Pressure builds on Michigan Republicans to share their road funding plan
By Lindsay VanHulle (Bridge) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is upping pressure on Republican lawmakers over road funding, criticizing them for approving a summer recess without first finishing next year’s budget, including a plan to raise billions to fix Michigan’s battered roads. The first-term Democratic governor told reporters Tuesday she has not had any substantive talks with […]
Michigan congresswoman pushes national plan to fix recycling woes
By Jim Malewitz (Bridge) A Michigan congresswoman is pushing the federal government to develop a strategy to bolster local recycling programs nationwide — including some in Michigan reeling from a global plunge in prices for recycled paper, plastics and other materials. U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Rochester Hills, co-sponsored an amendment to a larger package of […]
What the U.S. Supreme Court gerrymandering ruling means for Michigan
By Riley Beggin, Lindsay VanHulle (Bridge) Michigan’s attempt to throw out Republican-drawn legislative and congressional district maps is essentially dead, redistricting experts said, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday that said federal courts should play no role in deciding partisan gerrymandering cases. That power, the court wrote in a 5-4 majority opinion penned by Chief Justice […]
Stress builds as Michigan farmers are ‘hit from all directions’
By Mike Wilkinson (Bridge) For farmers nowadays, the clues are subtle but unmistakable. “You can hear it in their voice,” said Sarah Zastrow, a Saginaw County exercise physiologist whose husband and father are farmers. “There’s a little more wobble in their walk, a shake in their hands.” Amid the third-wettest year in history, Michigan farmers […]
Michigan desperate for Pre-K educators. And pays them poverty wages.
By Koby Levin (Bridge) Cindy Lester calmly sat down on the child-sized couch with the 4-year-old who had been careening around her classroom all morning. He’d just flipped an empty soup bowl onto his head. “You have a lot going on inside you today,” she said. “What’s going on? Are you tired?” To a lot […]
Michigan is No. 1 (at getting old). That’s not good news.
by Mike Wilkinson (Bridge) Michigan’s battle of the birthdays continues, as more than one-quarter of the state’s counties have a median age that’s eligible for AARP membership. U.S. Census data released Thursday show that 21 of Michigan’s 83 counties have a median age of 50 years old or older, the highest in the nation.Next closet […]
Suicide, depression on rise in rural Michigan, but psychiatrists are scarce
by Ted Roelofs (Bridge) For Upper Peninsula mother Katie Sinclair, the memories are still painful. Her then 10-year-old son, Jacob, had struggled for years with mental health issues that stretched back to kindergarten. Diagnosed with depression, he suffered panic attacks. He had outbursts at school. He would stab himself with knives, and when they were […]
Michigan lawmakers’ pet projects get funding, new controls added
By Mike Wilkinson (Bridge) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has added new controls on money spent for a handful of legislators’ pet projects, allowing the state to recoup unspent or misused funds and requiring regular updates. The changes were adopted last week, several months after Whitmer derided more than $115 million for over 70 projects that the Legislature and her […]
More than a dozen hospitals in rural Michigan at ‘high risk’ of closing
By Ted Roelofs (Bridge) It’s been seven years since Cheboygan Memorial Hospital shut its doors, costing hundreds of jobs and jolting rural residents in the northeast Lower Peninsula. But health care analysts now warn that more than a dozen rural hospitals scattered across Michigan risk the same fate, as fiscal pressures, staff recruitment troubles and dwindling […]
Here are 9 ways to build better roads in Michigan, from old tires to pig poop
by Lindsay VanHulle (bridge) Asphalt mixed with plastic bags. Concrete that bends. Carbon fiber in bridge beams. Someday, these materials could be widely used to extend the lifespan of Michigan’s crumbling roads and bridges. Today, they’re emerging in labs and being tested in the real world to see how they hold up to the state’s frigid […]
