Today on Stateside:
Since the Great Recession, Michigan has seen unemployment numbers drop to their lowest level in a decade. Auto sales and profits are booming, construction is up, and houses are selling again. But the 2015 Kids Count Data Book out today finds the rising tide of recovery has not lifted all boats, especially here in Michigan.
Loreen Neiwenhuis has walked all the way around Lake Michigan, she’s taken a 1000-mile walk along the beaches of all five Great Lakes, and now she’s finished her third Great Lakes adventure, a tale she tells in her latest book, A 1000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure.
The Department of Natural Resources is inviting the public to comment on a draft plan for managing Lake Michigan islands. Keith Kintigh joins us to talk about the DNR’s plan and what it hopes to accomplish with the public’s help.
All the traditional signs point to an improving economy. So why doesn’t it feel like it? Columnist Tom Walsh digs in to that question to try to find the source of that nagging anxiety in his most recent piece for the Detroit Free Press.
Are we throwing away money every time we haul trash to the curb? Kristen Wieland and Dan Schoonmaker tell us about a first-of-its-kind study happening in West Michigan that hopes to answer that question.