top ten this week’s

48 Hours in Frankfort

Roll the cameras—the Frankfort48 Film Contest is full of action this weekend! The contest is the trial grounds for the local films and filmmakers who make it into the Garden Theater’s Frankfort48 Film Festival in October. These aren’t films folks have worked on for months or years; instead, participants are given just 48 hours (thus the name) to create a 3-5 minute short after being given a line from a movie, a prop, and a location to creatively incorporate in their film. After a whirlwind weekend, the films will be screened on Sunday, June 18, at 8pm at the Garden Theater in Frankfort. A panel of judges will select the top three films to receive prizes and extra air time at the festival in the fall. For more details or to sign up to participate—note: there’s a max of 20 entrants—head to gardentheater.org/frankfort48.

What’s Cooking at Shady Lane

Celebrate your dad at Shady Lane Cellars’ Father’s Day Cookout. Offering a brat and Gruner Veltliner pairing for $18, the Suttons Bay winery will also have a cigar lounge with cigars available to purchase. This event runs from noon until 5pm on Sunday, June 18, along with live music from Luke Woltanski from 2-5pm. shadylanecellars.com/event-home/events

Hey, watch It! American Born Chinese 4

Disney+ has a new series out, and believe it or not, it’s not part of the Marvel, Star Wars, or princess franchises. This fresh story—currently sitting at 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes—is instead based on the award-winning graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, the former Library of Congress Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. The show follows teen Jin Wang as he tries to fit in at his high school…while also navigating his role in the center of a battle between ancient Chinese gods. No big deal, right? If you liked Oscar-winner Everything Everywhere All at Once, you’re going to find a lot to love here, from the action-meets-comedy genre blend to the familiar faces of Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. This one is perfect for families, offering a true coming of age tale alongside some fantastic choreography and magical takes on the real—and mythical— worlds. Now streaming on Disney+.

2 Tastemaker

The Mill’s Whole Wheat Hand Pie

Opened in April in Glen Arbor, The Mill café and bakery is a one-stop shop for all things nostalgia, from the charm of its past as a local grain mill to their wildly-popular Whole Wheat Hand Pies. An elegant take on the classic pasty, each pie is baked in a hot-water crust—that’s what creates that buttery crumble—and is packed with locally-sourced ingredients. This month, the PB&J gets an adult upgrade in a pie filled with apple- and almond-butters, Sweet Teague apples, and rich brown sugar. (Be sure to stay tuned to their menu, as a galette-style handheld with asparagus is already in the works for summer!) Savor one inside the café—ask for it warmed and thank us later—or take your goodies on the road. Get your hands on one ($7) at The Mill in Glen Arbor (5440 W. Harbor Hwy). Order online at themillglenarbor.com, or find them on social media @themillglenarbor.

6 Fishing, Beer, and a Fun Run

Right Brain Brewery (RBB) is ready to kick off Father’s Day weekend with some creative family fun. Perfect for the outdoorsy family, the Magnet Fishing event on Saturday, June 17, is like a giant version of the Let’s Go Fishin’ game beloved by kids of the eighties and nineties. You’ll throw a big magnet tied to a cable into the water and reel in scrap metal from the Boardman, searching for both junk and buried treasure. All proceeds from the collected scrap metal will go toward the Boardman River Clean Sweep. Magnet fishing runs from 12-3pm. Register ($25 per person) at rightbrainbrewery.com. Also at Right Brain on Saturday, you can participate in the Juneteenth Fun Run/Walk ($5) put on by TART Trails and Northern Michigan E3. The 4K and 6.4K routes start and end at RBB, followed by an afternoon of community with RBB brews and food from the Chubby Unicorn food truck. Register at traversetrails.org/event/ juneteenth-family-fun-run-walk.

Stuff We Love: A Secret Garden

Sshh! This one is for your eyes only. The Secret Garden at Brys Estate has opened for the season, and it’s time to channel your inner Mary Lennox and go explore the beauty of the soothing purple blossoms. The 12-acre garden is home to 6,000 lavender plants plus a swath of strawberries, with a U-pick option for the berries once they’re on the vine. If visiting for the flowers and fruit wasn’t enough, may we also recommend stopping by for a scoop of custom Moomers ice cream, made specially from the lavender and strawberries of the Secret Garden. Oh, and there are also freshly baked treats, lavender lemonade, and a whole slew of lavender products to peruse including lotions, soaps, essential oils, and candles. And did we mention you’re only steps away from Brys Estate and its awardwinning wines? Find the Secret Garden at 3309 Blue Water Road on Old Mission Peninsula or visit bryssecretgarden.com to shop online.

