Ben Jodway
ReporterBen Jodway is an intern, serving as a reporter for WCMU Public Media and the Pioneer in Big Rapids. He has covered Indigenous communities and political extremism in Michigan.
Ben is a Central Michigan University student majoring in history and minoring in journalism and anthropology. When not huddled over the phone, he likes to read books and play Dungeons & Dragons.
-
The Children’s Garden in Traverse City has been awarded $20,000 in state grant funding. It will help improve the garden’s learning pathway and add more plants.
-
Finlandia University – in Hancock, in the U.P. - is shutting its doors permanently after this semester. Another private liberal arts university four-hundred miles away, Alma College, is lowering barriers to help prospective students.
-
The winter freeze helps stave off pest populations... but according to crop experts, this year Michigan didn’t have much of a freeze.
-
Mid-Michigan is expected to see rain tonight into Saturday afternoon, and some flooding will be possible.
-
A pickup truck in Emmet County crashed into the back of a garbage truck, hitting a worker while he was outside. The worker was pronounced dead at the scene.
-
Eleven churches in Michigan—including one in Charlevoix—have each been awarded $100,000 to improve energy efficiency.
-
The second case of bird flu this year has been detected in a Lapeer County flock.
-
The sun is coming out, and soon - so are the tourists. Early signs of summer tourism look to be at least as good as last year, according to the communities we talked to.
-
Debate over whether to remove a book from the public library is dividing people in Lapeer County. At issue is the graphic novel “Gender Queer”. Some residents say it’s underage pornography and that it grooms children. The library director told WCMU the book belongs in the library as much as any other book.
-
A Lapeer County prosecutor said earlier this week he was weighing criminal charges against a local librarian over an LGBTQ-themed book on the shelves. At the library’s board meeting Thursday night, he had a different message.