senate seat turn their campaigns to northern Michigan. IPR's Claire Keenan-Kurgan takes a look at how Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed hopes to woo voters in the region.

And Michigan's Natural Resources Commission made a big change to the state's deer hunting policy after a 10-hour meeting in Gaylord: a limit to one buck per hunter.