For 17 years, the Traverse City Business News, sister publication to Northern Express, has been celebrating the young movers and shakers of northern Michigan with the 40Under40 awards, sponsored again by Hagerty. Now, it’s time for a new class of superstars, and the TCBN is open to applications for the 2023 cohort. Individuals in Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, and Kalkaska counties are eligible for nomination. (And, of course, they must be under the age of 40 until at least September 1.) Nominees stand out for their leadership, local influence, economic impact, and community service in our region. To put a friend or colleague’s hat in the ring, head to tcbusinessnews.com/40-under-40-nomination-form. You’ll want to have their job title and contact info prepared along with some shining achievements and compelling reasons why they should make the list. All nominations are due by June 21 at 5pm. Winners will be notified ahead of the September announcement and featured in that month’s issue of the TCBN.

Old Mission Distilling opened last weekend, located near Bowers Harbor Vineyard and Peninsula Market out on Old Mission Peninsula. The distillery joins several other businesses—including coffeehouse Mission Proper, a beauty salon, and Tinker Studio—in the newly renovated Seven Hills complex. The sunny weather and bright, airy space of the building shared by the distillery and Mission Proper led us to select the Summer Fling off the cocktail menu. (Could any name be better for this drink? We think not.) This beverage has all the flavors you crave in June: strawberry rhubarb vodka mixed with (organic!) raspberry lemonade. It’s pretty, it’s pink, and it goes down soooo smooth. While you’re there, shop the bottle options from Old Mission Distilling or explore the coffee side of the store, which also offers baked goods, high-end versions of pantry staples, and giftable homegoods. Grab a glass ($13) at 13795 Seven Hills Road in Traverse City. (231) 224-6011

BOTANICAL HOME & GIFT SHOPS

SAME TRUMP, NEW CAMPAIGN LIES

spectator By Stephen Tuttle

At least one presidential candidate is back to his old ways, his lie machine barely slowing down. Here’s a sampling.

According to the Associated Press, Trump claims he “inherited record high unemployment” and created the “lowest unemployment in history.” The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) would beg to differ. In January, 2017, when Trump took office, the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent. The highest on record was 24.9 percent in several months of 1933. When Trump left office in January, 2021, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, very good but nowhere near the record low of 2.5 percent in May of 1953.

classified and otherwise, he took when he left office. He said, “I’m supposed to negotiate with NARA...” about the records. (NARA is the National Archives and Records Administration.) Nope, not even close. The Presidential Records Act (PRA) is clear and specific that all presidential records, with few exceptions, such as correspondence with personal lawyers, must be sent to NARA as soon as a president leaves office.

Trump further claimed he had the right to take the documents and that he was “…only taking boxes of records and mostly clothing and other things…” and further claimed all presidents going back to Jimmy Carter had done the same thing. Except the other presidents did no

The former president has also opened up some new lines of misinformation, disinformation, and outright fibbing.

He claims he created “the best job growth ever.” Once again those contrarians with all those pesky statistics at DOL tell a different story. Job growth averaged 227,000 new jobs per month in the last three years of the Obama Administration but only 197,000 per month during the first three years of Trump’s term. (It’s not fair to include the last year of Trump’s term given the shutdowns and economic turmoil during the pandemic.)

He also claimed to have overseen record stock market numbers. True enough when discussing the Dow Jones and NASDAQ raw numbers but not true in terms of market growth. The stock market increased about 50 percent during Trump’s term but 150 percent during Obama’s eight years in office. (Obama started with the economy and markets in the tank with little room to go anywhere but up, and Trump inherited an economy already on the upswing with less upward room available.)

Trump is telling some impressive whoppers about crime, claiming it’s “the worst it's ever been” and saying it was at all-time lows during his term. According to CNN reporting, during his tenure he claimed, “Our crime statistics are at a level that they haven’t been at” and are “record setting.” None of that is even remotely close to the truth.

According to FBI statistics, our highest violent crime rate was in 1991, when there were 758.2 violent crimes per 100,000 people. The low was just 150.1 crimes in 1960. The rate was 397.5 in 2016, Obama’s last year in office, and 402.6 in 2020, Trump’s last year. (The FBI defines violent crime as murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.)

The former president has also opened up some new lines of misinformation, disinformation, and outright fibbing.

In an April 5 speech at Mar-a-Lago, he veered into a fantasy about the records, such thing; NARA says they took possession of all those presidential papers immediately upon those presidents’ departures from office. And the “boxes of records” taken are an overt violation of the PRA.

He claimed in the same speech that we left behind “…$85 billion worth of the best military equipment in the world…” when we left Afghanistan. The Department of Defense puts the number at $7.1 billion and claims most was destroyed after any sensitive technology was removed.

Then there are the calls to officials in Georgia demanding they “find” him enough votes to reverse his loss there. He said, “Nobody found anything wrong with that perfect call until a book promotion tour months later…” That’s just bizarrely wrong. The Washington Post and others reported the story the next day, and Trump’s calls were met with outrage by many.

