Up North Lowdown

We'll get back to our usual stories in short order — a couple good ones coming later this week, in fact. But this episode is all about us. You've probably heard that Congress voted to take back federal funding already promised to public broadcasting. For Interlochen Public Radio, it's a $300,000 budget hit. Still, IPR Executive Director Peter Payette says despite the bad news for our federal funding, and the very real challenges ahead, he's optimistic about IPR's future and its mission to serve northern Michigan with news and music.

In this episode, a short conversation with the author Katie Yee. She is known as a short story writer, but Yee is appearing later this month at the National Writers Series in Traverse City to talk about her debut novel. t’s called “Maggie; or, a Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar.” Ahead of her visit to town, Yee spoke with IPR’s Ed Ronco.

Cindy Monroe has been around music for decades. Fifty years, she figures. But never a marching band. So she showed up to play cymbals with the National Cherry Festival Marching Band. That's it. No audition, just a conversation with the director. She even gave him an out — offering to go on home if it didn't work out. But so far, so good.

Michigan's Attorney General is going after the Twin Flames Universe, a spiritual organization based in Leelanau County that's widely considered to be a cult.

In May, authorities in Traverse City cleared out an encampment from part of town known as "the Pines." What happened to those who left?

In Lake County — population 12,000 — a new ICE facility is opening in a shuttered private prison, promising to create hundreds of jobs in the poorest county in the state. Many residents have doubts about whether the jobs will last.

Just one story for you this week, and it's about deer, money and big piles of carrots. Or apples. Or whatever else deer are interested in eating.

An earful from those who experienced the ice storm. An interview with abuse survivor Tina Talbot. Hiring nurses for Munson Healthcare. And Elberta's Turtlefest.

This week, an interview with immigration attorney Marcelo Betti. He tells us about the different communities that have migrated to northern Michigan, and what their future might hold under the drastically different immigration policy of the Trump administration. Plus, a Bellaire woman's journey to becoming an American citizen. Ping He-Pridemore took her citizenship oath last month in Grand Rapids. And we meet Marcelline Budza, whose coffee cooperative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo faces new obstacles from an escalating war. Despite that, she's maintained her business relationship with Traverse City. We'll also hear about "Stories that Heal," and how for one woman, a tragic loss turned into a crucial mission.

A wooded area near Traverse City held an encampment for people who are unsheltered, until this past week, when police cleared out the area. We'll hear what happened. Plus, we walk around the centerpiece of the Grand Traverse Commons with two composers who were tasked with writing music about an old psychiatric hospital.