Top Ten

HIGH WATER COULD BE AS BAD OR WORSE

Water levels on Lake Michigan are forecast to remain high as summer turns to fall and the year’s most severe storms approach.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said that despite some seasonal decline in water levels, the impacts of storms this fall are expected to be as severe or worse than fall 2019.

“The Corps of Engineers urges anyone impacted by high water levels last fall to prepare for similar or worse impacts in the coming months,” said John Allis, chief of the Detroit District Great Lakes Hydraulics and Hydrology Office.

The combination of severe storms and high water is expected to bring coastal flooding and erosion, Allis said.

Lake Michigan-Huron and Lake St. Clair set new monthly mean record high water levels in August. Lake Michigan-Huron’s previous August record was in 1986. Lake St. Clair surpassed last year’s record high. Since peaking in August, water levels have declined and are expected to continue to decline into winter.

Stuff we love The Future Of Menus

Touchless retail and food service are all the rage these pandemic days, so we’re toasting northern Michigan’s own Kevin Spagnuolo, who acted quickly this spring and started Menus Today, which lets diners safely and quickly scan a code and view realtime restaurant menus right on their smartphones — and lets restaurant operators save on printing and make instant updates to their menus. Spagnuolo tells us the virtual menus increase draft beer and cocktail sales, and he has plenty of local clients to prove it, including The Cooks’ House, The Parlor, Rove Estate, and several national players like 91 Dave & Buster’s locations. More info at menus.today.

FALL DENNOS EXHIBITIONS: MICHIGAN ARTISTS & ARCHITECTURE

The Dennos Museum Center’s fall exhibitions will open Tues., Sept. 22 and run through Jan. 31. “Michigan Modern: An Architectural Legacy” (photo 1) celebrates Michigan’s architectural design history from 1928 – 2012. It features more than 50 photographs by James Haefner. Pictured is the pottery studio at the Okerstrom Fine Arts Building, NMC. “Mathias J. Alten: An Artist at the Turn of the Century” (photo 2) portrays the life and career of German-born American artist Mathias Joseph Alten who immigrated to the United States in 1889 at the age of 17. Alten’s family settled in Grand Rapids, a premier furniture-manufacturing center and desired location for immigrants in the late-nineteenth century. Explore Alten’s works of art, historic photographs and personal artifacts drawn from the collection at Grand Valley State University. Pictured is Alten’s Self Portrait, Myself at 66.

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bottoms up Burritt’s Spanish Wine Sale/Luzón Colección 8 Meses

Stocking up on wine for the holidays, or just hunting for the best deal you can find? Don’t miss out on the fall Spanish wine sale at Traverse City’s Burritt’s Fresh Markets (509 W Front St). Burritt’s holds two wine sales each year, offering direct import pricing on a variety of wines. This fall’s sale spotlights eight different Spanish wines from the portfolio of Aviva Vino, one of the oldest and most well-known American distributors of Spanish wine. We tried the Luzón Colección 8 Meses, a red wine made from the Garnacha Tintorera grape and aged for eight months in French and American oak barrels. Midnight red in hue, relatively high in alcohol content, and featuring a lush character with flavor notes of chocolate, coffee, oak, and dark fruit, the 8 Meses is the type of full-bodied red that is built for cold weather and rich, wintry food pairings. It’s also a great deal: typically priced at $13.29 for a bottle, the 8 Meses is currently going for $108.75 for a 12-bottle case at Burritt’s. Do note that, for this year’s fall wine sale, Burritt’s is only offering case sales – no bottle sales. Learn more about the sale by calling 231-946-3300. Northern Express Weekly • sept 21, 2020 • 5

MANISTEE AND TRAVERSE CITY LOCATIONS 231.946.8822 Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures

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Unlock Michigan is likely to unlock trouble. It’s awash with potential for unintended consequences.

The idea is that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has far exceeded what should be her authority, using a 1945 emergency powers law to unilaterally make decisions during the Co- vid-19 pandemic. Several attempts to stop the governor through the courts having failed, a petition drive was started to force a referendum that would repeal the 1945 statute. The governor would still have some emergency powers under a 1976 law but would need the approval of the legislature after 28 days.

It appears the referendum drive will secure enough signatures to force a vote. But if the Republican-controlled legislature, anxious to find a way to hamstring Whitmer, passes the law themselves, the referendum would be moot, no public vote would be held, the law would not require the governor’s signature nor could she veto it. A visit to Unlock Michigan’s web site, full of hyperbolic nonsense, tells the story. Whitmer’s executive orders – and she’s closing in on 200 – are unconstitutional, give her dictatorial powers, will destroy Michigan’s economy, offends our liberties, blah, blah, blah. We’ve heard all this for months. What we still haven’t heard is what the anti-Whitmer fac- tion would suggest as an alternative. And they have short memories. Less than six months ago, Michigan was one of the coronavirus epicenters. Washington state got it started, then New York and then here. When Whitmer essentially shut down the state on March 16, both cases and fatali- ties were soaring, especially in southeastern Michigan. Whitmer could have ignored the medical community and the infectious disease experts and done nothing. Plenty of states did that much to the applause of their freedom-loving citizenry. South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia all kept going. Gover- nors in Florida and Arizona issued their own executive orders barring local municipalities from taking any action of their own, like requiring masks. How did that work out for those states? All of them ended up with soaring surges and fatalities which could have been prevented. Michigan, which at one point had the third worst infection and fatality rate, now has a per capita infection rate lower than that of 33 other states. One could argue Gov. Whitmer’s orders, based on advice from actual medical experts rather than partisan politicians, have proven to be difficult, sometimes confusing, almost always annoying and mostly right. None of us is especially enjoying this but the numbers are on the governor’s side.

Legislatures, by their design and nature, rarely make quick decisions. They are supposed to be deliberative bodies, not a place for rapid responses. In times of real crisis, they cannot, or should not, move with the speed required so authority to do that has been given to governors during a declared state of emergency.

Unlock Michigan would put that authority back into the hands of our legislature after 28 days. And then what? A nice, long, thoughtful debate? A month or so of partisan squabbling?

This is, after all, the same legislature that just got around to producing a budget weeks after

One could argue Gov. Whitmer’s orders, based on advice from actual medical experts rather than partisan politicians, have proven to be difficult, sometimes confusing, almost always annoying and mostly right.

public schools had been begging for it. It’s the same legislature a judge told months ago to fix what he described as oppressive amendments, vague rules and the unconstitutionality of Michigan’s sex offender registry to no avail. The 44,000 people on that list have been relieved of their responsibility to report their whereabouts until the changes have been made. And then there was the Flint water catastrophe.

(To be fair, the GOP leadership did act quickly in stripping Rep. Larry Inman of his commit- tee assignments, office, and staff based on a phone call he made with a union representative for which he was subsequently indicted. But Inman has not been, and is not likely to be, convicted of anything.)

If successful, Unlock Michigan will essentially give the governor 28 days of emergency powers and then the crack legislature will spring into action to authorize another 28 days. Or crawl into ponderous pontificating unlikely to bear any resemblance to action.

It’s not as if this pandemic will be our only emergency. Another dam break, a natural flood, wildfire, and tornadoes are all possibilities as is another pandemic. All of them could require swift responses, the ability to change directions quickly and extend beyond 28 days. Involving the glacially moving legislature won’t help resolve whatever problem we’re facing.

One does wonder if those now advocating restraints on Whitmer will feel the same should there come a time when a Republican governor is bedeviled by a Democratic legislature. Those now crying the loudest about uncon- stitutional authority and dictatorial powers will likely be muted then, replaced by calls to unlock the governor.