THE LAST FOURTEEN months haven't been kind to Marquette resident Anna Dravland. The next few months may be even bleaker. In November of 2017, at age 34, she suffered a stroke, which we chronicled in Word on the Street. She survived but not without debilitating damage. She could hardly walk and talk at first, but with ... Continue Reading
It’s a Yooper Thing
IT'S NOT THE kind of road trip Jed Jacobson enjoys making, but a necessary one. A Christmas day drive alone from his home in Ann Arbor to his home in Harvey. He does it every year. He has family in both towns so he spends Christmas Eve with his elderly mother and his siblings in Ann Arbor, then wakes up on Christmas ... Continue Reading
A Different Kind of Christmas Story
SHAWN SALO DOESN'T much believe in the joy of the holiday season. He lives alone, he's not religious, and he's been chronically depressed since he was fifteen. But wait! There's more to this story than you might think. This isn't just another one of those "Christmastime leads to depression" stories. Shawn's forty ... Continue Reading
The Room at the Inn Firing: What Really Happened
IT CAME AS a surprise--even a shock--to many of us. Doug Russell, the highly respected executive director of Room at the Inn and this community's leading advocate for the homeless, was terminated. Fired. It seemed to come out of the blue, totally unexpected. And unfair, as well. After all, the man wasn't making a ton ... Continue Reading
A Season of Thanks, a School of Thanks
THE STUDENTS AT Marquette Alternative High School broke bread together Tuesday, celebrating Thanksgiving a little early. More than a hundred of them enjoying food prepared by fellow students and their parents. Normal high-schoolers--in hoodies, hats and heavy jackets, some with radically colored hair, some with ... Continue Reading