Ericka Murria was 17-years-old when she first went to Coalition on Temporary Shelter with her one-year-old daughter. Murria, a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, she lived on hard times after her mother passed away. She’d been living with friends who were into drugs and alcohol. But after her friends stole her Bridge card […]
Quality of Life
Michigan is a great place to live. Bridge will report that fact often — and on potential threats to the assets that make it so.
Posted inQuality of Life
Cutting a new trail for the Pure Michigan economy
END TO END: A recreational trail from Detroit to the Wisconsin border won’t be the same along its full length. Urban sections will likely look like – or include – the Dequindre Cut trail through Detroit, top, while Upper Peninsula portions may encompass parts of the North Country Trail, below, which is closed to bicycles. […]
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Michigan Piracy Postcard: How scrappers stole a church congregation’s dream
Keith Hill had a dream for his church. Befitting a congregation of only 20 families, it wasn’t a big dream, but it was theirs – to find a permanent home for both the church and a ministry they hoped to start, providing job training for young people of the nearby neighborhoods of Brightmoor and Grandmont Rosedale […]
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Black males in Michigan die at an alarming rate
CLICK to enlarge While Michigan may be aging faster than any other state, our overall death numbers are not growing. Provisional death totals for 2011, just released by Michigan’s Department of Community Health, show that the total number of deaths in Michigan fell by 313 between 2010 and 2011. If we were to look at […]
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Michigan policymakers work on climate change – even as some avoid the term
Has global warming cooled off as an issue in Michigan? Just looking at how it is, or is not, dealt with by state leaders, one could guess it is in a deep freeze. It is not discussed daily among lawmakers and policymakers, at least not publicly. The closest the Legislature has to any legislation dealing with […]
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VIDEO Q & A: Visions of Michigan's warmer future
What will Michigan’s climate look and feel like decades from now? A Michigan State University climatologist offers his predictions.
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Michigan environmentalists aren’t hiding on climate change after 2012 ballot defeat
Proposal 3 was soundly defeated last November, with 62 percent of voters rejecting a constitutional amendment to set higher renewable energy standards. But its supporters are not demoralized. Proposal 3 would have required 25 percent of the state’s electrical generation come from renewable resources by 2025. Today, several members of the Michigan Energy/Michigan Jobs coalition are continuing […]
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When your parents tell you the weather wasn't like this when they were kids, they're right
Remember Michigan weather a little differently? You’re not crazy. But the weather sure can be these days. Here are ten recent examples of weather-related mayhem in Michigan… CLICK the map to enlarge CLICK TO ENLARGE
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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 […]
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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 […]