KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER: Millennials appreciate Michigan’s place-making efforts, writers Natalie Burg, but the state won’t have much success selling itself to young talent with outdated attitudes on social issues such as gay marriage. (courtesy photo) I was pretty proud of myself upon landing my first grownup-person job several years ago. It came with such new-to-me […]
Brunch with Bridge
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Look! Up in the sky!
It’s that time of year again when you see folks wandering around in the woods or in fields, or even parked haphazardly along the road, staring up at the sky. Serious birders know that Michigan is a treasure trove of avian species, especially during spring migration. For a couple of bucks, you can install a feeder or […]
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An elderly mother, the car keys and a conundrum for countless Michigan families
(courtesy photo/used under Creative Commons license) My mother’s driving career ended with both a bang and a whimper. From her hospital bed she told me, “I was admiring the beautiful autumn leaves when the truck pulled out in front of me.” As a matter of fact, the truck hadn’t moved. It was parked. The police […]
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Oregon Medicaid study shows value of investment in mental health
CELEBRATE MENTAL HEALTH: Little of the coverage of the Oregon Medicaid study has noted the huge improvements in mental health for the insured vs. the uninsured, notes Marianne Udow-Phillips of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation. (courtesy photo/used under Creative Commons license) Recent reports about a Medicaid experiment in Oregon reveal a major disconnect […]
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In Michigan, we celebrate – and ignore – nature’s rhythms of change
WATER MEETS WATER: Lower Lake Herring flows into Lake Michigan between Arcadia and Frankfort. (courtesy photo) Our family tradition every summer is a special week amongst the magnificent dunes along Lake Michigan. The first thing we do when we arrive is run down to the lakeshore to the outlet where Lower Lake Herring connects to […]
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Under the postcard-perfect U.P., a reality only natives see
WHAT DO YOU SEE?: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is a land of grand vistas, but also a land of blood, of joblessness, of heartache, writes Ron Riekki. (Bridge photo/Nancy Derringer) I’ve lived in Mount Pleasant, Oshtemo, Forest Park, Rogers Park, and worked in Chicago, Detroit, Kalamazoo, Oak Park and Mackinac Island. I’m probably forgetting some places. […]
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A country’s anger pierces even the silence of the forest
We live in the Manistee National Forest where, each year, as spring first creeps and then roars to life all around us, I think about death. It isn’t religion’s observance of Passover’s Seder or Easter’s resurrection that does this. It’s the land. ANGER WAFTS IN: The national anger and frustration over the behavior of elected […]
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Medical marijuana is legal; Michigan needs sensible policy to provide it
Nearly five years after the passage of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, the biggest obstacle for patients who want to use marijuana remains … actually getting some. IT’S THE LAW: Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved the use of medical marijuana in 2008. It’s incumbent on lawmakers to devise a system of distribution that works for patients, […]
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A survivor’s tale of a bumper-sticker outing
I was 37 years old when I put my first bumper sticker on my car. I’d always had a car. When I turned 16, my mother gave me her silver 1980 Pontiac Phoenix and said, “Now you can drive yourself wherever you need to go — but you also have to take your sister anywhere […]
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Don’t dredge away nature fund’s value
When I moved from Northern Virginia after a stint in the Army about three years ago, I wanted to live back home in rural Michigan. Commuting bumper-to-bumper into Washington, D.C., was not how I envisioned my adult years. SETTING UP: Astronomy fans prepare to view the transit of Venus during an event at Emmet County’s […]