Monday, Feburary 2nd, 2026
On this day in 1954, the Detroit Red Wings played the first outdoor game in NHL history—against the Marquette Branch Prison’s inmate team, the “Prison Pirates.”
A 1980’s tradition was revived at CMU’s basketball game Saturday, with over 6,000 toilet paper rolls being thrown toward the court. Check out the video here and read more in The Goodie Bag!
Today’s sponsor Kajabi offers skilled experts a platform to earn income from those skills—from marketing to delivery. Read more on Kajabi’s free trial offer below!
Detroit 10/24° ☁️ | Grand Rapids 11/26° ☁️ | Ann Arbor 9/23° ☁️ | Lansing 10/25° ☁️ | Flint 9/24° ☁️ | Saginaw 11/26° ☁️ | Kalamazoo 11/26° ☁️ | Muskegon 12/26° ☁️ | Traverse City 9/26° ☁️ | Marquette 7/23° ☁️ | Escanaba 12/27° ☁️ | Sault Ste. Marie 10/25° ☁️ | Alpena 11/28° ☁️
Michigan Has 6th-Most Land Owned by Foreign Entities
New data showed Michigan to have sold an additional 71,000 acres to foreign investors, making it the state with the 6th-most land owned by foreign entities.
The Great Lakes State has 1,893,774 acres of land owned by foreigners, and ranks third in the country with 8.8% of its agricultural land being owned by those entities.
The majority of land owned by foreign entities in Michigan resides in the Upper Peninsula’s forests.
You can see an interactive map showing the percentage of foreign-owned land in each state and county here.
January Snowfall Totals Hit Over 50 Inches in Multiple Cities
The month of January was packed with heavy snowfall days across Michigan, and a new map shows totals seen across the state last month.
The heaviest snowfall was seen in the Northern U.P. and West side of the Mitten, with nearly 50 inches falling.
Most of Mid and South Michigan saw between 15 and 20 inches, with approximately eighty percent of last month’s snowfall coming in the last two weeks of the month.
You can see a map showing January’s snowfall totals here.
Sitting Detroit Judge Charged in Fraud Scheme
Andrea Bradley-Baskin, a judge on Michigan’s 36th district court, was charged for her part in stealing $273,000 from the estates of incapacitated individuals, according to a new release from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
In the release, U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. announced charged after finding that Judge Bradley-Baskin swindled a ward to invest $70,000 in a local bar, and stole money from another ward to pay for the two-year lease on a new Ford Expedition.
Bradley and three of her associates were issued wire fraud charges for the over-quarter-million dollars in stolen funds.
You can read the DOJ’s full release here.
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Around the Mitten
Statewide: A new list ranked Michigan as having the 6th-best dental health in the country. (See List)
Rochester Hills: Meijer is hiring for more than 100 part-time and full-time jobs at its store on N. Rochester Road. (More)
Green Charter Township: Attorney General Dana Nessel demanded the repayment of a $23 million grant the state issued to Gotion, a Chinese electric battery manufacturer, for a plant near Big Rapids. (More)
Burlington Township: Calhoun County sherriffs rescued four horses who were trapped after falling through the ice on a pond. (See Photos)
Statewide: A new interactive map from Pure Michigan shows live and predicted snowfall levels across the state. (See Map)
Kalamazoo: HUB Tavern and Grill was named the winner of the city’s chili cook-off that took place Saturday. (See Photos)
Houghton County: Medalist-winning snowmobilers who competed at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado, came to Keweenaw for a freestyle snowmobiling show. (See Video)
Sports
The NHL-best Avalanche steamrolled the Red Wings on Saturday 5-0, with a rematch tonight at 9 p.m. in Colorado. (See Preview)
No. 3 Michigan basketball took down No. 7 Sparty 83-71, with forward Yaxel Lendeborg scoring 26 points and 12 rebounds. (See Box Score)
Rochester Hills was ranked the No. 1 Division I high school team in the state by the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association. (See Rankings)
The Goodie Bag
6,000 rolls of toilet paper were thrown toward the court in a resurgence of a tradition from the 80’s at Central Michigan’s basketball game against Bowling Green. (See Video)
Photos captured Saturday showed hundreds jumping into the 33-degree water in Clark Lake to raise awareness for the Special Olympics. (See Photos)
A local Grand Traverse County artist known as Evelyn celebrated her 100th birthday this weekend. (See Video)
Previous Results
Do you still listen to the radio? 📻
Yes - 86% ✅
No - 14%
Another poll with huge participation! Thank you for interacting with our daily polls—We read every response!
Even 100.9 COOL FM’s own Scotty “Bud” Melvin chimed in on Friday:
Answer: Yes, “Local radio still rules the airwaves! Almost everyone hears a radio every day of their lives....”
Thanks for reading, Scotty! Many of you mentioned SiriusXM as a driver of why you listen to radio…
Answer: Yes, “Sirius radio is great . I can listen to different kinds kinds of music from the 50s to today's”
And some detractors:
Answer: No, “It’s a wasteland”
Thank you for reading Monday’s edition of The Mitten! We hope you enjoyed today’s stories. We always welcome any reader feedback by simply responding to this email.