Local News

The COVID-19 infection rate has slowed in the Keweenaw. The most recent report from the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department includes 44 more confirmed positives in the five-county area since the last report was released late Thursday. 21 of those confirmed cases were in Houghton County, which also reported one …

Northern Michigan University is holding a free juried art competition for Upper Peninsula artists. Between three and five winners will have their work displayed on banners outside the DeVos Art Museum on campus from mid-November through February. Winners will also receive a $250 cash prize. Artists must live and work …

The People of the Heart Water Walkers are expected to wrap up this year’s water walk today. Small groups of walkers left the Sand Point Lighthouse in Baraga Saturday morning. Carrying a copper vessel filled with water, they traveled to Houghton the first day, from Houghton to Eagle River yesterday, …

The Houghton County Road Commission is getting more goodies from the federal government than we were first told. A release from Congressman Jack Bergman’s office late last week identified U.S. Department of Agriculture funds that will be used to purchase a quad axle truck, a truck with a water tank …

Authorities in the eastern Upper Peninsula are trying to track down around 50 men who gathered for a retreat last weekend. A person with an active case of COVID-19 attended the gathering, which took place at the United Methodist Church in Pickford. Others who attended are at risk, but leaders …

Houghton County schools will resume face to face instruction this morning. With revised state rules in place, all students will be required to wear masks at almost all times at school facilities, including inside classrooms. Mask-optional policies enacted earlier by some local school districts are no longer valid. Similar restrictions …

Enrollment is down at Michigan Tech this year, but not as much as had been feared, given the challenges posed by COVID-19. Vice President for University Relations and Enrollment John Lehman told the Board of Trustees this morning that total enrollment is off by 170 students, with the foreign student …

Extended unemployment benefits for Michigan residents would continue under a bill passed by the state senate yesterday. Most of the provisions would remain the same as those included in Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order, which was recently struck down by the Michigan Supreme Court. One exception is that recipients would …

K-12 school students in Houghton County may return to the classroom on Monday. The decision was finalized by the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department yesterday afternoon. Health Officer Kate Beer said that COVID-19 infection rates have begun to moderate – falling from a high of 78 per hundred thousand residents …

Houghton County school will be allowed to resume in-person instruction beginning Monday. Although some districts had made announcements to that effect as early as Wednesday, the final green light from the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department wasn’t given until Thursday afternoon. Here is the release from the Western U.P. Health …