Upper Peninsula

Restaurants in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula can reopen Friday under a new order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but hotels are still closed to non-essential workers. And restaurants and bars will operate much differently than before the coronavirus pandemic.

Gretchen Whitmer announces bars, restaurants and other retail establishments in 32 northern Michigan counties can reopen with some restrictions on Friday. And she hints that she could announce this week that more areas can reopen.

At least six U.P. casinos may reopen before the end of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order closing bars, dine-in restaurants and casinos. They can do that. They’re sovereign nations.

Mental health advocates highlight a rise in anxiety from the pandemic and economic disruption in Michigan, as experts devise ways to help health care workers and ordinary residents in an extraordinary time.

Michigan Tech and Lake Superior State University plan to return to in-person classes this fall, joining Northern Michigan University that had announced the same decision earlier. That’s an easier call in the Upper Peninsula, where there are currently few COVID-19 cases

Northern Michigan has more than half of the state’s land mass and 2 percent of its coronavirus cases. As Gov. Whitmer says she’ll take geography into account to reopen the economy, Bridge examines regional differences in cases, hospital capacity, testing and unemployment.

The Upper Peninsula public university is the first Michigan college to announce it is going forward with in-person classes in September. Most schools have put off making a decision for now.

Some of Michigan’s most remote regions have so far been spared, at least in what’s been officially recorded. With a vast geography, few tests and even fewer hospital beds, they wait and hope for the best.

For leaders and decision-makers at all levels of government, the lessons learned are straight-forward: Take the risk seriously.

Bryan Newland, chairman of the northeastern Upper Peninsula tribe, said Bay Mills Indian Community leaders had no choice but to stop paying employees of the tribe’s resort and casinos after a request for federal relief loans went unanswered.

A retired physician assistant and Yooper has several suggestions on how to help both peninsulas protect and heal from COVID-19.

With more than 100 cases and at least three deaths attributed to COVID-19 in lower Michigan, questions over closing the bridge do not appear to be seriously considered by state officials.

"Flunking a student is immediately traumatic and is more likely to be experienced by those students who are categorized as poor, male and/or minority," the group of Upper Peninsula school superintendents writes.

An Upper Peninsula sheriff went to Facebook to get state help for a delusional man in his jail. His post highlights severe shortages in the state for violent or severely mentally ill people caught up in the criminal justice system.

State regulators have changed daily catch limits for Michigan’s state fish four times since 2017 as they try to balance conservation concerns against the frustration of many Upper Peninsula anglers.

It’s time for Michigan wolves to be removed from the Endangered Species Act to reduce conflicts and protect human safety, says this Marquette outdoors writer in a Guest Commentary.

In response to a Bridge Magazine investigation, Nessel said her office will look into whether the state agency mishandled public records on the 2016 killings of protected gray wolves in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

State wildlife leaders violated the state Freedom of Information Act, concealing details surrounding calf deaths and the 2016 shootings of protected gray wolves. Records suggest a different motive for the kills.

Marquette may become a destination as high heat and drought drive folks from southern communities more vulnerable to a shifting climate. But it still faces challenges — from intensifying rains to disease-carrying pests.

Epic floods devastated Michigan’s western Upper Peninsula. Foundations are now stepping in to fix a unique vulnerability: century-old drainage systems — built by mining companies — that sat neglected after mines shuttered and towns shrank.