There are as many COVID cases today as a year ago despite the availability of vaccines. The reasons are both complicated and simple.

Demographic trends, accelerated by the pandemic, show that businesses are going to have to look to technology to solve the long-term problem.

The high cost of childcare and limited state aid has shrunk the workforce. In a rare area of bipartisan consensus, Democrats and Republicans are working to boost pay and subsidies.

Fewer workers mean big changes across Michigan, as hourly wages reach new peaks to lure employees. But people also want more from how they earn a living, like flexibility and satisfaction. The result is creating new pressures that won’t end soon.

Flu season ignites in southeast Michigan with more than 500 cases — enough to bring CDC staff on-site to monitor and assist, and resurrecting fears among health officials of a COVID and flu “twindemic” this winter.

School buildings are closing for the same reasons as restaurants, and there doesn’t appear to be a quick solution to not enough bus drivers, teacher aides and other workers

Bridge Michigan reporter Ted Roelofs moderated a Zoom discussion with three experts about the state’s elder caregiving crisis.

In Michigan’s slice of Trump Country, some communities say the federal stimulus isn’t worth the hassle. Their neighbors may get the money instead.

Doctors warn of dangerous days ahead as the state’s hospitals care for more than 3,200 patients with COVID for the first time since early May. That’s a 40-percent jump in two weeks.

The Board of Canvassers signs off on a ballot language to ask whether Michigan should join the national movement to end the Electoral College. Critics say it would weaken Michigan’s clout.