View photos as Copper Country recovers from this summer’s floods
Rural Michigan
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Hancock nonprofit plays outsized role in Upper Peninsula flood recovery
Few Yoopers will get insurance payouts after the floods, and homeowners have yet to get federal aid. Nearly 500 have applied for a Portage Health Foundation program to fill in those gaps.
Posted inTalent & Education
Why rural Michigan teens are skipping out on college. It's not grades
If Michigan is going to deepen its talent pool, it needs to figure out how to get more rural high school grads onto campuses, and how to keep them there.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Rural Michigan helped elect Trump. Now, farmers are sweating a trade war.
Michigan farmers went whole-hog for Trump, but fear a Chinese tariffs could wallop bottom lines. Soybean growers have the most to lose.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
In northern Michigan, Emmet County seen as model for rural recycling
At the tip of Michigan’s Mitten, the rural county has become a model for keeping trash out of landfills.
Posted inSpecial report
Health care in rural Michigan communities suffering, despite Obamacare
In 2010, an estimated 1.2 million Michigan residents had no health insurance. By 2016, that fell to approximately 527,000. But, as of this writing in early 2018, the future of health care is unclear.
Posted inSpecial report
Limited Internet in rural Michigan depresses student, business opportunity
Take a drive along Michigan’s rural roads and you will encounter treasures we know as Pure Michigan. But rural Michigan holds other, often hidden, stories… Poverty, uneven medical care and lack of high-speed Internet access. Young adults continue to leave rural communities for jobs elsewhere.
Posted inMichigan Government
Need broadband in Michigan? Rural life can mean you’re out of luck
Households, students and small business in much of rural Michigan struggle with slow Internet
Posted inMichigan Government
Wiring rural Michigan with broadband, one home at a time
A small fiber optic firm near Grand Rapids fills in the broadband gap for rural Michigan families
Posted inMichigan Government
Obamacare survives, but some rural hospitals may not
Rural residents depend on small medical facilities for chemotherapy, emergency care and other critical procedures. Hospital chiefs across northern Michigan say that ongoing efforts to dismantle Obamacare could put them out of business.