By Derek Melot/Bridge Magazine

“Without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile” – Abu Bakr, seventh-century Islamic political leader.

* The invaluable Citizens Research Council of Michigan did a two-year study of teacher training, retention and cost issues. The report was released this summer. One of its concluding points: “Teachers are now also facing increased risk of layoff, larger class sizes, and reduced pay and benefits. Policy-makers should be very sensitive to not driving the best teachers from the system.”:

http://www.crcmich.org/PUBLICAT/2010s/2012/rpt380.pdf

* Washington Monthly ranks the University of Michigan No. 13 among “national universities.” Michigan State comes in at No. 34:

http://washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2012/national_university_rank.php

* Real-estate tracker Zillow says negative equity is dropping, slowly, across the U.S. Michigan, as you can see by the map, is still a hotbed — by national standards — of underwater mortgages, however:

http://www.zillow.com/blog/research/files/2012/08/ne15.png

* Buckets of info — maybe even more than you’d like — about the changing landscape of Traverse City:

http://www.mlui.org/userfiles/filemanager/866/

* Thanks to productivity gains, Americans could work half as much as they did in 1964 and maintain that year’s standard of living. So, why don’t we work less?:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/23/why-are-we-all-working-so-much/

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