Bridge Feed- Urban farm plan reels in cash, tilapia
- Ethnic media alliance pushes stories of success, provides community leadership
- Michigan goes hard after student loan defaulters
- State takes cautious approach to freight hub proposals
- Land O Links
- Guest column: Student loan debt is next big bubble
- Half the investment on colleges means a full measure of trouble for Michigan
- Report: Michigan’s license ‘burden’ is above average
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Author Archives: John Bebow
Join us for more Common Sense Conversations in Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Wixom
We’re on the road through mid-April giving citizens throughout southeastern Michigan the opportunity to talk back to Lansing.
REGISTER TODAY for any one of these upcoming meetings…
March 30 at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor
April 6 at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn
April 20 at Detroit Public Television in Wixom
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Why Snyder’s gov’t reform plan may sound familiar
Governor Rick Snyder’s speech Monday aimed at reinventing local government actually reinvented (or at least reiterated) numerous reform ideas offered in recent years by the Center for Michigan and other public interest groups.
Examples:
• Intensifying local government consolidation and service sharing was a key recommendation of the Center’s citizens’ agenda emerging from nearly 600 Community Conversations across [...]
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18 reasons Michigan’s prison costs cannot be ignored
Most priorities funded by state tax dollars took a whack in Governor Rick Snyder’s first budget proposal.
But not the state prison system.
The Michigan Department of Corrections budget is on pace to grow another eleven million bucks under Snyder. We’re now on pace to spend $650 million more per year on prisons and their inmates than [...]
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Two audits raise new questions about prison spending
Beyond the findings of last week’s prison system budget symposium, two audits raise new and serious questions about prison system management and spending.
MICHIGAN PRISONER RE-ENTRY INITIATIVE CONTRACTING PRACTICES
The Michigan Department of Corrections and advocates of sentencing reforms have lauded the department’s “MPRI” program for helping prevent parolees from returning to prison and thereby keeping both [...]
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Help us reach 10,000 budget-balancers!
More than 9,000 participants have now played our YOU BALANCE THE BUDGET GAME.
Help us crack the 10,000 mark! Share the game, and your ideas, with friends, family, neighbors and co-workers.
What’s your answer to the state’s financial woes?
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Kurt Metzger’s latest data finds
Michigan’s ace demographer, Kurt Metzger, is at it again.
Sifting through the latest Census Data, Kurt is constantly updating his data-driven conclusions about what it means to be a Michigan resident today…
A few of his latest discoveries…
LET’S ALL THANK MAINE: It was the only state in the union to send more people to Michigan in the [...]
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Michigan 50 years from now
What will life be like in Michigan 50 years from now?
One of Michigan’s most respected leaders, Paul Hillegonds, recently considered that very big question for Grand Valley State University’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
A former veteran legislator, speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, head of the Detroit Renaissance business leaders group and current senior vice president [...]
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How to manage schools and local governments in financial tatters?
The protests Wednesday made clear labor’s rage at the new emergency financial manager that has passed the legislature and now awaits the governor’s signature.
Things are moving quickly and emotions are at the boil point. But in the long term, this isn’t just political theater in Lansing. It’s about how the garbage gets picked up in [...]
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Keeping early childhood education on the front burner
Legislative and business leaders will come together next Monday, March 21, at the HighScope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti to review the latest research on early childhood development and discuss ways to ensure the educational success of Michigan’s youngest citizens.
Lt. Gov. Brian Calley will give opening remarks on the importance of investing in the early [...]
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