“If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain” — Adlai E. Stevenson Jr., two-time Democratic presidential nominee and a governor of Illinois. * The invaluable Michigan Campaign Finance Network, […]
Grand Rapids
Posted inBusiness Watch
Scoring the '00s: How Michigan's 14 regions changed
Despite billions of dollars in construction projects on the University of Michigan’s campus and Ann Arbor’s reputation as a high-tech business hotbed, the regional economy there contracted slightly over the past decade. Gross domestic product in the Ann Arbor metro area fell 1 percent between 2001 and 2009 as several major businesses left town. Pfizer […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Deep inside the Lost Decade: Decline, transformation and resilience in Michigan's regions
Ann Arbor on the east side and Grand Rapids on the west are widely regarded as the most prosperous and desirable metropolitan areas in Michigan. But Kalamazoo-Portage and Battle Creek in Southwest Michigan surprisingly outpaced Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and all other metro areas in the state in economic growth over the past decade. An […]
Posted inSuccess
Touting Michigan in 100% cotton
(Originally published May 4, 2011) Jon Bell got so tired of hearing friends slam Michigan as a place with no future, he started a company that promotes the state everywhere people go. Since the day he opened Michigan Awesome two years ago, the Grand Rapids native has sold 3,500 T-shirts, each with a pithy slogan […]