Michigan Radio Newsroom

Most of the time the final -ed on words is not pronounced as its own syllable, but then every once in a while, it is.

This week on That’s What They Say, Host Rina Miller and University of Michigan English Professor Anne Curzan discuss tricky -ed endings and the history of this suffix’s pronunciation.

State Senate approves bill making it easier to end land line service

"Phone companies would have an easier time discontinuing traditional land lines under legislation that has passed the Michigan Senate. The bill approved yesterday is designed to loosen regulations on AT&T and other providers as more customers forgo land lines and just carry cellphones," the Associated Press reports.

House is close to vote on issue ads and campaign finance bills

"State House Speaker Jase Bolger says the House is close to a vote on legislation that would double the amount of money people can give to political campaigns. The bill would also block a proposal that would require groups who pay for so-called 'issue ads' to disclose their donors," Jake Neher reports.

Philanthropists encouraged to save DIA and pensioners

One Michigander has offered to donate $5 million to help protect the DIA and Detroit retiree pensions. As the Detroit Free Press reports,

"Millionaire A. Paul Schaap said he plans to meet today with U.S. Chief District Judge Gerald Rosen, who is serving as mediator in Detroit’s bankruptcy case. Rosen has been trying to persuade at least 10 charitable foundations to put up $500 million to spin off the DIA from the city, which could then use the money to reduce pension cuts and improve services."

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan  have asked the Inkster Housing Commission to drop its effort to evict a pregnant woman from one of its apartments. They say the Commission is evicting her because of domestic violence she has suffered while a tenant.

President Obama said that glitches in the healthcare.gov website would be fixed by November 30. Now that that deadline has passed, we wanted to check back in to see how the website was running.

I tried to apply for coverage on October 1, the day the marketplace opened, which didn't work. 

Though I checked back several times in the last two months, there were still a lot of glitches. I tried accessing my old application yesterday, and still there were problems. The website hung when I was trying to choose the amount of tax credit I apply toward my coverage.

Let's start over, shall we?

NPR reported that a lot of people who weren't able to shop for coverage are now able to because of a "reset button."

Governor Sndyer's approval rating is up

Governor Snyder's approval rating is at it's highest since the summer of 2012. As the Detroit Free Press reports,

"Gov. Rick Snyder’s approval rating has ticked up to 35.6% according to a new State of the State Survey from Michigan State University to be released today."

College grads in Michigan have an average of $29,000 in debt

A new report finds the average Michigan college graduate in 2012 has nearly $29,000 in student loans. Ferris State and Lawrence Technological University graduates have the highest debt in the state.

Lawmakers get bigger budgets

"Lawmakers in the Michigan House will see their office budgets rise 5 percent in 2014. Lawmakers took a 10 percent pay cut in 2011," the Associated Press reports.

According to the Detroit News, Christie's Appraisals estimated the market value of the DIA's city bought works at somewhere between $452 and $866 million.

Christie's released the preliminary report today. The full report will be shown to Detroit's Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr the week of December 16.

A suburb of Grand Rapids wants  lab results faster than the Michigan State Police Crime Lab provides them.

So the city of Wyoming, Michigan, is setting up its own crime lab to analyze drugs and blood evidence.

The Wyoming City Council recently approved a $100,000 expenditure for the crime lab.

Curtis Holt is Wyoming's city manager. He said court hearings are often postponed because lab results are not back in time.  Among other things, this wastes the time of police officers who are required to be present even though the hearing will be adjourned.

Ann Arbor's City Council voted 6-4 Monday night to repeal its controversial crosswalk ordinance.  The rule requires drivers to stop if a pedestrian is waiting on the curb to enter a crosswalk.

But it looks like the rule won't change.

The Mayor of Ann Arbor, John Hieftje, says he will veto the repeal before it has a chance to take effect.

He thinks the current law makes things safer for pedestrians. 

Judge to announce Detroit bankruptcy eligibility today

A judge is expected to announce today whether Detroit is eligible for bankruptcy. If so, Detroit will be the largest public bankruptcy in U.S. history. It has $18 billion in debt.

