Late last month, U.S. District Judge Janet Neff refused to throw out a lawsuit filed against Leelanau County Sheriff Mike Oltersdorf. The lawsuit was filed last year by several current and former members of the sheriff’s department who accuse Oltersdorf of listening to conversations on what employees believed to be private lines starting in 2006.
Check out this video by the Leelanau Conservancy that shows the beauty of our county during the wintertime. Sure, it’s cold up here, but you can snowshoe, ski, and watch the sun’s reflection off the ice.
Start your Holiday shopping with Glen Arbor’s Pajama Party sales, Friday, Nov. 26, from 5-7 a.m. The Township Hall will host tree lighting and carols at 7 p.m. Return on Saturday for the Holiday Market Place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Also on Saturday, don’t miss Empire’s Artisan Market Place from noon to 5 p.m. in the Empire Township Hall.
On a typical school day during the growing season, food service directors at both Glen Lake School and The Leelanau School are serving up as many locally grown, fresh ingredients as their budgets and time allow. They’re also teaching students to cook and, with the help of faculty, familiarizing them with the sources of their food.
Blu proprietors Randy and Mari Chamberlain like to emphasize local sources of everything for the quality that brings to the experience of dining. Randy takes no short cuts here — the presentation of each dish, the rich and creative combinations of flavors — everything bespeaks his heightened sensitivity to the artistic crafting of each meal.
A special local holiday tradition continues as the Glen Lake Community Library kicks off its 12th annual call for children’s books. The Friends of the Library, in cooperation with Glen Lake School’s “Parenting Communities” program, are once again collecting donations of new children’s books for children whose families are in need of assistance this holiday season.
In January, a contingent of northern Michiganders will run 250 miles across Ethiopia, from the capital, Addis Ababa, to the Yirgachefe coffee growing region in the southern part of the ancient East African nation, as part of a campaign to generate awareness and raise $100,000 for local education projects, including the construction of much-needed schools in coffee-harvesting communities.
The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which celebrated its 40th birthday in late October, can almost count the days until work will begin on one of the Park’s biggest achievements — the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail. The project is a 27-mile, multi-use trail that promotes access and safety for bikers, hikers, rollerbladers and wheelchairs
In reality, there are three parties actively running in these midterm elections: Democratic incumbents, Republican moderates and Republican Tea Party extremists who would have us storm the kitchen, fire the chefs, dump out the giant vat of slow-cooking soup, and start all over again. Michigan largely appears to have bucked the trend of Tea Party-rage this election season.
The windstorm that hit Leelanau County this week was the strongest storm ever to hit the continental United States, rivaling the pressure of tropical storms and surpassing the winds that doomed the famed Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975 in Lake Superior.