Judge rejects GOP bid to delay Michigan redistricting commission
By Jonathan Oosting (Bridge) LANSING – Michigan can proceed with plans to create an independent redistricting commission after a federal judge on Monday rejected Republican attempts to immediately delay implementation of a state constitutional amendment voters approved last fall. The decision by U.S. District Court Janet Neff, appointed by GOP former President George W. Bush, […]
Michigan finds some success fighting opiate crisis on front line: emergency rooms
By Ted Roelofs (Bridge) DETROIT — A couple of months ago, Detroit resident Juanita Gross was desperate to turn her life around. She had a $200 a day opioid habit. She had already overdosed three times – and feared the next one might be her last. So she had her two adult children drive her […]
Michigan term limits face court challenge from former lawmakers
By Riley Beggin, Ron French (Bridge) LANSING – As unpopular among policymakers as they are popular in the public, Michigan’s term limits will now face a challenge in court. A bipartisan group of former legislators on Wednesday announced plans to file a federal lawsuit against the state, seeking to end term limits on Michigan legislators. […]
Michigan’s PFAS cleanup costs are mounting. Taxpayers may get stuck with the tab
By Riley Beggin (Bridge) BELMONT – Terry Hula loves Christmas. So much so, she and her husband, Tom, bought a home 28 years ago that was surrounded by a Christmas tree farm. Every summer, she celebrates Christmas in July, a gathering of her two daughters and grandchildren to watch Christmas movies, make Christmas cookies, exchange […]
Michigan youth suicide rate doubles: what parents can do
By Robin Erb, Mike Wilkinson (Bridge) In the small northern Michigan town of Kingsley, Jamie Pobuda heard the news last year that a 16-year-old local boy had killed himself. Then just months later, a 14-year-old boy took his own life, too. An inventory control supervisor raising her teenage granddaughter, Pobuda remembers the way the […]
Michigan government 101: Want more taxes? Hold elections when few vote
By Mike Wilkinson (Bridge) Next March, fully two years before its current property tax expires, the Detroit Institute of Arts wants to ask voters in southeast Michigan for more money. If the DIA wants the tax to pass, choosing the March 2020 primary was wise. “It’s a no-brainer,” said Michigan pollster Bernie Porn, who is […]
Cellphones are everywhere. Except Michigan courts. Is that an injustice?
By Riley Beggin (Bridge) LANSING – As ubiquitous as smartphones have become, there’s still one frontier they haven’t conquered: courtrooms. The Michigan Supreme Court is considering whether to create a statewide rule to allow phones, laptops and other “portable electronic devices” in courthouses. The state’s 242 courts now set their own policies, and many ban […]
Michigan transplant surgeon calls vaping damage to teen’s lungs ‘evil’
by Robin Erb (Bridge) The ravages of vaping to a Michigan teen’s lungs – a 17-year-old believed to be the nation’s first double lung transplant for vaping-related respiratory system failure – was “an evil I haven’t faced before,” one of the surgeons said Tuesday. Dr. Hassan Nemeh, surgical director of thoracic organ transplant at Henry […]
‘You just react’ — Hunter deaths shadow opening of Michigan firearms season
by Bob Campbell (Bridge) This is the week each year when anticipation builds for the traditional Opening Day of Michigan firearms deer season, which begins Friday. Hunters are sighting-in guns, gathering gear, tracking weather reports and recalling past hunts. It’s also the week in which spouses, children, parents and friends routinely urge hunters to “be […]
Michigan hunters thought they shot deer, squirrels — they hit other hunters
by Bob Campbell (Bridge) Bridge Magazine culled 20 accidents from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ annual summaries of hunting-related injuries and deaths involving weapons from 2010 to 2018. Over these nine years, 86 people were injured and 16 died after being struck by bullets, slugs, pellets or arrows. The incidents selected illustrate a wide […]
