How big of an impact has welfare reform had on you and your neighbors? It depends on where you live. According to the Department of Human Services, 15,799 fewer families were receiving cash assistance at the end of 2011 than were receiving assistance in September, before the state imposed a lifetime limit on welfare. Here’s […]
27 Mich. counties dodged welfare cuts
Posted inTalent & Education
Guest post: How do we lure college grads to Michigan?
I was playing around with a variety of datasets the other day (I need a hobby) and came across a tabulation that I found quite interesting, in that it relates to the issue of attracting and retaining young people — particularly educated ones — in Michigan. Previous work that I had done showed that we […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Welfare reform leaves families without a net, and off the radar
Three months after the launch of an aggressive welfare reform, Michigan has kicked more people off the dole than expected and saved the state millions of dollars. How the approximately 15,000 families cut off from cash assistance are surviving, though, isn’t as clear. We may never know. The state isn’t monitoring the impact on those […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Michigan's surrounded — and it's a good thing
Business Leaders for Michigan, a group of some of the state’s most progressive, far-seeing corporate chiefs, has released a new 2012 Michigan Turnaround Plan – and it’s worth checking out. It lays out a far-reaching, long-term agenda that Michigan’s leading CEOs say would create nearly 500,000 jobs and increase per-capita incomes by $18,000 within 10 […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Daily life gets harder for three families
Nearly 16,000 Michigan families were banned from cash assistance last fall, in the biggest one-day reduction of welfare recipients in the state’s — and possibly the nation’s — history. Did those families blend into the work force? Did they lose their homes? Did they find help from charities, churches and nonprofits? Over 12 months, Bridge […]
Posted inMichigan Government
This man has power over 1 in 5 Mich. lives
Stephen Fitton has a corner office on the top floor of a state office building in Lansing, which is perhaps fitting for the person who directs the second-most expensive program in Michigan government To be clear, the corner office, like the man who inhabits it, is far from ostentatious. Fitton has plenty of windows — […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Warm weather kindles MDOT hopes
The unseasonably temperate winter in most o fMichigan– to date — is being blamed for woes among ski resorts, motels that cater to snowmobilers and other businesses whose fate rests on the falling of the snowflakes. As this recent Michigan Radio report notes, this could be a record year in northern Michigan for a lack […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom” –Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 19th century English poet. * We in Michigan all know that Gov. Rick Snyder is ga-ga over “dashboards” — sets of figures that show progress, or lack thereof, on economic or government service matters. Snyder wants to use state money […]
Posted inTalent & Education
What's 'tuition and fees' in Portuguese?
President Obama’s recent visit to Michigan — and this magazine — have been shining a light on the depressing subject of college costs, and their seemingly out-of-control upward spiral. Tales of recent college graduates with few job prospects and mortgage-size debt have parents and students sitting down for serious discussions of bills and the future. […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Pulse quickens in Mich. manufacturing
It looked like the end of the millennium would also be the end of Michigan manufacturing. The state lost 47 percent of its manufacturing employment, nearly 423,000 jobs, between 2000 and 2010 as the U.S. auto industry went into a frightening decline. But like a patient who surprisingly wakes up from a years-long coma, manufacturing […]
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