The nation’s largest Chapter 9 proceeding left Michigan’s biggest city standing on its own legs again, but those legs are shaky. Detroit Journalism Cooperative members look at how the stakeholders are doing.
‘Babies having babies’ isn’t the problem it once was. But rates are higher in northern, rural counties, in a state where school districts may opt out of sex ed entirely.
Land banks were conceived to help counties stabilize property values in a changing economy. But Oakland County doesn’t have a land bank. So tiny Hazel Park essentially created its own, and is beginning to reap the benefits.
Medicaid expansion and innovative programs are giving more low-income Michigan children a shot at healthy dental care. But access still lags in some rural and urban areas, and impoverished adults continue to suffer from lack of preventative care after years of uncertain funding.
Concern over fluoride’s effect on the human body – and some anti-government sentiment – is forcing dentists and scientists to defend the longstanding practice of putting fluoride in water systems to improve dental health.
Low-income people often find it harder to eat well. Classes designed to teach basic cooking skills, and how to find food growing wild on vacant lots, aim to fill the gap.
Michigan residents believe strongly that students need a college degree or job training after high school to succeed. Yet the high cost of college has many questioning whether the loan debt is worth it.
The insurance industry cites schemes involving morally flexible lawyers and overactive doctors as reason to curb Michigan’s no-fault law. Critics say Lansing’s “reform” legislation would hurt the most seriously injured.
Living far from a major hospital may not always be a hindrance to high-quality health care. Telemedicine can deliver healthcare to rural corners of Michigan, where a specialist may be hundreds of miles away.
A test result is a snapshot, and in Dearborn, one elementary school came out with a surprisingly better portrait than another in the critical milestone of third-grade reading. Why? Nobody seems to know.
A Democratic representatives finds a legislator can be effective when his party is outnumbered, by turning policymaking into more of a chess game than an all-out assault.
The Lapeer freshman representative and tea party favorite puts faith, family and limited government at the front of his agenda. So why are fellow Republicans running for cover?
Complex problems rarely have simple solutions, say the legislators whose last-minute work in December’s lame-duck session produced the byzantine statewide vote to fix Michigan’s roads.
As Michigan drivers swerve around, and fall into, cracks in the state’s transportation infrastructure, the only solution on the table is almost as much of a headache.
A wide range of groups are urging a yes vote on the plan to fix Michigan’s roads, and a few are opposing or staying neutral. How are they lining up? It depends on who stands to get paid.
Bill Drake won an award from his peers -- the people who work behind the scenes to keep the Michigan Legislature running. He’s not used to being in the center of the frame.
