(Bridge illustration/Howard Davy) When Dr. Marion Hautea looks out at the waiting room at Thunder Bay Community Health Service in Rogers City, he sees diabetes. He sees hypertension. He sees abscessed teeth and coronary disease. Mostly, though, he sees jobs. Jobs that have left Northeast Michigan, burdening the region with the highest unemployment rate […]
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
Volunteers offer short-term foster care for families in crisis
Nothing matters more to Stephanie Murphy than her girls. So when the single Holland mother of three had a medical crisis in 2011, she felt backed into a corner. Her oldest, Alexis Borgman, then 13, could stay with her father, who had visitation rights. But she feared that her other two daughters — Aaliyah and […]
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Michigan’s STD belt: It’s not what you think
(Bridge illustration/A.J. Jones) A line of Michigan counties, stretching along Interstate 94 from the Detroit River west to Lake Michigan, carries a dubious distinction: some of the highest rates of a sexually transmitted disease in the Great Lakes State. This phenomenon – an (un)chastity belt, if you will – is not, however, the result of […]
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Living on right side of county line means more life, better health
(Bridge illustration/A.J. Jones) Zack Conley and Mike Sannan live on opposite sides of Rawsonville Road, a noisy strip of pavement separating Wayne and Washtenaw counties. Both men have access to some of the best hospitals in the state. Yet Sannan is almost twice as likely to be in poor or fair health. As a Wayne […]
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Let the river run: Dam removal accelerates in Michigan
THE GOAL: An artist’s rendering shows a section of the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids after a nearly $28 million river improvement project is finished. (courtesy image) Michigan may be the Great Lakes State, but its 36,000 miles of rivers are becoming popular commodities for cities looking to revitalize downtowns, attract visitors and lure […]
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In Ottawa County, parks leader shepherds quarter-century of green growth
The Lake Michigan coast near Grand Haven features two spectacular natural areas, each of which gives rise to towering sand dunes that are cloaked by lush forests. John Smoltz, as head of Ottawa County’s Parks Commission, has spearheaded a massive increase in parks acreage in the county just west of Grand Rapids. He’s shown on […]
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Kalamazoo mom, daughter profit from Michigan’s home visit programs
Shauntiana Branson found herself unexpectedly pregnant — and unprepared for motherhood two years ago. Having just reached adulthood and fearing backlash from her family, Branson did what she could to find her own help. A visit to a local Women, Infants, and Children clinic led her to the Nurse-Family Partnership. Soon she was receiving regular […]
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Legislators favor bear petting, despite zookeepers’ warnings
Despite resistance from the state’s traditional zookeepers, a bill written to keep visitors to an Upper Peninsula tourist attraction petting its bears appears bound for the governor’s desk. Senate Bill 48, written specifically for Oswald’s Bear Ranch near Newberry, passed the House last week on a 56-52 vote. It heads back to the Senate, where […]
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Nonprofits battle shortage of time, talent
DETROIT — At 31, four years after completing the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Detroit program, Mark Ostach sits on the board of the Neighborhood Service Organization, a sizable nonprofit that offers a wide variety of programs ranging from suicide prevention to early-childhood education to homeless relief. Daniel Robin, also 31, serves on the […]
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Olympic training center in Marquette fighting to keep doors open
HARD STRUGGLE: Freshman Greco-Roman wrestler Arthur Carmona (right, in white) practices against freshman Ramon Moreno at the Olympic Education Center in Marquette. The center’s wrestling training program was struck a huge blow this month when the executive board of the International Olympic Committee voted to drop wrestling as a sport in the 2020 games. (Bridge […]
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