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Youth for Christ in Leland, Twin Flames raid, Trump’s government cuts, Art’s Tavern sells—Glen Arbor Sun’s most read stories of 2025

A controversial youth missionary group recruits inside Leland school and rattles the community; Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel orders a raid of the Twin Flames Universe cult’s home near Suttons Bay; Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore leadership and staff face cuts and uncertainty under Trump and DOGE’s wrecking ball; Barb and Paul Olson acquire Glen Arbor’s iconic Art’s Tavern, and tribal fisherwoman Cindi John survives a mass stabbing at Walmart in Traverse City. Those were the most-read online stories of 2025 in the Glen Arbor Sun. Here’s a list of our top 10, by online views.

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Afghans assimilate and contribute in Leelanau County

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One man returns home in his pickup truck from his job managing a fruit processing plant near Empire to greet his children as they step off the yellow school bus. Another shares a homemade dinner with his wife and kids, then naps before working the nightshift in the radiology unit at Munson Medical Center. A third man retreats upstairs and uses a hand-me-down sewing machine to mend a customer’s torn Christmas stocking—his side gig to make extra money for his family after he works daytime hours at Spectrum. These could be the stories of any hard-working men in Leelanau County. In fact, they represent the everyday rituals of three Afghan refugees who worked with the U.S. military and then fled for their safety after the Taliban took Kabul and seized power four years ago.

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From Black Eden to Migrant Prison: ICE’s second largest detention center nationwide opens 80 minutes from Leelanau County

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Citizens from across Michigan’s lower peninsula have traveled to Baldwin this spring, packed village council meetings, held demonstrations and called for officials to stand against the reopening of a nearby immigrant detention center. The 1,800-bed, maximum-security North Lake Correctional Facility, owned by the for-profit prison corporation Geo Group, is the largest such facility in the Midwest and second-largest in the nation. It reopened on June 16. The fact that the prison will most likely hold non-white immigrants stands out in this part of Michigan. Baldwin, a rural town of 900 with a large historically Black minority, is five minutes from the unincorporated community of Idlewild, which once thrived as a vacation refuge known as ​“Black Eden.”

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Life, liberty, beaches and pie—for our foreign-born workers, for us all

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July 4 has always been my favorite holiday since I was a young child running around Glen Arbor in the 1970s. I felt such pride being an American. Recently, our chef at the Cherry Public House told me that he saw a border patrol agent driving down M-22. He was miffed that they were patrolling Leelanau—200 miles from a border that happens to be the safest in the world. It is nerve-wracking for our foreign and local workers at Cherry Republic because we are a team and family and we don’t want to be broken up any more than the hard-working families we’ve seen on television torn apart in pools of tears these last six months. Cherry Republic is hosting a refugee family from Central America. The father has taken on the difficult job of stirring our four giant scalding jam and salsa kettles in our Empire plant. Unfortunately, because of the legal wrangling going on between the courts and The White House, our Central American refugees can no longer work. The pot stirrer in Washington shutting down the pot stirrer in Empire.

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American flags, strawberry rhubarb crisp, but No Kings

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On Friday, June 13—the day before thousands of “No Kings” rallies attracted millions of demonstrators in cities and towns across the United States to oppose the Trump administration—a downstate woman sent a flurry of emails to the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Department as well as federal authorities including the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to alert them about alleged “domestic terrorism” in Leelanau County and a host of outlandish claims. Out of concern about “some bad actors and their weird crazy rhetoric about me,” Nancy Janulis, a Glen Arbor summer resident who organized a No Kings rally at the Glen Lake Narrows, contacted the Leelanau Sheriffs Department to provide event details. The mood that morning was upbeat, patriotic, and collaborative. As bikers raced along the south shores of the Glen Lakes toward the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb to complete the M22 Challenge, approximately 200 citizens stood on the sides of M-22 at the bridge holding flags and banners. Organizers Janulis and Linda Dewey had asked participants to “please stand in solidarity and join us on this nationwide day of peaceful affirmation of our right to due process, free speech and equal protection.” Leelanau Sheriff Mike Borkovich “had friendly conversations with the protesters, and he was upbeat and friendly with me,” said Janulis. “We visited about fishing and the cold lake temperatures this year. I’m happy he attended. We had no incidents at the rally.”

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No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance includes rally at Glen Lake Narrows

Thousands of “No Kings: Nationwide Day of Defiance” demonstrations are planned throughout the United States for Saturday, June 14 — including a sign and flag-waving silent rally at the Glen Lake Narrows on M-22 from 10:30 am-1 pm. “Please stand in solidarity and join us on this nationwide day of peaceful affirmation of our right to due process, free speech and equal protection,” say Nancy Janulis and Linda Dewey, organizers of the Glen Arbor event. National organizers describe the No Kings protests as “a national day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from President Trump and his allies.”

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National nutrition education program with local impact slated for elimination by Congress

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Jane Rapin, a community nutrition instructor with Michigan State University Extension, offered a food demonstration that featured fresh asparagus and quinoa salad earlier this spring at Leelanau Christian Neighbors’ food pantry in Lake Leelanau. May and early June are asparagus season in northwest Michigan, and LCN received a donation of locally grown stalks. “It was very well received. People were inspired by it,” said Rapin. “We did a short presentation about why this is nutritious and how cook with it. It’s important that we reach people who may not be familiar with asparagus.” Rapin’s work at the food pantry and other Leelanau locations including Northport high school and the Benodjenh tribal Head Start preschool in Peshawbestown is funded by the Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program, or commonly known as SNAP-Ed. The national nutrition education program is slated for elimination under the budget bill passed on May 22 by a single vote by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The Senate will pass its own bill in the coming weeks.

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Jocelyn Benson, in her own words: Glen Arbor Sun interview

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Prior to her June 3, appearance at the National Writers Series in Traverse City, Michigan Secretary of State (and gubernatorial candidate) Jocelyn Benson spoke to the Glen Arbor Sun via Zoom about her book, “The Purposeful Warrior: Standing up for what’s right when the stakes are high”; about her candidacy for governor in 2026 and her leadership style; about standing up to Trump; about Michigan governors who have inspired her; about abortion rights; about state-funded school meals, and about the future of journalism. Click here to watch the interview and read a full transcription.

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Northern Michigan national parks prepare for summer visitors amid staffing, morale concerns

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With a new tourism season upon northern Michigan, uncertainty remains about how national parks will handle millions of visitors amid lingering staffing questions because of back-and-forth federal workforce policies. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has approximately two-thirds of the seasonal staff it typically needs to welcome more than 1.5 million visitors over the next three busy months. “They’re still trying to get anybody else to accept a job, but it looks like there won’t be many more coming,” said former Sleeping Bear deputy superintendent Tom Ulrich. He added that the true impacts aren’t being felt yet because the park isn’t yet getting 400,000 visitors per month as they do in peak-season.

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Disgusted at Trump, Canadians boycott Michigan travel

“I’m terrified to cross the border.” “We’re disgusted.” “The annexation threats and tariffs are a ‘screw you’ to Canada.” “We have canceled our 2025 vacations in the USA. I no longer feel welcome there.” “I won’t go until Trump is gone. What he’s doing is horrific.” Those are the voices of Canadians who live in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario—just across the international border from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and longtime friendly neighbors in trade, in culture, in shopping, and in hockey. Apparently, no longer. Or, at least, not until Trump leaves office.

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