With almost 300,000 off-road vehicles hitting northern Michigan trails every year, Michigan’s state forests are reaching a breaking point.

From the outside, US commercial shipping may look like an industry past its prime. The American fleet, called the US Merchant Marine, comprised 16% of the global commercial fleet in 1960. Now, it makes up less than half of a percent of commercial ships worldwide.

On an October morning in 1975, Cadillac became the loudest small town in America. It was KISS — yes, that KISS — strutting through a northern Michigan town better known for lumber history than for hosting rock legends.

Cases in Benzie County, the Upper Peninsula and elsewhere demonstrate that small communities are not immune from big theft, and that the betrayal is deeply felt.

Across northern Michigan, hotel taxes generated almost $30 million for area convention and visitors bureaus. Some in Traverse City say the money should go to the county.

The money was slotted for stream restoration and farmland preservation across the region.

A cloud of uncertainty hangs over Michigan's local public health departments as they prepare their fiscal year 2026 budgets.

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.

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.

Some argue baiting helps hunters kill more deer, curbing the spread of disease. Scientists say that's risky.