State parks in Michigan are facing a long road to recovery, even with new funding sources On a mild winter morning in March 2009, prison inmates working at Ludington State Park discovered that part of the roof at the park’s popular Great Lakes Visitor Center had collapsed. A hard winter, which dumped 130 inches of […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Herman Miller's Brian Walker talks LEED, green tech
Herman Miller is known as an innovative design and manufacturing firm of office furniture and equipment and furniture for the home. With 6,500 employees worldwide, this Zeeland company also has earned admiration for sustainability. Rachel Hood, executive director of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council in Grand Rapids, applauds the way both Herman Miller and competitor […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Analysis: African Americans hit hardest on homeownership
Editor’s note: Bridge presents, from time to time, comments from Kurt Metzger of Data Driven Detroit on what the 2010 census results mean for Michigan today, and tomorrow. Metzger worked for the U.S. Census Bureau for 15 years and has been studying demographic data and issues in Michigan for three decades. Homeownership was humming nationally […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Why is affirmative action divisive?
Later this year, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals will revisit Proposal 2, which, as of now, bans affirmative action as a point of entry into colleges and universities. What that means is race and gender are no longer points of consideration in the admission process. We all know that being accepted into a […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Consolidation seems simple enough
One of the great challenges in good governance is the paradox that seemingly obvious solutions may not be solutions at all. Such is the case with the oft-repeated desire to streamline Michigan’s plethora of local governments and their functions. The human mind sees Michigan’s 2,300-odd units of local government and instinctively knows that some pruning […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Beach closures hit record; stormwater runoff blamed
Diana Farris took her family to Young State Park in Charlevoix in late July to try to escape a brutal heat wave that was baking much of the Midwest. Her plan was to spend the hottest part of the day swimming in the lake with her husband and two daughters. Things changed a couple of […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Pure slacking — Michigan falters on conservation
Images of children frolicking on scenic beaches fill a television screen as the soothing voice of actor Tim Allen narrates the commercial promoting Michigan as the place to spend “the perfect summer.” A line you won’t hear Allen speak: Beach closures due to bacterial pollution — contamination linked to fecal matter — have doubled in […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Important news about your 'life'
When I was running my newspaper company back in the go-go 1980s and ’90s, finding and hiring good talent was tough — especially at the wages we could afford. Michigan’s economy was on a roll. The auto companies were hiring everybody in sight. Employers were fighting to recruit talented people, and the newspaper business was […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
All Michigan regions grew in 2010
Michigan’s regional economies surged ahead in 2010, propelled by a surprisingly robust manufacturing sector and solid growth from the “information economy.” The latest figures are a positive pivot from a decade that saw most Michigan regions lag economically. Between 2001 and 2009, 11 of 14 Michigan metropolitan areas recorded declines in real gross domestic product […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Moroun family gets busy
We’re all familiar with the secret ballot in our democratic republic. Now, Michigan apparently has secret lobbying. The Michigan Campaign Finance Network reported today that it found $4.7 million in broadcast ad spending by the Detroit International Bridge Co. so far in 2011 — and none of it has been reported as lobbying. The ad […]
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