Caro’s psychiatric hospital is saved. Michigan’s mental health crisis persists.
By Jonathan Oosting (Bridge) LANSING – Plans for a new 100-bed psychiatric hospital in rural Tuscola County may help the region’s economy but will do little to address Michigan’s larger mental health “crisis,” according to experts who remain wary of long waiting lists and limited care options. Facing pressure from local officials, lawmakers and union […]
Michigan has $1B left over from budget. What happens to all that money?
By Riley Beggin (Bridge) Michigan’s state budget finalized last week outlines how the government will spend around $59 billion over the next year. It was hard-won: Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican leaders Sen. Mike Shirkey and Rep. Lee Chatfield are at odds over many funding priorities such as schools and roads, making for months of turbulent […]
Tiny school districts to Lansing: Stop acting like ‘middle-schoolers’
by Ron French (Bridge) As principal and superintendent of the one-building Whitefish Township Community School in the Upper Peninsula community of Paradise, Tom McKee recognizes middle-school behavior when he sees it. His school district is set to lose 16 percent of its funding because of vetoes by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the failure of the […]
Here are the winners and the losers in Michigan’s new budget
by Riley Beggin (Bridge) After months of negotiations, twists, stalemates and unprecedented moves, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer finalized the state budget this week, just in time to avoid the first government shutdown in a decade. The first-term Democratic governor line-item vetoed nearly $1 billion of the $59.9 billion budget and shifted $625 million within state […]
Seeking a cure: The quest to save the Midwest’s rural hospitals
by Jennifer Hemmingsen for IowaWatch, (via Bridge) Small rural Midwest community hospitals, squeezed by financial and regulatory pressures, are scaling back on services, merging with larger hospital systems and searching for other creative ways to survive in the short term, an Institute for Nonprofit News investigation by 12 news organizations in seven states revealed. Rural […]
Preparing Michigan cities, health systems for more ransomware attacks
by Ted Roelofs (Bridge) About an hour before dawn in April 2016, a Lansing utility worker opened an email and clicked on a link. In an instant, that set loose a computer virus that locked out the Lansing Board of Water & Light accounting and e-mail networks and closed customer helpline phones for two weeks. […]
Michigan counselors fighting ban on right to diagnose, give psychotherapy
by Ted Roelofs (Bridge) In a dozen years of counseling in suburban Detroit, Anahid Derbabian has helped clients navigate everything from depression to suicidal thoughts, grief over the loss of a spouse or a job, and a range of marital issues. “My work is extremely important to me – life and death important,” Derbabian said […]
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 5 big asks for new Michigan budget talks
by Jonathan Oosting (Bridge) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has plans for roughly one-third of the $947 million she vetoed from Republican budgets this week and is proposing additional spending on parolee monitoring tethers, literacy coaches, and a skilled-trades job retraining program for adults. The first-term Democrat is looking to restart bipartisan negotiations after an unprecedented […]
Michigan’s ban on flavored vaping products with nicotine now in full force
by Robin Erb (Bridge) A judge has refused to place Michigan’s ban on flavored vaping products on hold, leaving in place rules that make it a misdemeanor to sell such products starting at 12:01 a.m. last Wednesday. Judge Cynthia Diane Stephens of Michigan’s Court of Claims instead continued a hearing into the request by a […]
Besieged Michigan farmers back new trade pact with Canada and Mexico
by Jim Malewitz (Bridge) LANSING — Michigan farmers are calling on Congress to swiftly pass a new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, saying it could provide partial relief from low prices, a trade war with China and heavy rains that kept crops out of the ground this spring. “It’s huge to our futures in […]
