Voting rights ballot measure: What Proposal 2 would change in Michigan
by Lauren Gibbons (Bridge Michigan) Michigan voters will determine whether to implement nine days of early voting and a host of other changes to state election procedures when they consider Proposal 2 at the Nov. 8 general election. A “yes” vote would add several changes to the Constitution, including allowing nine days of early voting, […]
Term limits ballot measure: What Proposal 1 means for Michigan
by Yue Stella Yu (Bridge Michigan) LANSING — Michigan voters will decide how long state lawmakers should stay in office and what financial information they should disclose when they consider Proposal 1 on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. Voting “yes” would apply a flat 12-year term limit to lawmakers’ tenure and strengthen financial disclosure […]
Danger looms where toxic algae blooms
by Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue (Bridge Michigan) TOLEDO — Just as Great Lakes scientists anticipated, the first blue-green swirls of a mammoth toxic algae bloom surfaced in mid-July in the nearshore waters of Lake Erie, between Monroe, Michigan, and this Ohio port city of 275,000. Viewed from above, the sweeping curls painted an absurd, […]
Michigan’s child care crisis is worse than policymakers have estimated
by Luca Powell & Derek Kravitz, Muckrock (Bridge Michigan) It was March 27, 2021, and an at-home day care in Grand Rapids was ready for a pool day. The day care’s owner took seven children — five of whom were just 2 and 3 years old — to a nearby Holiday Inn Express. She bought a room […]
Michigan to deepen Native American history in social studies standards
by Tracie Mauriello (Bridge Michigan) Generations of Native American children across the country were taken from their homes and brought to federally funded boarding schools that banned their native languages, clothing and traditions. Now Michigan is ensuring public school students learn the history of abuse at those boarding schools that once tried to erase Indigenous culture. […]
Michigan’s 3rd-grade reading scores show the cost of remote COVID learning
by Tracie Mauriello (Bridge Michigan) Researchers found alarming increases in the proportion of Michigan third graders reading significantly below grade level and widening gaps in performance between Black and white students, and between students from low-income families and peers from wealthier families. The performance disparities provide more evidence of the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on at-risk […]
Romance author Nora Roberts helps save MI library defunded over LGBTQ books
by Ron French (Bridge Michigan) It could make a great final chapter of a book: A doomed library is saved by the small checks of book lovers, and one huge donation from an internationally known author whose novels are among the most popular on the library’s shelves. Romance novelist Nora Roberts donated $50,000 last week to […]
735K signed abortion-rights petition. How word spaces may keep it off ballot
by Jonathan Oosting and Yue Stella Yu LANSING — An abortion rights petition signed by more than 735,000 Michigan voters could be kept off the Nov. 8 ballot because of what opponents say are “60 missing spaces between what were formerly words.” Welcome to the great “kerning” debate of 2022, the biggest fight over a seemingly […]
Michigan’s residential real estate market cooling after record extremes
by Paula Gardner (Bridge Michigan) After three summers of robust traffic, there has been a 14-percent decline in Michigan home showings through mid-August, according to Real Estate One, the state’s largest residential brokerage. Company president and broker Dan Elsea said the dip in showings among potential buyers — 40 percent of whom will list their homes on […]
Court: Past crash survivors not subject to Michigan auto no-fault limits
by Lauren Gibbons and Robin Erb (Bridge Michigan) Limits on health care reimbursements for accident victims in the 2019 Michigan no-fault auto insurance reform law can’t be applied retroactively to past injuries, a Michigan appeals court ruled Thursday. The decision, if upheld, is a major win for thousands of people with severe and long-term injuries […]
