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Grandmother's letter from the Holocaust

Seventy five years ago this month, the United States declared war on Germany during World War II. T hat declaration had a dramatic impact on a Jewish family living in Austria and their family members who escaped the Holocaust and settled in Traverse City.

IPR 2016 Staff Holiday Music Special

Keeping hungry deer away from one northern Michigan forest

Metropolitan Opera: L'Italiana in Algeri

By Debbie Poltorak • Dec 26, 2016

Rossini’s comedy L’Italiana in Algeri, conducted by the Met’s Music Director Emeritus James Levine. The comedic opera, heard in an archived performance from October, tells the story of a feisty Italian girl who gets kidnapped in Algiers, but tricks her captors and saves the day. Mezzo-soprano Marianna Pizzolato and tenor René Barbera made their respective company debuts as the title character, Isabella, and the love-struck Lindoro, whom she rescues.

Tinsel Tunes: A Classical Holiday Playlist

By Tom Huizenga • Dec 23, 2016

The shopping's almost done. Menus are planned. The relatives are relatively under control.

Just one thing's missing from your holiday checklist — music.

Instead of fumbling through dusty CDs, LPs and cassettes, how about a click-of-the-mouse playlist of classical, and classy, holiday music?

There should be something here for just about everyone: plenty of Christmas carols, a few Hanukkah favorites and some off the beaten slope items.

Messiah Plus One with the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra

By Amanda Sewell • Dec 22, 2016

The Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra and Chorus presented the holiday concert Messiah Plus One earlier this month. The concert included the Oratorio de Noël by Camille Saint-Saëns and the Prophecy and the Nativity from George Frederic Handel’s Messiah. Soloists included soprano Risa Renae Harman, mezzo-soprano Jamie Beth Platte, alto Martha Hart, tenor Tom Cilluffo, and baritone Jason Coffey. Messiah Plus One took place at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Petoskey.

A Year Of Listening Desperately: 10 Classical Albums That Saved 2016

By Tom Huizenga • Dec 22, 2016

Home for the Holidays with the Traverse Symphony Orchestra

By Amanda Sewell • Dec 22, 2016

Earlier this month, the Traverse Symphony Orchestra presented its annual Home for the Holidays concert. The TSO was joined by the NMC Grand Traverse Chorale and Children's Choir.

In new children’s book, a little girl’s Christmas wish is for her soldier dad to come home

By Stateside Staff • Dec 21, 2016

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Our conversation with Bill O. Smith, a Traverse City-based writer

A children's book can be filled with wisdom and a message that resonates with readers of all ages.

That is certainly the case with Traverse City-based writer Bill O. Smith's new children's book Four a.m. December 25.

It is the story of a very special gift for a little girl.

Federal agency changes rules on accidental eagle deaths

By Rebecca Williams • Dec 20, 2016

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Listen to today's Environment Report.

Bald eagles came off the endangered species list in 2007 because they were doing so well. These days you can see more bald eagles than in any time in the past 50 years, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The agency has just finalized a new rule about bald and golden eagles, which revises the permitting system for unintentional impacts on eagles.

Metropolitan Opera: Hansel and Gretel

By Debbie Poltorak • Dec 20, 2016

Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, in an English-language performance from January 1, 2008. Vladimir Jurowski led the performance, with soprano Christine Schäfer as Gretel; mezzo-soprano Alice Coote as Hansel; mezzo-soprano Rosalind Plowright and baritone Alan Held as their parents, Gertrude and Peter; and the late tenor Philip Langridge as the wicked Witch. The opera has been part of the Met’s holiday repertoire for decades: on Christmas Day, 1931, Hänsel und Gretel (sung in German) became the first complete opera to be broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera.

A year after drawing worldwide attention to Flint, whistleblowers share how life is different

By Stateside Staff • Dec 20, 2016

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Part one of our conversation with Marc Edwards and Lee Anne Walters. Edwards is an expert on water treatment and corrosion at Virginia Tech. Walters is a Flint resident and activist.

In April 2014, the fateful decision was made to change Flint's drinking water source to the Flint River.

That led to what is known world-wide as the Flint water disaster.

But it took activist citizens like Lee Anne Walters working with Virginia Tech engineer Marc Edwards to rip apart layers of denial and stonewalling from state and Environmental Protection Agency officials.

In 2001, Edwards proved that people in Washington D.C. were drinking lead-poisoned water after the city changed water treatment chemicals. So, when Walters and other worried Flint residents called, he answered.

They joined us today, a year after the city officially declared a state of emergency.

DeVos family, labor unions spend millions on political groups, report shows

By David Cassleman • Dec 19, 2016

Political candidates raised millions of dollars - and spent millions of dollars - in Michigan this election season, but they weren’t the only ones.

There was also plenty of political spending by independent groups. Those are the groups not connected to any candidate, which can accept unlimited amounts of cash from donors. The top 20 groups in Michigan spent $9.9 million between January 2015 and Election Day, according to a report by the watchdog Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

About half of the money raised by those groups came from a dozen sources, the report says.

“Those 12 sources are driving the independent spending in Michigan, and the main force behind it is the DeVos family,” says Craig Mauger, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

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Craig Mauger of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network says a dozen sources are driving political spending in the state.