Then there was the ongoing delusion about voter fraud in 2020. Trump claimed in his April speech, “Millions of votes were illegally stuffed into ballot boxes, and all caught on government cameras.” That’s just an outright lie; there is no video or evidence of any such thing. The Associated Press, which laboriously tracked alleged fraud in battleground states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—found 475 instances, about half of which actually benefited Trump.

His latest bit of nonsense is his claim that, if elected, he will “end birthright citizenship by executive order on day one.” No, he won’t because the Fourteenth Amendment says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States…” No president can undo the Constitution by executive fiat, period. New campaign, same Trump.

WHAT STEPS CAN WE TAKE TO ADDRESS OUR HOUSING CRISIS?

guest opinion by Yarrow Brown

It’s time to focus on things you can do right now in your community to keep the conversation going around housing. With the summer arriving, there is added pressure for people trying to find housing, and the real estate market continues to price people out who live and work here year round.

Housing connects to almost everything else in our complex community system. Housing stability, quality, safety, and affordability all affect health outcomes. We need to continue to help our communities become “housing ready” and remove barriers to responsible growth.

The two main ways to address this are allowing more density for housing in areas where it makes sense and to allow for smaller square footage units and homes to be built. These include duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, and accessory dwelling units.

Another important piece of the puzzle is removing housing restrictions that limit the type of housing that can be built based on size or what it’s made from or who can live there. Let’s embrace alternative housing options that are safe, affordable, and healthy for our residents.

Change can be uncomfortable, and some of us are wary of high-density apartments in certain locations. But the reality is we simply don’t have enough housing units for the people who live here or want to move here for work and for the quality of life we all enjoy.

The bottom line? It’s imperative for our communities to make changes to allow for the housing required for everyone who lives here. We tend to have singlefamily only zoning, so even if it’s a small change like allowing for apartments above garages or for a home to have more than one unit, that can make a huge difference. Communities can create districts or areas where higher density is allowed.

If you’re comfortably housed, it may be hard to understand why there’s a housing crisis or why people can’t afford to buy a house or rent an apartment. But there are very few units available, compounded by a limited workforce to build the housing. Many people are priced out and can’t afford the mortgage or rent.

We can’t attract and retain talent to our region without enough housing. Over 85 percent of those looking for housing that is affordable—and by “affordable,” I mean paying 30 percent or less of their income on housing—make $65,000 a year or less.

Beyond the lack of housing stock, there’s a shortage of resources to support rehabilitating existing structures and limited infrastructure. Without much- needed water, sewer, broadband, or natural gas, it’s very expensive to build housing. We need to do more to reduce the costs of housing, protect our natural resources, and prevent sprawl. We need to build housing where people want to live—close to amenities, including transportation.

It can be daunting, and as an environmentally-minded person, I struggle with some of the development I see around us. I still get sad when I drive by a newly-cut forest or an old hay field that will now have housing. But we can develop responsibly with the appropriate plans, encouragement, and resources for our region. And some of these changes come from updating our zoning ordinances to encourage less sprawl.

We’re fortunate to have three land conservancies working as partners with our communities to protect the most sensitive and vulnerable areas. They also understand the need for housing and collaborate with many communities to support housing where there’s little conservation value or impact to the natural environment.

Community and public systems to deal with our waste and water are better for the environment compared to so many individual septic systems. And they are expensive to fund. We just need to get there and make sure there are resources for our communities to tap into to expand the infrastructural needs in our region.

How can you help? Beyond contacting your legislators, you can also show up and speak up locally! Attend your local planning commission to learn what’s going on and the changes being considered to provide more housing opportunities. If you have a specific request or want to support an agenda item, let them know. If you’re a resident of that community, it’s more impactful to hear from you.

Lastly, you can invest in housing or work with a partner nonprofit to create a secure year-round rental, develop a duplex, or create an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) in your backyard. Invest in your community by creating more housing or supporting organizations working toward that goal.

We have an opportunity in northern Michigan to lead the way for our rural communities to use the new tools, to develop local and regional housing funds, and help create communities with housing for all. We know that housing is a necessity for everyone, and with some small changes, we can make a big impact.

Yarrow Brown is the executive director of Housing North, a 10-county housing agency serving northwest Michigan.

Compelling Explanation

When Ocala, Florida, police officers questioned 37-year-old Daniel Robert Dinkins about a nearby burglary on May 13, he responded, "That may have been me." Earlier, officers had been called to a home where someone had thrown a brick through a window where a baby was sleeping inside, then left a book on the front porch. Dinkins said he wanted to swim in the neighbors' backyard pool and "wanted to share the book with them," Ocala News reported. He also told police he was a "time traveler" and was trying to "save the baby from something way in the future when the child is much older." Strangely, Dinkins said he wasn't aware there was a baby sleeping inside. He faces a felony burglary charge.

