With Detroit’s recent appointment of an emergency manager, the state and the region will witness a long-deliberated and – for many city residents – hotly contested financial restructuring in one of the nation’s major municipalities by a gubernatorial appointee. Eric Scorsone, who studies local government finance at Michigan State University, discussed last week the potential […]
Detroit’s troubles spreading to other Michigan cities, finance expert says
Posted inQuality of Life
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 […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* The complaint that lawmakers don’t even read all the bills that pass over their desks is as hoary as it is true. Well, the Tennessee House of Representatives has taken action to perhaps ease the problem. No member can file more than 15 bills. “Figures compiled by Harwell’s office show that the 132-member Tennessee […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Will Michigan voters ever get the campaign finance reform they deserve?
Last week was National Sunshine Week, designed to increase transparency in government: Opening up the workings of government and politics to the healthy light of day makes things cleaner and better. Sure. Over the years, I’ve watched plenty of National Sunshine Weeks come and go, without much actually changing. So I’m more than moderately skeptical […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Restore equal representation in Mich.
By State Rep. Jim Townsend Every 10 years, Michigan gets the opportunity to press the reset button on its state and federal political boundaries. This is necessary to uphold the principle of equal representation for all by adjusting district boundaries to reflect geographic shifts in population. But because the redistricting process is left in the […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Handshake deal with state haunts Detroit
DEAL BREAKER: Fifteen years ago, the state and Detroit agreed on a funding scheme – a deal that Detroiters say the state soon broke, helping propel the city into its current fiscal crisis. That agreement has been a point of contention between Detroit mayors (Dennis Archer, Kwame Kilpatrick, Dave Bing) and Michigan governors (John Engler, […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
State caught in troubling jobless trend
Almost half of Michigan’s unemployed in 2012 were jobless for at least six months. And the average jobless Michigan resident went without work for more than 10 months. As Michigan’s economy improves and job openings proliferate, a troubling trend is revealing itself in kitchen-table stories and government analyses: The long-term jobless may be in danger […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
State looks to turn trickle of returning college grads into a flood
BACK IN MICHIGAN: Courtney Vaught, 27, and her fiancé left Michigan after they were laid off in 2010. But a promotion brought them back. Gov. Rick Snyder and other state leaders are trying to find methods to replicate Vaught’s story and raise the state’s percentage of college-education workers. (Bridge photo/Lon Horwedel) Laura VanHolstyn graduated from […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
MSU expert has surprising advice about liberal arts degrees, job hunting
Phil Gardner is the director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University. For the past 23 years, he has overseen MSU’s annual college labor market study, a much-watched barometer of the job market for college graduates and the health of the overall labor market. Gardner spoke with Bridge correspondent Rick Haglund about […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Do you live in a ‘magnet’ or ‘bedroom’ community?
Job commuting patterns are analyzed after every census in order for the federal Office of Management and Budget to determine the naming and composition of metropolitan and micropolitan areas. While the data have resulted in a number of changes to Michigan’s metropolitan/micropolitan landscape, the individual county flows are of particular relevance in that they help […]
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