At Michigan State, deciding whether to go home or stay for the meal plan
By Kelly House (Bridge Magazine) EAST LANSING—Hours after Michigan State University stopped all in-person classes on Wednesday amid news of a coronavirus outbreak in Michigan, the 50,000-student campus had already begun to look like a ghost town. Almost immediately after university officials announced the closure and encouraged students to leave campus until in-person classes resume […]
How to make your own hand sanitizer during coronavirus shortage
By Kelly House (Bridge Magazine) As coronavirus bears down on Michigan, hand sanitizer is in short supply. After news of 16 confirmed coronavirus cases in Michigan prompted prolonged school closures, canceled public events and work-from-home orders for many workers, shoppers began emptying store shelves of sanitary and medical supplies in hopes of protecting themselves against a more widespread outbreak. […]
How Michigan hospitals and businesses try to keep workers happy, healthy
by Catherine Shaffer (Bridge Magazine) Cameron Williams wasn’t expecting any surprises when he showed up for a wellness screening through his employer, Detroit-based Quicken Loans, in the summer of 2017. He was 31 years old and not feeling at all sick. His life changed when the nurse told him his blood pressure was extremely elevated, […]
Michigan clerks swamped as state rolls out voter reforms
by Riley Beggin (Bridge) Michigan’s first election with no-reason absentee voting and same-day registration Tuesday resulted in long lines at city clerk offices and an accusation of voter suppression from Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. More than 13,000 people registered to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told reporters […]
Michigan lawmakers move to approve $37M pet projects on Election Day
By Mike Wilkinson, Jonathan Oosting, & Riley Beggin (Bridge Magazine) One year after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer derided millions in “pork” spending, she appears set to approve $37 million on similar projects for parks, arts centers, and special infrastructure plans. On the same day as Tuesday’s presidential primary, the state House approved $320 million in […]
Another year, another plan stalls to fix transit in southeast Michigan
By Jonathan Oosting (Bridge) LANSING — A new plan to jumpstart regional transit in Metro Detroit stalled last week in the Michigan House, complicating and perhaps dooming the push for a new ballot proposal this fall. The legislation, celebrated last week by House Speaker Lee Chatfield as a “common ground” approach, would have allowed any […]
Cow dung won’t stop coronavirus and you can open Amazon boxes from China
by Robin Erb (Bridge) Spreading as fast as the new coronavirus are half-truths, innuendo and downright dangerous lies around it, putting Michiganders’ health — as well as their wallets — at risk. One Michigan school district fought rumors that it shut down because of coronavirus. (It was a power outage.) A county health department faced […]
Citizenship question is gone, but Michigan immigrants still distrust the Census
By Alexandra Schmidt (Bridge) President Donald Trump’s plans to include a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census have come and gone, but they continue to spark fear among immigrants about what the government will do with information collected in the count. Community advocates say this trepidation could cost vulnerable communities federal funding. “Most people […]
As Michigan battle rages on Line 5, Enbridge quietly buys land for tunnel
By Ted Roelofs (Bridge) WAWATAM TOWNSHIP—As court battles persist over Enbridge Energy Inc.’s plan to build an underground tunnel for its Line 5 oil pipeline, Enbridge is quietly shelling out millions for modest properties on the south shore of the Straits of Mackinac. According to local property records, an Enbridge subsidiary has scooped up 16 residential […]
Five Michigan DNR workers contracted tuberculosis, likely from testing deer
by John Barnes (Bridge) Five workers at Michigan’s Wildlife Disease Laboratory have been diagnosed with tuberculosis, possibly linked to “human error” as the lab struggled to test thousands of deer for chronic wasting disease, a Bridge Magazine investigation found. The Department of Natural Resources — which has made no public announcement — confirmed the TB […]
