Shooter drills. Anxious teachers. Flying staplers. Michigan schools prepare.
The image that keeps Laura Roth awake at night is a door. It is metallic blue with a silver door knob and a poster filled with quotes from students in Roth’s seventh-grade history class at Tappan Middle School in Ann Arbor. At night, she pictures her classroom door locked during a school shooting. According to […]
Michigan doesn’t track school security – or fund safety office it created
by Ron French, Lindsay VanHulle (Bridge) How prepared are Michigan schools to thwart a mass shooting? It’s difficult to tell, because of minimal state-level regulation and reporting. No office collects or records what schools across the state are doing to thwart school shooters, according to Nancy Becker Bennett, director of the grants and community service at Michigan […]
Fixing typo, Michigan loosens U.P. brook trout limits — for now
by Jim Malewitz (Bridge) LANSING — Anglers this season may catch up to 10 brook trout per day across 33 Upper Peninsula streams stretching 1,200 miles, double the limit elsewhere in Michigan. But the relaxed regulation could be short-lived. The state’s Natural Resources Commission last week reaffirmed the 10-trout threshold for a select group of streams scattered […]
Yes, it takes billions to fix Michigan roads. No, taxpayers don’t want to pay.
by Ron French (Bridge) The question isn’t whether it will take a lot more money to fix Michigan roads. The question, according to an array of experts Thursday, is whether politicians have the will to do it. At a Solutions Summit sponsored by The Center for Michigan (the nonprofit organization that includes Bridge Magazine) and Public Sector […]
Public outcry changed Michigan social studies standards. Add your voice.
By Ron French (Bridge) Last year, the public influenced changes in how history will be taught in Michigan schools. Now, residents will have another chance to offer their opinions on Michigan’s controversial social studies standards, at nine evening meetings around the state and online. A similar round of public meetings in 2018 led to a […]
A deal to fix Michigan’s roads looks to roll into summer, at least
By Lindsay VanHulle (Bridge) The debate over how to pay to fix Michigan’s crumbling roads likely will stretch into summer. That’s when Republican lawmakers in the Senate say they anticipate being ready to publicly share their alternative to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s plan to raise gas taxes by 45 cents per gallon to raise the extra $2.5 […]
How high is too high to drive? That’s up to police in Michigan
By Riley Beggin (Bridge) How high is too high to drive? Now that marijuana is legal in Michigan, it’s a big question. But nobody knows for sure, claims a Michigan state commission that recently recommended that lawmakers not set a marijuana threshold to define drugged driving, akin to the .08 blood alcohol content threshold for drunk driving. […]
As measles outbreak spreads, Michigan anti-vaccine group hits Lansing
By Ted Roelofs (Bridge) Even as Michigan health officials urge vaccinations amid a measles outbreak that now counts 39 cases, residents opposed to mandatory vaccines converged on Lansing Thursday to deliver a message of their own to lawmakers. “Don’t take away our choice,” said Suzanne Waltman, president of Michigan for Vaccine Choice, a Troy-based nonprofit group that […]
Bills to bar Michigan “sanctuary cities” face headwinds in Lansing
by Riley Beggin (Bridge) A pair of bills intended to ban “sanctuary cities” in Michigan revived debate over local immigration policy when they passed out of a House committee Tuesday. The legislation, which would bar local governments from preventing police from cooperating with federal authorities’ immigration policies, was met with fury from civil rights groups and law […]
After years of impasse, bipartisan Lansing drive for criminal justice reform
by Riley Beggin (Bridge) Republican and Democratic leaders in Lansing have officially moved on from divided government’s early kumbayas into trash talking over Line 5 and proposed taxes on business and gas. Criminal justice reform, however, seems to be staying above the fray. Multiple bipartisan bills seeking to reduce the state criminal justice system’s reach have been […]
