MSU journalism major Max Gun discusses “100 Questions & Answers About Americans,” a new book on U.S. culture and slang with Linh Dao, a freshman from Vietnam. (Courtesy photo) Tell any American college student that you’re tailgating, hooking up or going on a pub crawl, and they’ll know you’re talking about partying before a sporting […]
Kathy Barks Hoffman
Kathy Barks Hoffman covered Michigan government and politics for more than two decades as a reporter for the Detroit News, the Lansing State Journal and the Associated Press, where she headed AP’s Lansing Bureau for nearly 17 years. She now works in Lansing for the Public Affairs Practice of public relations firm Lambert, Edwards & Associates.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan still using federal dollars to fund mortgage assistance programs
As she struggled to hold onto her home after her hours as a retail clerk were slashed, a 66-year-old Kentwood resident initially lost $1,300 in a scam run by a company that promised to help the woman and her husband avoid foreclosure. Then she found out about a state program that provided her with a […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Legal immunity worries child advocates
The fear of getting sued if a foster child attempts suicide or theft prompted private social service agencies to push in the waning days of the lame-duck session for a law granting them limited immunity to lawsuits. They got their wish late in the night of the last session of the Legislature last week, even […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Schools struggle to pass digital test
Two years from now, hundreds of thousands of Michigan students will be expected to go online to take computerized statewide math, language arts and other standardized tests that now are conducted with paper and pencils. The benefits include quicker results for school districts, tests that more accurately track what individual students know and longer test […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Proposed changes to state loan program could limit schools' ability to buy tech
Michigan school districts are vying for $50 million in state money for technology – the first such investment by the state in about a dozen years. Yet, at the very same time, school leaders are watching warily as legislation that could make it harder for them to borrow money to make technology investments may get […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Proposal 1: Michigan's emergency manager law
Of the many laws Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has championed during his first 21 months in office, few have proved as divisive as the one that gave emergency managers sweeping new “superpowers” allowing them to dismiss elected leaders and rip up union contracts to help balance budgets in financially distressed cities and school districts. If […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Prop 1 is fight over local control, with backdrop of fiscal crisis
Of the many laws Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has championed during his first 21 months in office, few have proved as divisive as the one that gave emergency managers sweeping new “superpowers” allowing them to dismiss elected leaders and rip up union contracts to help balance budgets in financially distressed cities and school districts. If […]