When legislative reform of the Michigan Public School Employee Retirement System promised to cap school districts’ contributions at a flat 24.46 percent of payroll, many administrators reached for something else to uncap, in celebration. However, months later, with challenges to the reforms working their way through the courts, the bottle being opened might be holding […]
Nancy Derringer
Nancy Nall Derringer is a former reporter at Bridge
Posted inQuality of Life
Water expert says conservation is in Michigan’s future
The Great Lakes could reach record low water levels next year. With the state’s defining natural features dropping after a hot, dry summer, Bridge asked Alan Steinman, president of the Annis Water Resources Institute at Grand Valley State University and a leader on water issues in the Great Lakes region since moving here in 2001, […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Ad campaign leaves voters, experts unimpressed
Conventional political wisdom about ballot proposals says that they’re almost always an uphill battle. The “no” side has an advantage with an electorate that often looks on change with skepticism. So says Robert Kolt, whose Okemos-based Kolt Communications specializes in advertising. (He also teaches at Michigan State University.) But, he adds, that’s not to say […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Proposal 4: Home health registry and unionization
Ask supporters of Proposal 4 what it’s about, and they will answer as one: The registry. Ask its detractors the same thing, and they say: The union. And therein lies the debate. Proposal 4, which would amend the state constitution to create the Michigan Quality Home Care Council and allow home-care workers collective bargaining rights, […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Proposal 6: Bridge to Canada
The list of supporters for the planned New International Trade Crossing in Detroit reads like a roll call of distinguished Michigan stakeholders. Five governors. Five automakers. Twenty-three chambers of commerce. The state’s largest newspapers, corporations and most influential movers and shakers all have signed on in agreement that the state needs a new, modern link […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Genesis of Prop 2 found in Right to Work debate
For years, it was unthinkable that Michigan, the cradle of the labor movement, might ever become a Right to Work state. Union workers helped build the state, union power shaped its politics and the idea of severing the two would be like Georgia rejecting peaches. Things are different now. The battle over Proposal 2, which […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Film Office starts new year with more dollars, higher hopes
With a new fiscal year ahead, the Michigan Film Office is emerging from a “rebuilding year” with more money to give away and a mission to support locally grown filmmakers. After seeing the movie industry turn from red-hot to cold with the end of an open-ended 42 percent subsidy, Michigan has a new pool of money […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Prop 4: A battle on the home (health) front
Ask supporters of Proposal 4 what it’s about, and they will answer as one: The registry. Ask its detractors the same thing, and they say: The union. And therein lies the debate. Proposal 4, which would amend the state constitution to create the Michigan Quality Home Care Council and allow home-care workers collective bargaining rights, presents […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Blizzard of cash obscures bridge issues
The list of supporters for the planned New International Trade Crossing in Detroit reads like a roll call of distinguished Michigan stakeholders. Five governors. Five automakers. Twenty-three chambers of commerce. The state’s largest newspapers, corporations and most influential movers and shakers all have signed on in agreement that the state needs a new, modern link […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Legal painkillers fuel spike in fatal ODs
On any given day, what’s worrying Michiganians about the illicit drug scene is likely to reflect what’s been in the news lately. When a Farmington Hills teenager allegedly beat his father to death with a baseball bat earlier this year, his lawyer blamed his use of synthetic marijuana. When a man in Miami attacked another […]
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