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Greg Peterson

About Greg

I am a news reporter, writer and investigative journalist who began my career over 30 years ago as a young teenager in Augusta, GA after moving south during the middle of high school.

Having worked for dozens of newspapers and TV/Radio stations in Georgia and Michigan over the past three decades, I am the volunteer media advisor for several environmental projects involving Native Americans across the Upper Peninsula of MI including the Turtle Island Project, the Manoomin Project and the Earth Keeper Initiative.

The Manoomin (Wild Rice) Project teaches at-risk teens (just sentenced in juvenile court) to respect nature and themselves by having American Indian guides escort them to very remote lakes and streams in northern Michigan to plant and care for wild rice.

The fourth annual planting of wild rice will be in September 2007 when the conditions are perfect.

The teens conduct water quality and other tests to determine the best conditions for the once native grain to survive.

The newly formed Turtle Island project was founded by Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard in Munising, Michigan.

Environment projects are being planned as well as regional and national conferences on respecting the culture and heritage of First Nation peoples (American Indians) and all Indigenous Peoples..

Rev. Hubbard is providing a platform for American Indians to be heard - unedited by whites. - whom Rev. Hubbard says don't have the knowledge or right to speak on behalf of Native Americans.

Rev. Hubbard is an evangelical Lutheran pastor, and the Turtle Island Project chairman of the board, Rev. Dr. George Cairns, is a theology professor at a Chicago seminary and an ordained United Church of Christ minister.

The Earth Keepers group has many environmental projects including an annual Earth Day Clean Sweep at two dozen free drop off sites across a 400 mile area of northern Michigan that has collected over 370 tons of household hazardous waste since 2005 (total collection time: 9 hours or 3 hours each year).

The 2007 Earth Keeper Pharmaceutical Clean Sweep collected over one ton of drugs plus $5000,000 in narcotics in only three hours. Some 2,000 residents participated and many brought in pharmaceuticals for their family, friends and neighbors.

In 2006, some 10,000 people dropped off over 320 tons of old/broken computers, cell phones and other electronic waste, all of which was recycled. In 2005, residents turned in 45 tons of household poisons and vehicle batteries.

In 2007, over one ton of pharmaceuticals and $500,000 in narcotics was turned in by more than 2,000 people at 19 sites - plus personal care products likes shampoos, perfumes etc.

I was co-coordinator of the 1986 original James Brown Appreciation Day in Augusta, GA, where the Godfather of Soul was always trashed by the local media who found no reasons to print or report anything positive about the music icon.

Mr. Terence Dicks was the other co-coordinator and most recently served as chair of the Augusta Human Relations Commission and still a member of the Georgia Clients Council.

Mr. Brown taught us to "fight the good fight" by battling all forms of racism and evil while not uttering a bad word about those who try to block justice, respect, fairness and kindness to all.

As a child, I also lived in the Harbert, Michigan home built by late poet Carl Sandburg - where the legendary authored penned some of his greatest works including his Chicago works and Lincoln papers.

The huge home had a sundeck on the top and a cool walk-in safe in the basement.
The neighborhood - called Birchwood - has numerous cottages used for other purposes by the Sandburgs including the milk house where they milked goats.

When my parents remodeled the fourth floor of the home that stands atop the Lake Michigan sand dunes/bluffs - they found items that belonged to Mr. Sandburg concealed in the walls including prescription bottles (with name), reading glasses, and a small, thin metal stamp with his name.

I have always specialized in civil rights, outdoor, environmental, cops and courts reporting thanks to my late mentor Jay Mann (Jan Tillman Hutchens), an investigative reporter in Augusta, who lived by the books "Illusions" and "Jonathon Livingston Seagull."

I love to fish, hunt, camp and skydive. A member of the Delta Chi national fraternity, I was very active in student projects through my schools years from Junior Achievement, to all forms of band (played cornet) to cross country, track, and football (I wasn't very good).

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