Ron French

The state spent $148,000 on a racial equity group to offer advice on how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in opioid settlement funds. But after issuing recommendations, the group said it was ‘silenced.’

Trained as an investigative reporter, John Bebow launched Bridge and the Center for Michigan and grew it into a juggernaut.

Bridge grew up under the reins of a metro Detroit native known for his meticulous editing, investigative chops, fairness and self-deprecating humor.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 28-person population commission offers a broad blueprint to reverse decades of tepid population growth, calling on new investments in economy, education, people and communities.

Communities (and one state) around the nation offer incentives for people — particularly remote workers — to move there. Michigan’s population commission is exploring a similar program here.

Draft recommendations from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s population commission includes a laundry list of changes. And they’ll cost money.

One of Michigan’s most politically conservative counties is weighing whether to spend taxpayer dollars on handgun training and concealed carry permits for its 1,200 employees.

Some worker shortages hurt more than others, and state leaders are rushing to try to make it easier to fill vacancies from paramedics to special ed teachers.

Indiana leads the Midwest in population growth. Michigan lags. What can we learn from the Hoosier state? That building cities and towns where young people want to live and raise families can bring the economy along with them.

The Patmos Library in Ottawa County was ground zero for a culture war over LGBTQ-themed books. After losing funding votes twice, voters approved support Tuesday to keep it open

Tired of not finding trained workers, some Michigan businesses are using state funding to grow their own with apprenticeships.

Young college-educated workers can live wherever they want. That gives lots of hope to Michigan, but it also is another reason to lose our best and brightest.

Patmos Library, defunded last year in a battle over LGBTQ-themed graphic novels, will try for a third time to win taxpayer support in November. It if loses again, the library will be 'crippled.'

Michigan now ranks 39th in per capita income, a reflection of the state’s slow transition away from its blue-collar roots.

Michigan is pulling out the stops to get more people in college. But a shortage of high school counselors and advisors trained to explain the application, financial aid and college-going process poses a challenge.

In a state struggling with population and worker shortages, a quarter of young Michigan adults expect to live somewhere else within 10 years. College grads and Black respondents said they were more likely to leave.

In Roscommon County, fewer than 4 in 10 adults are in the workforce. The northern Michigan vacation haven is symptomatic of a statewide worker shortage crisis that has some looking for creative solutions.

Frustrated with small, rural communities slapping down wind and solar projects, Democratic leaders are planning bills that would take control of projects they consider vital to meeting the state’s decarbonization goals.

With an estimated 9,000 openings around the state, childcare providers are struggling to serve families desperate for care.

Grad student workers will receive a pay bump and improved benefits in a contract approved by the union Friday just days before fall classes begin.