State News

 Marsha Chartrand

Lakeside isn’t dead. It’s awaiting a $1B rebirth. Can Michigan malls follow?

Lakeside isn’t dead. It’s awaiting a $1B rebirth. Can Michigan malls follow?

by Paula Gardner (Bridge Michigan) Signs of life still exist at Lakeside Mall, but visitors to one of Michigan’s metro Detroit’s largest indoor malls have to walk past dozens of closed and gated stores to find them. The signature center-court glass elevator is out of service. Shelves are half-stocked in Macy’s home department. Cinnabon, which is […]

 Sara Swanson

Dead wolf mystery in south Michigan deepens, prompts criminal probe

Dead wolf mystery in south Michigan deepens, prompts criminal probe

by Kelly House (Bridge Michigan) Michigan officials have opened a criminal probe after an endangered wolf wound up dead in southern Michigan, 300 miles from its known habitat, killed by a hunter who says he thought it was a coyote. Lt. Andrew Turner, a district supervisor for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement […]

 Sara Swanson

Bird flu found in hens at Michigan’s top egg producer

by Janelle D. James  (Bridge Michigan) The highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, was detected in poultry at Michigan’s top egg producer, Herbruck’s. The infected flock was found at the company’s Green Meadow Organics facility in Ionia County. This is the fourth case of avian influenza in a commercial facility since the disease was first detected in […]

 Sara Swanson

In traveling RV, Michigan nurse tries to undo opioid damage she helped cause

by Robin Erb (Bridge Michigan) WIXOM — Jordana Latozas could offer an excuse for her part in Michigan’s deadly drug crisis. She will not. She doesn’t even flinch. “Did I contribute? Absolutely,” said Latozas, a nurse practitioner who prescribed countless pain pills more than a decade ago — a time when patients walked away with […]

 Sara Swanson

Wolf killed in southern Michigan is first sighting in more than 100 years

by Mike Wilkinson (Bridge Michigan) Wildlife officials confirmed Wednesday the killing of a gray wolf in southern Michigan, hundreds of miles from the state’s only known wolf population in the Upper Peninsula. A hunter killed the wolf in January in Calhoun County, believing it to be a coyote, according to the Michigan Department of Natural […]

 Sara Swanson

‘Border bloodbath' in Michigan? Here are the facts.

by Lauren Gibbons  (Bridge Michigan) GRAND RAPIDS — Former President Donald Trump slammed President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats on immigration issues Tuesday in Michigan, calling the situation a “bloodbath” that could get worse without a border crackdown. Trump’s latest campaign visit followed the March 22 murder of Ruby Garcia, 25, a Grand Rapids resident […]

 Marsha Chartrand

Whitmer book spurs president talk, joins list of Michigan political reads

by Jordyn Hermani (Bridge Michigan) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will detail her rise in Democratic politics in a memoir set for release later this summer, publisher Simon & Schuster announced Friday. The company is calling the book — titled “True Gretch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between,” — an “unconventionally honest” […]

 Marsha Chartrand

Michigan schools have more teachers, fewer students. Are layoffs coming?

by Isabel Lohman (Bridge Michigan) Michigan school districts may need to lay off or otherwise cut more than 5,000 teacher jobs in coming years to balance budgets as pandemic relief funding runs out, according to a new analysis of state public school trends. The report from the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council (CRC) of Michigan points to the […]

 Sara Swanson

For Michigan farmers, danger is another part of the job

by Theo Scheer, Capital News Service (Bridge Michigan) LANSING – A tractor falls on you. A horse kicks you. A cow pins you against the side of a barn. Your hand gets caught in a corn shucker. These are just some of the accidents Michigan State University researcher Laurel Morano documented in her recent study […]

 Sara Swanson

Police are using Michigan’s ‘red flag’ law to confiscate guns. Here’s how

by Jordyn Hermani  (Bridge Michigan) LANSING — A Battle Creek man diagnosed with bipolar disorder, off medication and threatening his wife in a murder-suicide. A 27-year-old voicing suicidal ideas in the midst of divorce proceedings, his wife concerned he’d actually follow through. An elementary school student who had access to his parents’ guns and threatened […]