After 20 years of legalized Indian casino gambling in Michigan, the state is trying to claw back a piece of the action from six tribes as high-stakes talks to extend gaming compacts proceed. At stake: A share of a multi-billion-dollar industry and upwards of $40 million in potential annual revenue for the state. The tribes […]
Ted Roelofs
Ted Roelofs of Kentwood, has written extensively on healthcare as well as prison and juvenile justice reform. Roelofs spent nearly three decades at the Grand Rapids Press where he covered politics, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rural poverty and mental illness among the homeless. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Reach Ted at ted.roelofs@gmail.com
Posted inMichigan Government
State seeks tighter oversight of Indian casinos’ local revenue sharing
Since Indian casino gambling in Michigan began in 1994, seven tribes have doled out more than $200 million in communities surrounding their casinos. It was widely presumed, under a federal decree governing these payouts, that 2 percent of slot machine and video gaming profits would go to local government to compensate for economic costs of […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Fighting anti-gay bigotry to boost the Michigan economy
In 2009, a gay couple in Flint claims they encountered a work place environment that could charitably be called unpleasant. A lawsuit states that while working at a Rochester adult foster care facility, Gilbert and Jeremy Hall received phone calls from employees of the facility “that sounded like gunshots.” In November, the suit claims, Gilbert […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Climate Change Report: As Michigan warms, cotton instead of cherry and grape crops? Bass instead of trout? Big rains and less snow?
If scientists are right, summer in Michigan by the end of this century will feel like that of a distant state. Think northern Arkansas. A report on climate change by the Union of Concerned Scientists foresees 30 to 50 days a year in Detroit with temperatures above 90 degrees. Days of extreme heat – over […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Climate Calamities: 10 recent Michigan mishaps
As climate change angst and debate grows, so too do weather-induced mishaps in locales across Michigan. Here are ten Great Lakes State examples of how “talk about the weather” often has a sharp edge these days. BAY COUNTY – After days of temperatures near or over 100 degrees, Bangor Township resident Marti Murphy looks out […]
Posted inChildren & Families
In Michigan, a full-time job is no guarantee of good housing
BETTER HAVE GOOD JOB: A 2013 report says that the fair market rent in Michigan would require a renter to have a full time job that pays at least $14.77 per hour. (courtesy photo/used under Creative Commons license) The line began growing overnight, hundreds of low-income suburban Detroit residents hoping to secure one of 1,000 […]
Posted inChildren & Families
How high is rent in six Michigan cities?
(courtesy image/used under Creative Commons license) Finance guidelines say housing should not cost more than 30 percent of household income. But in 2013, thousands of Michigan rental households fall below that standard. Michigan Two-bedroom fair market rental: $768 Hourly wages needed to afford two-bedroom fair market rental: $14.77 Mean renter hourly wage: $11.62 Rent […]
Posted inSuccess
Warehouse lofts in Grand Rapids fill fast due to affordable housing program
FOUND A HOME: Leigh Ann Cobb poses outside her new home, Baker Lofts in Grand Rapids, which she only was able to afford via a program that offers housing developers a tax credit to invest in affordable housing. (Bridge photo/Lance Wynn) For years, the massive century-old brick furniture warehouse stood vacant in Grand Rapids as […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Uninsured watch anxiously as Medicaid debate rolls on
HEALTH GAMBLE: Greg Hunt has diabetes, Addison’s Disease, a thyroid condition – and no health insurance. The Kent County man works and goes to school, but he has had to defer purchase of a prescription due to cost and has had major health bills that have gone unpaid. Advocates say Medicaid expansion in Michigan would […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Michigan gets high marks for private management of Medicaid
While Medicaid is a public health program jointly funded by the federal and state governments, it has been largely managed by private health firms since the late 1990s in Michigan. (courtesy image/state of Michigan) About 30 years after Congress authorized Medicaid, then-Gov. John Engler launched reforms that would change the face of its coverage in […]