Republicans: More guns — not more laws — will keep Michigan schools safe
by Jonathan Oosting and Yue Stella Yu (Bridge Michigan) MACKINAC ISLAND — Michigan can improve school safety without gun regulations, Republican gubernatorial candidates argued Thursday, proposing a series of alternatives during a debate. “We don’t have a gun problem; we have a mental health crisis,” Mattawan chiropractor Garrett Soldano said on outdoor stage at the […]
Bipartisan support grows to add millions to Michigan’s $1B tax incentive fund
by Jonathan Oosting, Paula Gardner (Bridge Michigan) MACKINAC ISLAND — The state continues to celebrate its so-called “transformative” job growth, but the gains also are depleting Michigan’s new $1 billion business attraction fund. Now both Democrats and Republicans say they expect to approve an addition to the SOAR Fund in the coming year’s budget. Bipartisan support is not […]
Nuclear power is having a moment in Michigan after Palisades
by Kelly House (Bridge Michigan) For years, owners of the Palisades Power Plant have publicly planned to close the nuclear reactor this spring, eliminating 600 jobs and enough emissions-free electricity to power 800,000 homes. Yet aside from the occasional public comment or letter to public officials from pro-nuclear advocates like Mike Schneider, there was little […]
Rent or buy? No easy answers amid high Michigan home prices
by Paula Gardner (Bridge Michigan) A $200 monthly rental increase started Tracy Dewease thinking about leaving the townhouse southeast of Grand Rapids where she and her son had been happy for a decade. But what got her moving was the additional $300 per month scheduled to start the following year when she would have had […]
The bird flu: Clean your bird feeder right now
by Genevieve Fox (Great Lakes Echo/Bridge Michigan) If you have backyard birds in your yard, take down your bird feeder, said Louise Sagaert, director of Wildside Rehabilitation Center, a nonprofit organization in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. Federal officials early this year detected highly contagious influenza in wild birds in over 30 U.S. states, the biggest avian […]
Board denies Craig, Johnson, others spots on Michigan ballot. Lawsuits next.
by Jonathan Oosting (Bridge Michigan) LANSING — Republican gubernatorial hopefuls James Craig, Perry Johnson and three others were denied a spot on the August primary ballot Thursday in a series of deadlocked, party-line, votes by the Board of State Canvassers. The split decisions followed allegations that a ring of fraudulent circulators submitted a combined 68,000 forged […]
Michigan baby formula maker plans for profits after rival’s factory shutdown
by Paula Gardner (Bridge Michigan) A west Michigan company is running its U.S. infant formula production around the clock in response to a national crisis caused by a rival’s factory shutdown and recall. Perrigo Co., based in Allegan, is among three U.S. formula manufacturers rushing to fill store shelves. In Perrigo’s case, that means store brands […]
More Michigan third-graders could be held back under read-or-flunk law
by Tracie Mauriello (Bridge Michigan) Parents of nearly 5,700 Michigan students are getting unwelcome news: Their third-graders could be held back from moving to the fourth grade because of low reading scores. The number of struggling young readers is up 60 percent from total last year as being eligible to be retained, though that increase […]
Michigan senators seek summer pause on gas taxes. Whitmer ‘encouraged’
by Lauren Gibbons (Bridge Michigan) LANSING — Michigan senators reached a bipartisan agreement to press pause on gas taxes Thursday, citing sky-high prices at the pump in recent weeks. A set of bills that collectively would temporarily suspend both the 27-cents-per-gallon gas tax and the 6 percent sales and use taxes on gas purchase for the […]
Michigan farmers pinched by rising fertilizer prices. Consumers may be next.
by Kelly House (Bridge Michigan) Between last fall’s harvest and this spring’s planting season, Matt Schwab’s corn crop got a whole lot more expensive to grow. Prices for the commercial fertilizers Schwab and other Michigan farmers apply to their crops have doubled in the past year as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, shifting trade […]
