Records show state, local and federal officials tried for years to compel repairs that could prevent a flood, but its private owners didn’t act. Once again, regulators are finger-pointing about who is to blame.
Ron French
Ron reports on a variety of subjects across the state. Ron came to Bridge in 2011 from The Detroit News, where he was a project reporter. Born and raised in Indiana, Ron graduated from Purdue University. He reported for newspapers across Indiana before moving to Michigan in 1995. Ron lives in Okemos, and like the true Michigander he’s become, he now has a family cabin Up North. You can reach him at rfrench@bridgemi.com or 517-214-3636.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Flooding has Michigan ‘in crisis mode now,’ Gretchen Whitmer says
The governor visited Cheboygan, where waters were rising behind a downtown dam. One state senator called Michigan flooding a ‘slow-motion disaster that’s still unfolding.’
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Floods, tornadoes, rains ravage Michigan: ‘My hot tub was floating away’
Amid fears of dam collapses, roads wash away, tornadoes touch down and emergency crews try to protect life and property throughout Michigan.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Three years in, funds to fight opioids still unspent in some Michigan counties
Funds meant to save lives in Michigan’s drug war are still sitting in the bank accounts of some local governments.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan pits small, big schools for funding. It’s an unfair fight, leaders say
Michigan increasingly requires schools to apply for grants to fund special programs like career tech. That may disadvantage small schools, where superintendents complete applications between plowing school and substitute teaching.
Posted inTalent & Education
Up North Michigan, schools struggle between pull of home and promise of college
Students’ stark choice in northern Michigan: Go to college and never come back — or stay with smaller paychecks. That’s put school districts in a conundrum about how best to educate them.
Posted inMichigan Government
Tears, anger at Michigan hearing on bungled tribal boarding school report
More than 40 years after Michigan’s last tribal boarding school closed, the state is still struggling to come to grips with the practice that devastated generations of Native American families.
Posted inMichigan Government
Michigan tribal school survivors recount ‘hell on Earth,’ rapes, beatings
Bridge has obtained a tribal boarding school study the state put on a shelf. The $1.1 million report recounts horrific tales of abuse at schools intended to assimilate native children.
Posted inMichigan Government
Michigan tribal boarding school report sought apology. Instead, it was shelved
Bridge obtained a copy of the 300-page report into treatment at Michigan’s tribal boarding schools that was squelched by state officials. Among other recommendations, authors sought an apology and money to teach what was lost.
Posted inMichigan Government
Michigan spent $1.1M probing tribal boarding schools, then buried the results
The author of a report into treatment at state Native American schools is accusing Michigan of trying to ‘whitewash’ history. Tribes are worried nothing will come of the inquiry.