Government in Action

A central India food inspector, Rajesh Vishwas, lost more than his phone on May 21, NBC News reported. While snapping a vacation selfie at Kherkatta Dam, Vishwas dropped his phone into the water. According to him, his device contained sensitive governmental information, so he ordered the reservoir to be drained. Vishwas said he got permission from R.C. Dhivar, a local water resources official, but Dhivar argued that he'd given permission to drain only 3 or 4 feet of water. Instead, "They had emptied the water up to 10 feet." It took three days to drain the 530,000 gallons of water, but in the end, it was all for naught: Vishwas' phone was unusable. As was he: He was suspended from his job pending an investigation.

That Rule Doesn't Apply to Me

An unnamed woman in Tacoma, Washington, was arrested and detained in a negative pressure room at the Pierce County jail on June 1 after refusing for more than a year to get treatment for tuberculosis, KOMO-TV reported. A judge issued 17 orders for her to be involuntarily detained before police caught up with her. "We believe she was trying to avoid being captured," said Sgt. Darren Moss. Officers surveilled her while she was still at home and observed her riding a city bus to a casino. "The health department had asked her to just do it on her own ... now she's going to have to do it in our facility, unfortunately," Moss said. He said TB was once common in the jail, hence the negative pressure rooms, which "isolate the air within the room so it doesn't infect the rest of the rooms within the facility."

Rude

New York attorney Anthony Orlich is probably tearing his hair out in the wake of an incident in late May, the New York Post reported. Orlich allegedly snatched the wig off the head of Brooklyn singer Lizzy Ashleigh while walking along a city street at night; Ashleigh captured the aftermath on her cellphone and posted a video to TikTok, which garnered hundreds of thousands of views. In the video, Ashleigh yells at Orlich: "Sir! For what reason did you take my wig off? What makes you think that that's OK?" Orlich refused to apologize, even with his friends encouraging him to. Ashleigh has said she plans to take legal action, but Orlich is already in trouble: His firm, Leader Berkon Colao & Silverstein LLP, has fired him, according to a LinkedIn post.

Cheesy

Delaney Irving, 19, of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, said of her May 28 victory in a cheese-rolling contest in Gloucester, England: "It feels great!" That's in spite of the fact that she woke up in the medical tent after taking a fall and hitting her head, The Guardian reported. "I remember running, then bumping my head ... I still don't really believe it," she said. The contest involves rolling a 7-pound wheel of cheese down the almost-vertical Coopers Hill, and Irving wasn't the only contestant who lost their footing.

Lucky!

A piglet got a second chance at life on May 25, according to KVVU-TV. As Lars Gradel, Rebecca Zajac and her son, Colton, drove along the interstate that day near Las Vegas, they witnessed a baby pig as it was thrown from a truck. "We saw a pig fly out the side of the truck, and he tumbled about 10, 15 times down the side of the freeway," Gradel said. They stopped to rescue the pig, who didn't seem to be hurt. "Lucky," as he was named, was given a new home at the All Friends Animal Sanctuary, where he'll eventually meet fellow porcine Mister Picklesworth. "Now Lucky's going to be wallowing in mud and rooting around in the ground and ... eating watermelon and popsicles in the summer," said sanctuary founder Tara Pike.

Fixer-Uppers

Looking for a bargain home in Burbank, Oklahoma? "Bargain," as in: more than 17,000 square feet for only $60,000. United Press International reported on May 30 that the former Burbank High School is on the market and listed as a single-family home. The building, constructed in 1924, features five "bedrooms," four bathrooms and an indoor basketball court, along with an auditorium. The school closed in 1968, and conditions are pretty rough inside. "There is plenty of opportunity to make this property your own," the listing promises. Meanwhile, in Fort Meade, Maryland, high school seniors listed their school building on Zillow as a graduation prank, United Press International reported. They described the 12,000-square-foot school as a "half-working jail": "All 15 bathrooms come with sewage issues ... (and) trash-scented air freshener and water issues!" The listing was removed several hours after appearing, said Bob Mosier, spokesperson for the Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

Bright Idea

Coffee Smile, a cafe chain in Russia, knows how to milk social media. Owner Maxim Kobelev put up posters in his stores in May that announced plans to start offering human breast milk in their lattes and cappuccinos. Oddity Central reported that Kobelev claimed to have contracted with lactating mothers whose milk is tested for safety. "The child eats just a little," one supplier said in a promotional video, "so I thought, why not earn extra money? I even made coffee with my breast milk for my husband; he liked it." Turns out, it's all an attention-seeking hoax. "There were many of my friends who wanted to try this coffee," Kobelev said. "For them, I prepared a drink with a mixture of goat and almond milk. The taste is very similar -- I know this because, as the father of two children, I also tasted the real thing."

By Sarahbeth Ramsey