Residents of Niles Township and Menominee voted Tuesday to limit cannabis stores in their towns. Shops elsewhere along Michigan’s borders have reshaped small communities — and not everyone thinks for the better.
Business Watch
Covering the intersection of business and policy, and informing Michigan employers and workers on the long road back from coronavirus. Our Michigan Economic Dashboard shows key metrics that show how the state is performing.
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Migrant farm work has boomed in Michigan. The feds just cut workers’ pay
The lower minimum wage for migrant farmhands has some farmers celebrating the cost savings and others wondering if they’ll still be able to attract the workers they need.
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Michigan lawmakers: Eliminate economic development agency
MEDC spending soared during Whitmer administration, but critics say its results don’t benefit taxpayers or most businesses.
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Lawmakers: Michigan needs to disclose details of failed Gotion deal
The EV battery company was asked to return $23.5 million to the state, but other questions remain, a House committee heard Wednesday. Among them: what was the money spent on?
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Ice storm decimated Michigan’s ‘wood basket,’ meaning tough years ahead
A glut of timber downed by the March ice storm was harvested quicker than it should have been. Now there’s little wood left to harvest and years until planted trees can replace what was lost.
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After Gotion and SOAR, Michigan eyes overhaul of corporate subsidy strategy
With failure of large-scale incentives, Lansing now looks to what could be effective job-growth tools.
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Swartz Creek shoots down $40M offer to sell school for Michigan megasite
In another setback for economic development officials, Genesee County officials reject a deal to sell a school to assemble land for a huge project. Sandisk had eyed a multibillion-dollar semiconductor plant on the land.
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Michigan: Gotion battery plant plan is dead after years of controversy
A proposed $2.4 electric vehicle battery plant near Big Rapids has been beset over by lawsuit and questions about its ties to Communist China. It’s the second big-ticket project to die in the past few months.
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Poll: Tariffs, grocery costs have Michigan residents sweating economy
Economic worries are often split along partisan lines, as is support for President Trump’s tariffs, according to a survey from the Detroit Regional Chamber.
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Amid Trump tariffs, a ‘burst of optimism’ for one Michigan manufacturer
Business is booming for a steel wire manufacturer in southern Michigan, whose owner credits President Donald Trump’s tariffs. “The math has just totally changed.”