Whitmer: Michigan residents to keep getting $300 aid if they return to work
by Arjun Thakkar (Bridge Michigan) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a plan Monday to repurpose federal unemployment benefits to encourage more laid-off employees to return to work. At a morning press conference, Whitmer said certain employees laid off during the pandemic and receiving federal unemployment benefits will continue receiving weekly $300 payments through September 4 if […]
Michigan GOP passes voter ID bill to deter ‘fraud’
by Sergio Martínez-Beltrán (Bridge Michigan) The Michigan Senate on Wednesday passed three bills to overhaul voter ID requirements and add new restrictions to those casting absentee ballots. The three bills, SB285, SB303 and SB304, eliminate the option for voters to sign an affidavit if they lack identification, requiring them instead to cast a provisional ballot […]
What we know about the University of Michigan sports sexual assault scandal
by Arjun Thakkar (Bridge Michigan) Since February 2020, when the University of Michigan announced that it was investigating allegations of sexual abuse against the late Dr. Robert Anderson, much more information has emerged about his alleged misconduct, the people who claim they were abused, and the extent to which U-M officials within the athletic department, […]
Michigan’s climate-ready future: wetland parks, less cement, roomy shores
By Kelly House (Bridge Magazine), Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue The year is 2050, and you’re visiting family in Detroit. Arriving, you grab coffee on the ground floor of a nine-floor building filled with offices and apartments, designed to house a growing Great Lakes city without pushing out longtime residents. Around the corner, people gather […]
As Michigan ages, one woman has made it her mission to train family caregivers
By Ted Roelofs (Bridge Magazine) For Paula Duren, her one-woman mission to help families overwhelmed by caregiving is personal. For several years, the Farmington Hills resident assumed primary caregiving responsibility for her mother and father, as her mother struggled with Alzheimer’s and her father with another form of dementia in their Ferndale home. “I was […]
High school/college hybrid programs growing in popularity in Michigan
By Olivia Tucker (Bridge Magazine) Kyle Johnson never thought he was college material. “I was one of those middle-of-the-road kids — I wasn’t failing, but I was doing just enough to pass,” Johnson said. “At the rate I was going in my high school, I probably never would’ve gone to college after.” Now, the 21-year-old […]
Lack of child care now a ‘crisis’ facing Michigan’s workforce
By Paula Gardner (Bridge Magazine) Shock came first. Then anger. And within days of learning the Ann Arbor Public Schools planned to eliminate its school-age child care program in the fall, more than 1,110 parents signed a petition asking the district to restore it. “There was near universal astonishment at this decision,” said Liz Lin, a […]
Michigan fireworks 2021: What you can and can’t do on the Fourth of July
by Olivia Tucker (Bridge Michigan) With the COVID-19 pandemic canceling summer festivities in 2020, Michigan residents may not remember what they can and cannot do with fireworks for their Fourth of July celebrations. Are firecrackers legal in the state? Can I shoot them into my neighbor’s yard at 3 am? What’s the difference between a […]
Dems, GOP feud over fixing Michigan Secretary of State appointment backlog
by Sergio Martínez-Beltrán (Bridge Michigan) The pandemic may be winding down, but a backlog at the Michigan Secretary of State caused by it continues to vex lawmakers in Lansing. Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledge they need to fix a system that has left an unknown number of 7 million drivers with lapsed car registrations — […]
Michigan GOP advances voter ID mandate: common sense or a new poll tax?
by Jonathan Oosting, Sergio Martínez-Beltrán (Bridge Michigan) Fourteen years after Michigan’s voter identification law survived a legal battle because of an affidavit option Republicans are now moving to eliminate, critics are threatening litigation again as the legislation moves to the full Senate for a potential vote. Because Michiganders without an ID can currently vote by […]
