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Keep Your Voice Down: Let’s Talk About Cake
Canadian journalist and baker Chantal Hortop, who serves as managing editor of The Gleaner in Quebec, stops by Keep Your Voice Down to talk cake and shop with hosts Doug Sears, Jr. and Alek Haak-Frost. The wide ranging conversation includes how Chantal and Alek met, the impact of the LION Independent News Sustainability Summit on both their organizations, what local journalism looks like in Canada, and Chantal’s penchant for creating dazzlingly delicious baked goods.
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Watershed Voice is an independent, nonprofit civic news magazine based in Three Rivers, Michigan. We seek to highlight solutions to your pressing concerns in an effort to make our community a better place.
Our Latest
Glen Oaks names more than 335 students to fall 2025 honors lists
Watershed Voice would like to congratulate all students who have made the honor roll on their success and we wish you luck in your continued pursuit of excellence — academic or otherwise.
Students named to the President’s List earned a 4.0 grade point average. Students named to the Dean’s List earned a GPA between 3.75 and 3.99. Students are listed alphabetically by hometown.
Whitmer appoints new judge to Michigan Court of Appeals serving Southwest Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has appointed Andrew Lievense to the Michigan Court of Appeals, First District, a court that hears appeals affecting residents in Kalamazoo and St. Joseph counties.
Lievense, of Northville, currently serves as an assistant U.S. attorney. He previously worked as a litigation associate at Honigman LLP in Detroit and clerked for U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn.
Chaotic Three Rivers meeting includes emergency briefing, closed-door discussion of city manager
The meeting, which lasted more than three hours Tuesday, included several tense exchanges among commissioners, a closed-door discussion about City Manager Joe Bippus, and an emergency management briefing featuring city officials, first responders, and representatives from the American Red Cross and Samaritan’s Purse.
During Sunshine Week, Tlaib pushes bill to strengthen press and whistleblower protections
The legislation is named after Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower who revealed classified information about the Vietnam War and was charged under the Espionage Act. The charges were later dismissed.
At its core, the bill would narrow who can be prosecuted under the Espionage Act and raise the legal threshold required for conviction.
Community input reshapes path for Winchell-Howard school safety plan
Kalamazoo City Commissioner Chris Praedel said the process reflected strong community engagement.
“It’s refreshing to see these outcomes when it happens this way. It does not always turn out this way, and I am grateful that it has — but it only happens this way when everybody is willing to lean in and try something a little bit different,” Praedel said.
The project combines improvements along two corridors — Winchell Avenue and Howard Street — under a single MDOT contract, meaning the elements cannot easily be separated for approval.
Additional damage assessments scheduled in Cass County following tornado
Three assessment teams will be deployed and will move between affected jurisdictions throughout the day Tuesday and Wednesday. Residents in impacted areas may see officials visiting neighborhoods to visually assess damage from public rights-of-way or, in some cases, briefly approaching properties to document storm impacts.