Anti-abortion coverage proposal moves forward

"State lawmakers will consider a proposal to put new restrictions on abortion insurance coverage in Michigan. A state board yesterday certified that Right to Life of Michigan has collected enough signatures to send its petition to the Legislature. Under the measure, women would only be able to purchase abortion coverage as a separate policy. It could not be part of standard health plans," Jake Neher reports.

State workers might get pay hike, but pay more for health care

"The state Civil Service Commission is considering giving state workers a two-percent pay increase, while requiring many of them to pay more out-of-pocket for health insurance. The proposal is meant to end a contract impasse between the state and public employee unions," Jake Neher reports.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on behalf of a pregnant Michigan woman who miscarried.

The suit claims that Tamesha Means was denied appropriate medical treatment at Mercy Health Partners in Muskegon, because the Catholic hospital is required to comply with religious directives written by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The ACLU says the religious directives prohibit the hospital from providing the applicable standard of care or from informing patients about appropriate treatment options.

Mercy Health Partners is the only hospital in Means' county.

Anti abortion coverage proposal could move forward today

"A proposal to require insurance companies to stop offering abortion coverage as part of basic health insurance plans takes a critical step today. Right to Life advocates want insurance companies to offer abortion coverage only as a separate rider to women. The Board of State Canvassers is expected to certify that the group collected enough signatures to put the proposal before the legislature," Steve Carmody reports.

U.P. tribe and the state in U.S. Supreme Court over off-reservation casino

"An Upper Peninsula Indian tribe will defend itself today before the United States Supreme Court against a lawsuit filed by the state of Michigan. The state is trying to stop the tribe from opening an off-reservation casino in the town of Vanderbilt in northern lower Michigan," Rick Pluta reports.

Group to gather signatures to have wolf hunt next year

"A pro-hunting coalition is launching a campaign to collect petition signatures seeking a possible third statewide vote next November on hunting wolves in Michigan. Their measure would let the Natural Resources Commission name game species, protecting Michigan's new wolf hunt. The state says that hunters had killed 17 wolves in the Upper Peninsula through Sunday morning," the Associated Press reports.

Parsing used to be restricted to sentences, but now we can parse all kinds of things.

This week on That’s What They Say, host Rina Miller and University of Michigan English Professor Anne Curzan talk about the verbs to parse and to vet.

Parsing originally came from the Latin noun pars, meaning “parts”  as in “parts of speech.” When parse appeared in the English language in the 16th century, it referred to analyzing a sentence syntactically by breaking the phrase down to its parts of speech.

However, by the 18th century, parse came to mean “examining something closely by breaking it into component parts,” or even “to understand.” Now, parse has yet another definition to computer programmers, meaning “examining strings.”

Overall, 44% of parents say they'd allow their child to take part in medical research if the child had the disease being studied.

Yet only 5% say their child has participated in a medical study.  

That's according to a recent National Poll on Children's Health conducted by C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan.

This map shows you how wealthy your ZIP code is.

The Washington Post created it using data from the 2010 Census. Only zip codes that have at least 500 adults were included in the map (so some ZIP codes in the U.P. were not counted).

The ZIP codes are ranked from 0-99.

The higher the number, the higher the average household income and the higher the percentage of adults who have college degrees.

Federal judge will announce if Detroit is eligible for bankruptcy next week

"A judge says he'll announce Dec. 3 whether Detroit is eligible to get rid of its debts in bankruptcy court," the Associated Press reports

Michigan and federal government investigate fungal meningitis outbreak

"Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is joining forces with federal authorities to investigate last year’s fungal meningitis outbreak. Michigan was hardest-hit by the nationwide outbreak that’s linked to tainted steroids from a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy," Sarah Cwiek reports.

Enough signatures collected to propose a ban on abortion coverage

"Michigan abortion foes have collected enough signatures to put a proposal before lawmakers to ban abortion coverage from health plans unless a separate policy is bought," the Associated Press reports.

The condition of every land parcel in Detroit will be surveyed beginning this week.  The hope is to complete the survey in eight weeks, according to Glenda Price, a member of Detroit's federally-appointed Blight Task Force. The task force was established this past October.

