Quality of Life
Michigan is a great place to live. Bridge will report that fact often — and on potential threats to the assets that make it so.
Popular Articles
Articles
Amid protests over Trump, Muslims and guns, two enemies in Kalkaska bond near a giant trout
The village president’s inflammatory Facebook posts leads to an evening standoff along the normally placid main street of Kalkaska.
Message in a bottle: A Flint video story
Flint residents took to Lansing to deliver handwritten messages in water bottles to the governor. It’s the latest effort by residents to focus attention on poisoned water caused by government ineptitude.
The American Dream is fading everywhere, but almost nowhere faster than Michigan
For three generations, the odds of outearning your parents has dropped. Today, a young person’s odds of climbing higher than their parents are no better than a coin flip.
SLIDESHOW: Feel like you’re not earning as much as your parents? You’re probably right.
Your chances of living the American Dream – climbing higher up the economic ladder than your parents – used to be a sure thing. Times have changed, and not for the better.
In Bay City, Trump supporters march for jobs they are sure will come
How much of the political divide is an economic opportunity gap? In Bay City, which went twice for Obama, the focus is, as President Trump likes to say, jobs, jobs, jobs.
Interactive map: See population changes in YOUR community
Census shows Michigan’s population woes aren’t distributed evenly. As Detroit withers, many of its suburbs are adding thousands. And while much of northern Michigan is shrinking in population, west Michigan is growing.
Should Michigan make it easier to opt out of school vaccines?
More kindergartners get their shots after the state made it harder to receive a waiver for them. Now, two lawmakers want to go back to the old system, but health officials say doing so is an invitation to trouble.
Database: Search vaccination rate of YOUR school
Immunization rates have risen in Michigan after a rule change. Use this database to see how your school compares.
Interactive map: Vaccination rates across Michigan
Click on a county to see how rates changed overall and in public and private schools.
Bridge asked readers to swap news sources for a week. The world answered. (slideshow)
It wasn’t always comfortable. But more than 200 brave souls from around the country (and six nations) switched to news feeds with a different political viewpoint. A few have yet to switch back.
Cancer diagnosis brings clarity to one Trump voter
In Harbor Springs, Cynthia Shafer battles illness and political assumptions
Interactive map: What political bubble do you live in?
Bridge creates Michigan’s first precinct-level map showing how your neighborhood or community voted in the presidential election.
A conservative and two liberals swapped news feeds. It didn’t end well.
The “un-American” New York Times and the “nightmare” Drudge Report: A Troy conservative and two Ann Arbor liberals discover just how wide the news divide has become.
Take two hits of Maui Wowie and call me in the morning: Baby boomers in the age of medical marijuana
Bad knees and all, a Bridge writer joins the middle-aged rush to marijuana dispensaries across Michigan
Pupusas, locked doors, and a return to the shadows for one undocumented family
They’ve been called bad hombres and job stealers. Wilfredo Diaz and his family say they just want to be called Americans.
Amid strikes and spares, Muslim nervousness that the game has changed
Four couples, two lanes, 10 frames – when the president makes you feel unwelcome, sometimes you just have to go bowling.
Meet Michigan's divided: Hussein and Mariam Charara
Meet Hussein and Mariam Charara, from Dearborn.
Meet Michigan's divided: John Hulett
Meet John Hulett, from Sunfield, 25 miles west of Lansing.
Meet Michigan's divided: Wilfredo Diaz
Meet Wilfredo Diaz, from Wyoming, Mich.