If K-12 achievement in Michigan were a trendline, it is clearly pointing the wrong direction. By just about any measuring stick, the state is losing the race to educational excellence.

Some 1.5 million students attend some 3,000 public schools in Michigan. As academic performance has lagged, competing school reform proposals have sprouted like Michigan summer corn.

As student performance in Michigan has plummeted, one strategy where many elected officials, educators, business leaders and state residents agree is bolstering future student success through early childhood programs.

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.

As it enters its second decade, the Pure Michigan campaign has become a flashpoint for critics who say its success is evaluated based on flawed assumptions about its return on investment.

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.

A revamped Truth Squad is keeping political candidates honest in 2018, and what better way to kick off our fact-checking than with some leading candidates for governor.

Lt. Gov. Calley is taking credit for some of the major tax and business policy successes of the Snyder Administration.

Truth Squad explores Gretchen Whitmer’s mantle as an advocate for sexual assault victims after a cop accuses her of hesitating to prosecute a sexually abusive doctor.

Examining the attorney general office’s lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency and fight for lower taxes

A closer look at a Democratic candidate for governor’s vow to achieve universal health care in Michigan, and perhaps nationally.

Funding shortage threatens to halt toxic cleanups in Michigan, including a 6-mile long plume of pollution that’s tainted 13 trillions of groundwater beneath Antrim County. (with map)