After years of deferred maintenance, big upgrades are coming to Belle Isle and picturesque Tahquamenon Falls. But there are also potholes to fill, toilets and sewers to replace and electrical systems to modernize.

Septic systems are common around Elk Lake and many other lake communities. If they’re maintained, they usually manage to keep bacteria and viruses in check. But failing systems can allow contaminated water to seep into nearby bodies of water.

GOP governor hopeful James Craig and other Michigan candidates face accusations they paid for fake signatures collected by a fraud ring. The claims could jeopardize their candidacies.

Cities around the Great Lakes region struggle with the cost of water maintenance and operation as their populations decline.

That’s what an independent panel found in its final report chronicling the physical and human causes of the May 2020 dam failures that flooded out mid-Michigan, forcing thousands to evacuate and leaving widespread damage.

Business officials said companies are reluctant to weigh in on every social issue, whether they support it or not. In polarizing times, they say, they can’t win either way, but staying silent can present its own problems.

12,000 new volunteers in just over a day for Reproductive Freedom for All, a petition drive seeking to write abortion rights into the Michigan Constitutiony Anti-abortion groups said their support has increased steadily.

Democrat Carol Glanville defeated Republican Robert “RJ” Regan in a special election for a West Michigan House seat considered safely conservative. Comments on rape, QAnon and conspiratories about Jews turned off his own party.

To some, the likely end to nearly 50 years of federal abortion protections means losing a say over their own bodies. But others see an end to what they deem government-sanctioned crime. They all appeared to scarcely believe the enormity of the ruling.

Republicans cheer the possible reversal of Roe v. Wade, while Democrats work to negate a 1931 law that would make the procedure a felony.

Despite promises from Democrats, operators say they would have to stop offering the procedure if the Supreme Court overturns 1973 ruling.

Michigan has the fifth-highest rate in the nation, even though there are no clinics in most counties. Maps, charts explain who is getting the procedure and where.