LITTLE HELP?: Michigan’s effort to deal with leaking underground fuel tanks such as this one have been hamstrung by the diversion of more than $200 million in state money that was collected to address the problem. In the wake of a critical state audit, policy-makers are pledging reforms to the program to accelerate the cleanup […]
State leaders pledge fixes for leaky fuel tanks fund after audit finds cash diversions
Posted inMichigan Government
West Michigan veteran challenged by neuron disease, VA bureaucracy that’s supposed to help him
FRUSTRATED BY DELAYS: Joel Smith shows some of the paperwork he has collected while trying to get assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs for medical conditions he links to his service overseas. (Bridge photo/Lance Wynn) ADA – Joel Smith’s tangle with the VA bureaucracy is the stuff of which nightmares are made. A retired […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Delays plague veteran benefit requests around the country
MAPPING THE PROBLEM: This map by the Center for Investigative Reporting details the magnitude of delays in various Department of Veterans Affairs processing offices around the country. For full details, go to http://cironline.org/reports/map-where-veterans-backlog-worst-3792. Under fire for its growing backlog of disability benefits claims, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs last July set itself a goal: […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
One policy change can help end blight of abandoned property in Michigan
CURE FOR BLIGHT: Financial commitments commonly used in the mining, petroleum and telecom industries could, if applied to residential and commercial development, help bring an end to the scourge of abandoned buildings in Michigan, argue MSU’s Rex LaMore and Michelle LeBlanc. (Bridge archive photo)For decades, many U.S. communities have suffered from population loss and economic […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Apply brainpower to get better results from billions spent on education
Phil Power is founder and chairman of the Center for Michigan. The education industry in Michigan is facing a coming tidal wave of change — and the landscape is going to be re-arranged. Money may seem to many to be the major issue, but it’s not. According to Gov. Rick Snyder’s message to the […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
New reports ID five housing ‘hot spots’ in Michigan
Michigan’s housing stock is thinning, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which pegged the state as one of only two with fewer housing units in 2012 than in 2010. Neighboring Illinois is the other. But the state of housing is far from equal across Michigan. In fact, there are growing hot spots for housing – […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Obamacare seems to be helping to curtail health costs
CHRT graphic. CLICK TO ENLARGE In recent months, a conversation has burgeoned in health and public policy forums about the slowdown in the growth of health-care spending. We are all asking the same questions: Is this slowdown real? Are some of the past cost containment efforts and recent provisions in the federal Affordable Care […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
(courtesy photo/used under Creative Commons license) *On the subject of death, surveys show most people will agree to practically any “life-saving” treatment available. Doctors, by contrast, would reject almost all of the current treatments in such situations, except for pain meds. Why?: “First, few non-physicians actually understand how terrible undergoing these interventions can be. He […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Wave of craft beer washes over Michigan
SAMPLING THE LOCAL FARE: Patrons of Founders Brewing Company in Grand Rapids enjoy some of the product of Michigan’s craft brewing industry, which continues to grow rapidly. (Bridge photo/Lance Wynn) Michigan’s craft beer industry is growing so fast that leaders of the trade association representing it can’t keep track of all the activity. “I […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Craft brewers’ recent success runs into old way of doing things in Lansing
Laura Houser, a brewer, tends to the huge tanks at Founders Brewing Company in Grand Rapids. Founders is one of Michigan’s largest craft brewers. (Bridge photo/Lance Wynn) Beer — the brewing of it, shipping, selling and quaffing of suds — is, by one measure, a nearly $6.1 billion industry in Michigan. And it’s an industry […]