Alpena
Lighthouse fest features efforts on preservation
ALPENA, Mich. (AP) — This week’s annual Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival in Alpena features a session highlighting a program that funds preservation efforts in Michigan.
The festival runs Thursday to Sunday and is expected to draw hundreds of lighthouse enthusiasts to Michigan’s northeastern Lower Peninsula.
On Friday, a session will offer information about the Michigan Lighthouse Assistance Program, which is supported by the sale of Save Our Lights license plates. Since 2000, the State Historic Preservation Office has awarded more than $1.5 million in grants through the program.
“Lighthouses symbolize the Great Lake State and draw visitors to Michigan each year,” Bryan Lijewski, an architect in the State Historic Preservation Office at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, said in a statement. Their maintenance and preservation is a continual project, he noted.
The Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival includes displays of photography, artists, crafters and authors. Participants may visit a number of area lighthouses. If weather permits, there will be boat tours to Middle Island Lighthouse and Thunder Bay Island Lighthouse, and helicopter tours.
Lansing
DNR begins to collect salmon and trout eggs
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Crews have begun collecting millions of eggs from trout and salmon to boost Michigan’s populations of both fish species.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says the fall egg taking season is getting under way for wild chinook and coho salmon and for captive broodstocks of brown, rainbow, brook and lake trout.
Chinook salmon eggs are being collected at the Little Manistee River Weir this week. Coho salmon eggs will be collected at the Platte River State Fish Hatchery Weir next week. Other operations will take place at state hatcheries in Marquette and Oden.
DNR fish production manager Gary Whelan says most of the eggs will remain in Michigan but some will go to Indiana and Illinois.
The public is welcome to watch DNR teams collect eggs.
Detroit
Guilty plea from alleged cocaine courier, 89 likely
DETROIT (AP) — One of the oldest criminal defendants to set foot in Detroit federal court is returning for a guilty plea in a drug case.
Leo Sharp is 89 years old and lives in Michigan City, Ind. In 2011, he was busted on Interstate 94 in Washtenaw County with more than 200 pounds of cocaine. When a state trooper stopped him, Sharp was upset and declared, “Just kill me and let me leave this planet.”