Governor Snyder supports campaign finance law changes

"Governor Snyder says he tentatively supports some major changes to Michigan’s campaign finance laws. The State Senate acted earlier this month to double the amount individuals can donate to state lawmakers’ campaigns. It would require some additional financial disclosure from those campaigns," Sarah Cwiek reports.

Officials to discuss a development in last years fungal meningitis outbreak

"Victims of last year's fungal meningitis outbreak aren't holding out much hope they'll receive compensation for the deaths and illnesses caused by tainted steroids traced to a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy. Officials will hold a news conference today to discuss a development in the investigation. Twenty two people from Michigan died in the outbreak," the Associated Press reports.

Gaming compact expires Saturday

"At the end of this week the 1993 gaming compact between the state of Michigan and six native American tribes officially expires. Some say theoretically, if the gaming compact is allowed to expire, the tribes should not be able to legally operate their casinos. However it’s doubtful the state would attempt to force the casinos to close," Steve Carmody reports.

“Because language change.” Is this a sentence? 

On this week’s edition of That’s What They Say, host Rina Miller and University of Michigan English Professor Anne Curzan discuss the changing use of because and slash.

On Tuesday, an article  in The Atlantic by Megan Garber brought attention to a new usage of because. Because can now be followed by a noun, adjective or gerund like in the phrase, “Because Internet.”  

“Because is traditionally a subordinating conjunction, so it requires a clause after it, as in, ‘I’m late because I was watching videos on YouTube,’” Curzan describes. “Or it can be a compound preposition, like, ‘I’m late because of the traffic.’”  

Today, thanks to the evolution of language on the Internet, people are writing and saying phrases like: “I’m late because YouTube,” “I’m not going out because tired,” or “I’m late because running.”

Earlier this week we hosted an Issues & Ale event on the Affordable Care Act, and almost 150 people attended.

For everyone who was not able to attend, here are some of the main takeaways from the panel discussion with Marianne Udow-Phillips, the Director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation, Don Hazaert, the Director of Michigan Consumers for Healthcare, and Melissa Anders, a statewide business reporter with the MLive media group in Lansing.

What should people understand about the Affordable Care Act?

People should understand first of all that the Affordable Care Act is not a website, nor is it a "catchall for everyone's anxieties about health care," according to Hazaert, as many people have concerns about health care that have nothing to do with the Affordable Care Act. It is a law.

“This law is a law that is, in some ways, an incremental change to health care. It’s building on the existing non-system,” said Udow-Phillips. “We have a complicated and convoluted current system of health care, the law doesn’t fix that.”

Instead, it is designed to fill in the gaps, not fix it. Under the Affordable Care Act, more people will get coverage, but there will be people who end up paying more.

Also, do not wait until the website is fixed to start thinking about health care.

“There’s lots of information out there right now to help you understand what your choices are,” said Anders. “You actually can go on the website . . . and click on a link that will show you what the plans are in Washtenaw County, or wherever you’re from, and will tell you what the prices are and what you might be eligible for.”

The health plans themselves also have good websites that allow you to compare information.

Can you keep your current health care if you like it?

There has been a lot of confusion over this. Ultimately, it is up to your state insurance commissioner to decide how to implement the policy change. In Michigan, we are still waiting to hear back from our state insurance commissioner about this.

It is also up to the insurance companies. So even if the commissioner approves, individual insurance companies can still decide whether or not to extend their plans.

People on Medicare will see no change under the Affordable Care Act. Employer plans will also stay mostly the same.

The big changes will be in the individual market.

“People are paying an enormous amount right now for very bad coverage, and people are very unhappy,” said Udow-Phillips. “We did a survey last year of citizens in Michigan, and people who had coverage that they bought themselves through the individual market, 44% of them said they were happy with their coverage.”

That is lower than people with any other type of health care. Under the Affordable Care Act, more people in the individual market will get better coverage for less.

Who still won't be covered?

Undocumented immigrants will not be receiving any coverage under this law. In fact, they were purposely excluded.

Additionally, people who are exempt from penalties may not have insurance, or people may choose to pay the penalties rather than get insurance.

There are a number of other circumstances which allow for exemptions. People who cannot afford insurance, people in prison, and people who cannot have health care due to their religious beliefs will be eligible for waivers.

To hear the full discussion and the Q & A session that followed, click the audio above.