TRAVERSE CITY

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will study whether to toughen regulation of large livestock farms that release manure and other pollutants into waterways.

The Biden administration declared the northern long-eared bat endangered on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to save a species driven to the brink of extinction by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease.

Illinois has joined with three other states to build a 1,100-mile EV charging circuit along Lake Michigan, creating an electrified scenic route with enough juice to get from Green Bay to Traverse City.

The Great Lakes might be home to the world’s most abundant supply of freshwater whitefish, and to many, that treat tastes even better when it is smoked to give it even more flavor.

Illinois and partner organizations kicked off a market-tested campaign to rechristen as “copi” four species previously known collectively as Asian carp, hoping the new label will make them more attractive to U.S. consumers.

You're in the mood for fish and your server suggests a dish of invasive carp. Illinois and partner organizations kicked off a market-tested campaign Wednesday to rechristen as “copi” four species previously known collectively as Asian carp, hoping the new label will make them more attractive to U.S. consumers. Turning carp into a popular household and restaurant menu item is one way officials hope to rein in a decades-old invasion threatening native fish, mussels and aquatic plants in the Mississippi and other Midwestern rivers, as well as the Great Lakes.

The failure of two Michigan dams that forced evacuation of 10,000 people and destroyed 150 homes was “foreseeable and preventable,” resulting from errors and miscalculations over nearly a century, an expert panel said Wednesday. The Edenville Dam on the Tittabawassee River in central Michigan collapsed May 19, 2020, releasing a torrent that overtopped the downstream Sanford Dam and flooded the city of Midland. In a 502-page report, a forensic engineering team appointed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission described the Edenville Dam as flawed from the outset.

What's happening in the Great Lakes during those long, frigid months when they're often covered partially or completely with ice? “We've been ignoring winter on the Great Lakes for so long,” said Ted Ozersky, a lake biologist with the University of Minnesota Duluth, who announced the “Winter Grab” expedition Thursday. Crews from more than a dozen U.S. and Canadian universities and government agencies will make their way onto frozen sections of lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior during the week of Feb. 14.

It’s a ghastly sight: ticks by tens of thousands burrowed into a moose’s broad body, sucking its lifeblood as the agonized host rubs against trees so vigorously that much of its fur wears away. Winter tick infestation is common with moose across the northern U.S. — usually survivable for adults but less so for calves, and miserable either way. Data collected over 19 years at Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park shows moose have more ticks during winters following particularly warm summers, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

Retailers are staring down a triple whammy of challenges this season including labor shortages, supply chain woes and inflation.

The elite arts academy and camp announces it has finished with a 30-year master plan.

To some, staying in a haunted hotel or Airbnb is a bucket list experience, but when I found out my friends booked an Airbnb in a building that used to be a psychiatric hospital, all I could think was that some ghosts were going to visit me at night.

It was trapped and moved in April and returned in May.

Wolf pups have been spotted again on Isle Royale, a hopeful sign in the effort to rebuild the predator species' population at the U.S. national park, scientists said Monday. It's unknown how many gray wolves roam the island chain in northwestern Lake Superior. Park officials said last fall that at least two pups likely were born in 2019.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Crystal Lake, Illinois, on Wednesday, according to a White House official.

A group of scientists urged the Biden administration Thursday to restore legal protections for gray wolves, saying their removal earlier this year was premature and that states are allowing too many of the animals to be killed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dropped wolves in most of the lower 48 states from the endangered species list in January. The decision was among more than 100 Trump administration actions related to the environment that President Joe Biden ordered reviewed after taking office.

An Upper Midwestern oil pipeline continued operating Wednesday, despite a shutdown demand from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that the operator warned could lead to fuel disruptions similar to those resulting from a cyberattack on an East Coast system. Whitmer ordered Line 5 closed last November because of the potential for a spill in a channel linking two of the Great Lakes. As her May 12 deadline arrived, Canadian pipeline company Enbridge said only the federal government has regulatory authority over its operations.

Giving the vaccine to teachers and other school staff “will help protect our communities," Pennsylvania Gov. The Department of Health and Human Services has ordered all states to make teachers, school staff, bus drivers and child care workers eligible for shots. In Wisconsin, teachers will get priority when the state receives its first shipment of about 48,000 doses of the J&J vaccine, health authorities said. In Texas, where teachers have been battling to gain access to shots, state officials on Wednesday ordered vaccine providers to begin administering shots to school workers. “The more people we can get the safe and effective vaccine, the faster we can return to a sense of normalcy,” Michigan Gov.

Activists Tyasha Harrison, left, and Holly T. Bird pose along the Grand Traverse Bay waterfront in Traverse City, Mich., Feb. 13, 2021. “In this age, no place is an island,” said Warren Call, president of a business organization in Traverse City, the county seat. Producers of the fruit for which Traverse City bills itself “cherry capital of the world” are struggling to survive. The area remains solidly Republican, although Democrats have captured two county commission seats representing Traverse City, which has a gay mayor. Her organization formed after a Black Lives Matter rally along the Traverse City waterfront last summer.

Gretchen Whitmer took legal action Friday to shut down a pipeline that carries oil beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes. “Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. "They have repeatedly violated the terms of the 1953 easement by ignoring structural problems that put our Great Lakes and our families at risk. One of the pipeline supports was damaged this summer, apparently by a boat cable. Placing the pipes beneath a busy shipping lane with no protective cover violated the state's duty to protect the public's interest in Great Lakes waters and bottomlands, the document said.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Voters across the U.S. received anonymous robocalls in the days and weeks before Election Day urging them to “stay safe and stay home” — an ominous warning that election experts said could be an effort to scare voters into sitting out the election. The FBI is investigating calls that seek to discourage people from voting, a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security told reporters Tuesday. The brief calls, which featured a computerized female voice, made no mention of the election. Stay safe and stay home.”Whoever created the robocalls used sophisticated tactics, routing the calls in a way that masked their identity and location, Quilici said. Nessel filed charges Oct. 1 against two political operatives accused of orchestrating a series of robocalls “aimed at suppressing the vote” in the general election.

(AP Photo/John Flesher)WASHINGTON – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos planned a “Moms for Trump” rally in her home state of Michigan. It's long been one of the benefits of incumbency that a president can enlist his Cabinet to promote administration accomplishments. “The Trump administration has completely obliterated that line," said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, which describes itself as a nonpartisan watchdog organization. "The White House is now the seat of government, where the president lives, and one of his chief campaign props. “The Trump administration takes the Hatch Act seriously and all events are conducted in compliance with the law,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer campaigns with Dan O'Neil, a Democratic candidate for the Michigan House in Traverse City, Mich., Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. Whitmer visited the area the day after police announced a foiled plot to kidnap the governor. (AP Photo/John Flesher)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. The Trump administration plans to lift endangered species protections for gray wolves across most of the nation by the end of the year, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday. The administration also is pushing ahead with a rollback of protections for migratory birds despite a recent setback in federal court, she said. Skipwith said the Fish and Wildlife Service was still evaluating the judges decision and planned to issue a final rule by the end of the year. The agency remains committed to making sure were not criminalizing these unintentional actions while stepping up efforts to protect migratory birds, she said.