Home-visit programs save money, free ERs. Many insurers don’t cover them.
By Ted Roelofs (Bridge Michigan) Paramedic Shannon Williams has become something like family to 80-year-old Grand Haven resident Leslie Toth. Over the past few years, Williams and a team of paramedics and nurses have steered Toth through a bout with COVID-19, urinary tract infections, fever and falling blood pressure, kidney stones and a case of […]
Advocates press Michigan for $25M to open 100 school health centers
By Isabel Lohman (Bridge Michigan) A group of school leaders and advocates is calling on Michigan to expand its school-based health clinics. Amid increasing concerns about mental health because of the pandemic, the School-Community Health Alliance of Michigan wants $25 million in the upcoming fiscal year to establish 100 more school-based health centers. This request is larger […]
Dairy cows want to make Daylight Savings Time permanent. Does Michigan?
by Zahra Ahmad (Bridge Michigan) LANSING— Measures to make Daylight Savings Time year-round are getting bipartisan support from state and national legislators. The U.S. Senate on Tuesday last week unanimously approved a bill that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent. The bill came days after the nation turned its clocks forward one hour this week, and […]
Omicron sub-variant BA.2 cases creep up in Michigan; some fear another wave
By Mike Wilkinson (Bridge Michigan) A growing share of COVID-19 infections in Michigan now comes from the omicron sub-variant blamed for another wave of cases in western Europe, state officials told Bridge Michigan on Thursday. So far, there have been 99 cases of the omicron BA.2 sub-variant discovered in Detroit and 21 counties, state health […]
Borrowing is getting more costly: What interest rate rise means for Michigan
by Paula Gardner (Bridge Michigan) Borrowing money for everything from mortgages and credit cards to other types of loans will cost more, as officials try to cool off the economy after inflation hit a 40-year high this month. The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it is raising the interest rate on the fed-funds rate, which is the basis for […]
Report: Climate change threatens these 29 Michigan chemical sites
by Kelly House (Bridge Michigan) Climate change is likely to bring more catastrophes to Michigan, and a new federal report warns that 29 sites that use hazardous chemicals are in the pathway of worsening floods driven by a changing planet. The sites include a plastics manufacturer in Wyandotte, a sewage treatment plant in Jackson, an ice-cream […]
As pandemic wanes, Michigan confronts toll of isolation on homebound seniors
By Ted Roelofs (Bridge Michigan) A year ago, they were strangers. But in the lobby of an Ann Arbor assisted living home this month, 78-year Bobbie Jean Gill and University of Michigan senior Lizzy Rueppel met with a warm hug that revealed they’ve become fast friends. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s a special bond. […]
Two Michigan educators exiting this month, many others may soon follow
By Isabel Lohman (Bridge Michigan) There are only a few more months left in this school year, but veteran educators Ingrid and Tim Fournier say they can’t hold out until June. They are retiring at the end of March, citing what they see as growing public distrust of teachers, heightened student behavioral needs and general […]
Michigan OKs expanded bobcat hunting season over activists’ concerns
by Zahra Ahmad (Bridge Michigan) LANSING — Hunters and trappers can now kill bobcats in the southern Lower Peninsula in the fall. Over objections from animal activists, members of the Natural Resource Commission voted 7-0 on Thursday to create a bobcat season in nine more counties: Muskegon, Montcalm, Gratiot, Saginaw, Ottawa, Kent, Ionia, Clinton and […]
Whitmer signals likely veto on Michigan gas tax holiday
By Jonathan Oosting (Bridge Michigan) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is urging Congress to suspend the federal gas tax amid a record fuel price surge but signaled Friday she is likely to veto legislation that would suspend the state gas tax instead. The Michigan House on Wednesday approved a Republican-sponsored plan to pause the state’s $27.2 cents-per-gallon gas tax for […]
