Michigan is sitting on a massive mineral deposit that could create a billion-dollar industry. The state this week finalized plans to spend $50 million in taxpayer funds to help a private company extract potash, a critical and increasingly costly component of fertilizers used at farms across the country but primarily imported from Canada, Russia and Belarus.
Rural Michigan
Posted inMichigan Government
Michigan wine country again confronts race, and its own isolation
In an overwhelmingly white region around Traverse City, residents are divided over the implications of the latest incident, in which a public official made reference to “colored people.”
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
The pandemic that closed the U.S./Canadian border to people may have opened it to the invasive sea lamprey
Great Lakes invasive species cling to shipments and navigate canals to migrate, but one aquatic invader — sea lamprey — benefitted from border closures instead.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Northern Michigan resorts bemoan lack of foreign worker visas for summer
Demand for seasonal workers from other countries is setting a record this year. That leaves Northern Michigan’s hospitality industry struggling to fill the worker positions that drive tourism.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Northern Michigan artist’s tea towel fundraiser for Ukraine goes national
Community volunteers are filling the Three Pines Studio, making linen tea towels that are shipped from tiny Cross Village to across the U.S. They’re sold as a fundraiser to alleviate hunger during the Russian invasion.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Black bear populations explode in northern Michigan following hunt limits
Conservationists cheer the comeback, but some fear it could lead to the loosening of regulations.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Michigan OKs expanded bobcat hunting season over activists’ concerns
Hunting, trapping expanded to nine more counties. Michigan says populations are stable enough to support the expansion, but the vote comes as other states move away from such hunts.
Posted inGuest Commentary
Opinion | It’s time to fully fund the Michigan high-speed internet office
The internet is now part of our lives in ways many of us have not expected, so it can no longer be treated as anything other than a basic utility. If we want to see results and see our communities move forward, we need to act fast.
Posted inTalent & Education
Angry Up North: scars linger after Michigan school mask mandates end
Fissures over COVID safety protections in schools have left a region divided and sent a veteran health officer packing.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Michigan may restrict withdrawals for bottled water like Nestle
Legal experts say the public trust doctrine in Michigan should be expanded to protect groundwater, but they don’t think legislators should target water bottling operations. They believe all users should be treated the same.