It was a different kind of year from 2024, when stories about shopping malls, road construction, the Cherry Festival, and the pop star Jewel filled out the ranks of The Ticker’s most-read stories list. In 2025, the shadow of two violent crimes – a stabbing that made national news and a tragic shooting at a Traverse City parking deck – hangs heavy over our list of most-read stories.

8. Local Indivisible Groups Respond To Claim That Their Events Are Paid For By Billionaire George Soros

Across the United States, chapters of the Indivisible Project grabbed headlines this year for mounting massive protests against the administration of President Donald Trump. Locally, two of those groups – Traverse Indivisible and Leelanau Indivisible – organized multiple events, including a town hall in March intended as a dialogue between Congressman Jack Bergman and his local constituents. Bergman declined to attend, with his communications director James Hogge telling The Ticker that his boss would “not now, or ever, attend a George Soros-funded so-called town hall.” The local Indivisible groups responded a few days later, denying that any part of their event had been paid for by Soros, a 95-year-old billionaire philanthropist often vilified by the Republican party. The Ticker’s article on the matter went viral, thanks largely to a share from famed political commentator Rachel Maddow on the social networking site Bluesky.

7. Mary's Kitchen Port to Close This August

If our Facebook stats were anything to go by, Mary’s Kitchen Port had a whole lot of fans before it closed for good this past summer. Our initial post about the business’s closure, from March 29, garnered 210,000 views on Facebook, reached 72,000 people, and tallied nearly 700 comments and 300 shares. On July 31, we marked Mary’s Kitchen Port’s last day by sharing a series of community-sourced photos, most of them documenting the around-the-block line of locals waiting for the final Gobbler sandwiches. That post reached more than 86,000 Facebook users, and featured a comments section full of people begging Mary’s Kitchen Port to publish the Gobbler bread recipe as a final parting gift (no such luck).

6. Traverse City Landmark Coming Down Soon

Turns out there was a lot of love for the large cottonwood tree that once overhung Murchie Bridge at the mouth of the Boardman River. In July, as city officials mulled the impending removal of the dying tree, The Ticker’s Art Bukowski got the scoop, and the story racked up more than 37,000 hits on our website. A follow-up article in October, about how city public works employee Scott Chupp carved the tree stump into a lake trout and sturgeon, was also popular.

5. Garfield Township Man Arrested After Impregnating Teen Daughter

One of several high-profile local crime stories this year was this October news, about a Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office investigation into a sexual assault of a minor. Child Protective Services notified the sheriff’s department in May about a 14-year-old girl who had given birth to a son. The investigation ultimately led to the arrest of the girl’s biological father, who was also determined to be the biological father of the victim’s son.

4. Land Of 9,000 Airbnbs: Northern Michigan's Short-Term Rental Market, By The Numbers

Perhaps one of the biggest “conversation piece” stories in Ticker history, this November by-the-numbers report about northern Michigan’s massive short-term rental (STR) market drew 255,000 views and nearly 600 comments on our Facebook page, plus a take-filled Reddit thread. For the story, we leaned on the data and expertise of AirDNA, a company that claims to provide “the most accurate and comprehensive vacation rental data and analytics in the world.” The story proved intriguing even for AirDNA’s seasoned representatives, who got in the comments on Reddit to further explain some of the takeaways.

3. Meijer Planning New Traverse City Store

Ticker reporter Beth Milligan broke the news in March that Meijer was looking to build a new 161,221-square-foot supercenter on the land next to Menards in Chums Corner. It was a big scoop, racking up more than 39,000 pageviews on our website – the most for any single story this year. What’s next? Blair Township Supervisor Nicole Blonshine told Ticker sister publication the Traverse City Business News in December that Meijer had completed all approvals as far as the township was concerned, and Meijer spokeswoman Erin Cataldo said the company “anticipates breaking ground in 2026.”

2. City Parking Employee Found Shot Dead in Deck

The two most pervasive news stories of 2025 in Traverse City both were both developing news cycles that unfolded in the wake of violent crimes. In this case, the first bits of news to break concerned the arrest of two teenagers on the night of Saturday, November 16. Both suspects, 17-year-old Eugene Thompson and 18-year-old Hunter Vanderwall, were apprehended after a reported larceny from a car and an ensuing chase where Thompson allegedly fired multiple rounds at pursuing officers. The next day, Lawrence Boyd IV, a 32-year-old Traverse City Parking Services employee, was found dead from a shooting in the Larry C. Hardy Parking Deck, a tragedy that law enforcement officials linked with the other incident. The story is still developing, with a third suspect arrested and charged in connection with the crime just last week.

1. Eleven Wounded in Mass Walmart Stabbing Attack in Traverse City

Traverse City’s biggest brush with national news in 2025 came from another violent incident: a stabbing spree at Walmart on Saturday, July 26 that put 11 victims in the hospital, six of them in critical condition. The Ticker’s first post about the attack garnered more than 828,000 views on Facebook. The next month saw near-daily updates, including the recovery and eventual discharge of all 11 victims, the identification and arraignment of suspect Bradford James Gille, and the news that Gille had been found incompetent to stand trial. The case drew nationwide attention, with reports landing everywhere from CNN to NBC News to Associated Press. Coverage continues, with CBS News reporting just this month that one of the victims of the stabbing had filed a lawsuit against Walmart, alleging that the retailer could have done more to protect its customers.