News

The 15th annual Heikinpäivä is later this month and each year, the Finnish Theme Committee selects one person whose work toward preserving and promoting Finnish culture in the area goes above and beyond normal efforts. That person is the festival’s “Hankooki Heikki” and presides over the festivities, wearing the crown …

The Michigan Legislature reconvened in Lansing on Wednesday following their holiday break and Senator Tom Casperson was among those heading back to work. After completion of the first ever U.P. wolf hunt, Casperson says he is not discouraged by the underwhelming results.  The senator anticipates dueling proposals on the upcoming …

A local production company is asking for help to complete a movie that has a strong message about finding an identity in a multi-cultural world. The movie is called “Mutt” and Early Spring Productions is in need of funds to put the movie on the big screen. Filming is done …

A new study shows that for the first time since 1997 Michigan had almost as many people moving into the state as moving out. The 37th Annual Migration Study released this week tracked 129,000 moves by the company nationwide in 2013. It showed that there were over 5500 moves in and …

The U-S Senate continues to debate proposals to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless in the United States. Meantime, Michigan’s Senior U-S Senator is hoping for a quick solution for what he calls “desparate” people who continue to look for work. Senator Carl Levin says it’s “immoral” not to …

A study of Michigan’s use of optical scan voting machines concludes that they have an unacceptable error rate, are deteriorating as they surpass a decade in age and should be replaced with human hand counts. The study, conducted by the Michigan Election Reform Alliance, which includes several of those individuals …

This year Heikinpäivä is scheduled for January 25th but the celebration begins today in Hancock. All this month, there will be activities and festival events to celebrate Heikinpäivä, the day of the passing of Findland’s St. Henry and the midpoint of winter. All leading up to the Heikinpäivä parade. Finnish …

More than 1300 UPPCO customers are breathing a sigh of relief after a lengthy power outage yesterday left them in the dark and without heat for almost nine hours. The outage effected almost 90 percent of communities in Ahmeek, Allouez, Copper City, Kearsarge, Mohawk and New Allouez and was caused …

The first city council meeting for the city of Houghton was a productive one, as some of the first proposals of 2014 were accepted. City Manager Scott MacInnes said 2013 was a good year for the city.  The first two approved resolutions of the new year deal with deficit elimination …

A Hancock man facing criminal sexual conduct charges is having his case bound over to Circuit Court. 37 year old Michael Kangas had a preliminary exam in Houghton County District Court yesterday. He’s charged with three counts of second-degree CSC. Two of the counts are said to involve separate incidents …