By Rep. Jim Ananich and Rep. Frank Foster Everyone in Michigan, regardless of where you live or where you’re traveling through, deserves access to basic, primary health care. Unfortunately, a shortage of specially trained doctors and medical professionals in some areas provides a costly barrier for too many families. Recent coverage in Bridge rightly pointed […]
Guest column: Incentives can address Michigan's rural doctor shortage
Posted inMichigan Government
Detroit, allies caught on blight treadmill
The numbers are inescapable: Estimates of just how many blighted buildings still stand in Detroit– most of them houses past rehabilitation, nests of crime and the most visible signs of the city’s distress – range from 30,000 to as many as 70,000. It costs about $10,000, on average, to take down one of them. Which […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Poor people aren't getting equal shake in court, governor's panel warns
Fridays in Ottawa County’s courts — when criminal defendants often are arraigned without legal representation — are referred to as “McJustice Days.” In Sault Ste. Marie, attorneys representing the poor have little time to prepare and wait in line to meet with their clients in the courthouse’s unisex bathroom. In Wayne County, court-appointed attorneys haven’t […]
Posted inTalent & Education
GAO wades into charter-school special ed
Publicly funded independent, or charter, schools educate fewer children with disabilities than traditional public schools, suggests a new report by the Government Accountability Office. But the report, reported by Education Week here, notes that there are a number of contributing factors that make clear conclusions difficult: “Several factors may help explain why enrollment levels of students with […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Court elections put big money in charge
When I think about the Michigan Supreme Court, I have to sadly conclude it represents the very best justice that partisan money can buy. That’s a scandal and a disgrace. Four years ago, the University of Chicago Law School ranked all the nation’s supreme courts. It rated Michigan’s dead last, based partly on its lack […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Show (yourself) the money!
The good news: It’s an election year. Michigan voters get to pass judgment on filling 110 seats in the Michigan House of Representatives, plus some seats on the state Supreme Court, the Michigan Court of Appeals, the State Board of Education, Michigan State University Board of Trustees, University of Michigan Board of Regents, and Wayne […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating — people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing” — Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright and author. * Durable goods manufacturing, as a percentage of total economic activity, is “at or near pre-recession levels for each Seventh District state,” says the Federal […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Michigan's prescription for foster kids: drugs
Taxpayers have spent more than $70 million in a single year in Michigan on psychotropic drugs for foster kids and other children on Medicaid. And, nearly a quarter of Michigan foster kids were on psychotropic drugs to counteract behavioral problems and diagnosed mental illness in 2008, according to a recent government report. That report comes […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
What's the business case for second Detroit bridge?
Editor’s note: Gov. Rick Snyder joined Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper last Friday to announce a formal deal to start construction on a second bridge linking Detroit to Windsor, Ontario. Snyder announced his support for the span in his first weeks as governor in 2011. Michigan’s share of the construction costs — $550 million — […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Should the Legislature enact changes to abortion law?
A broad package of bills dealing with Michigan regulations on abortion were filed in the Legislature on May 31. Within a week, they had advanced to the full House of Representatives. On June 13, after a heated debate that has drawn national attention to Michigan, one bill, House Bill 5711, passed with 70 votes in […]