Short-term rental advocates, foes work toward a deal on laws in Michigan
by Lindsay VanHulle (Bridge) Michigan policymakers are again working to regulate short-term rentals such as those on sites like Airbnb, as they try to balance neighborhood concerns with private property rights. But unlike previous attempts in Lansing, legislators are enlisting the help of groups that have fought on opposite sides of the issue. Since the spring, […]
Michigan GOP files new suit to stop independent redistricting commission
by Jim Malewitz (Bridge) The Michigan Republican Party is suing to block the creation of a citizens commission established to redraw the state’s legislative and Congressional boundaries. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the state GOP asks a U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids to invalidate the amendment to create the redistricting commission — stopping Michigan Secretary […]
Pressure builds on Michigan Republicans for roads plan to avoid shutdown
by Riley Beggin (Bridge) With just over a month to go until the Oct. 1 deadline for a completed state budget and roads funding plan, pressure is building on Lansing Republicans to offer their own vision for funding more than $2 billion in Michigan road and bridge repairs. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is scheduled to […]
What’s behind the population boom in rural Michigan jails?
by Ted Roelofs (Bridges) In the northeast corner of the Lower Peninsula, Alpena County Jail tells a story familiar to much of rural Michigan. Its inmate population is rising, the cost to cash-strapped county government is climbing – and the jail is filled with the mentally ill and misdemeanor defendants who fail to post bail […]
All eyes on Grand Traverse Bay as deadline looms for tribal fishing decree
by Jim Malewitz (Bridge) Cindi John didn’t always enjoy her husband’s fishy fragrance. She recalled the early years of their relationship when Ed John would return from a long day of gill net fishing on Lake Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay. “I was like ‘you’ve got to take those clothes off. I can hardly deal with […]
Planned Parenthood says 42,000 in Michigan at risk from abortion ‘gag rule’
by Robin Erb (Bridge) Planned Parenthood said Monday it would withdraw from a longstanding federal funding program for low-income patients -‒ including patients in Michigan ‒- citing what it called “unfair” gag rules that would forbid its clinics from making abortion referrals. The loss of funding threatens a range of health care ‒ from family planning to […]
What to expect from the Michigan Legislature this fall
by Riley Beggin (Bridge) After a summer hiatus, the members of the Michigan Senate are set to descend upon Lansing on Tuesday while their counterparts in the state House return next week. When they reconvene, they’ll have a number of issues to dig into, including, most notably, the looming deadline to assemble a budget deal […]
Amid literacy crisis, Michigan’s school librarians have all but disappeared
By Koby Levin (Bridge/Chalkbeat) When the basketball star and a local news crew showed up at Thurgood Marshall Elementary school in Detroit, the room the kids called the “library” was a glorified storage closet, complete with peeling paint, jumbled bookshelves and unopened cardboard boxes. By the end of the home makeover segment, the library looked the […]
Michigan farm country testifies to widespread crisis as crops go unplanted
By Jim Malewitz (Bridge) One of Michigan’s wettest planting seasons in history forced Doug Darling to leave about two-thirds of his Monroe County farmland unplanted. And the corn, soybeans and wheat he managed to plant in between downpours? He doesn’t expect any of it to grow up normally. The soil moisture wasn’t quite right. The […]
Michigan’s Secretary of State promised 30-minute waits — lines are worse
By Riley Beggin (Bridge) Sheryl and Neil Lightner stepped outside Mason’s packed Secretary of State branch office last Tuesday to grab a smoke. They’d already waited more than an hour to renew a driver’s license and get new plate tabs, and there were still 24 people ahead of them. The Lightners needed to get outside, […]
