It's been a busy year and we've covered a lot of news. Here are some of the stories from the past 12 months you might have missed.
Reporter's Notebook: My Uber Eats Chicken Wings Investigation: A scammer operating in plain sight
Last year — on December 6, to be exact — I arrived home after a longer than usual work day with a craving for comfort food. For me, that’s BBQ chicken wings. And I was not going to get off my couch to get those wings. No, sirree Bob, Uber Eats would come to my lazy mmmhmm rescue.
Now, since this story is about a scammer, let’s just acknowledge up front that chicken wings themselves are a scam. How in the heck did the food industry manage to take the scrawniest, boniest, least meat-heavy part of the chicken and convince us it is a delicacy?
But kudos, food industry, ‘cause the scam has worked on millions of football fans across the U.S., and me too. I picked up my phone and started scrolling the Uber Eats app.
Now, since this story is about a scammer, let’s just acknowledge up front that chicken wings themselves are a scam. How in the heck did the food industry manage to take the scrawniest, boniest, least meat-heavy part of the chicken and convince us it is a delicacy?
But kudos, food industry, ‘cause the scam has worked on millions of football fans across the U.S., and me too. I picked up my phone and started scrolling the Uber Eats app.
Why teachers in Grand Rapids are leaving – and what it means for students
For years now, Michigan’s public schools have been grappling with a persistent teacher shortage and lower-than-national-average funding.
The numbers tell a difficult story: Michigan’s education workforce has grown over the past three years – but teacher shortages still persist across many parts of the state, particularly in special education.
That’s despite the state spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a wide range of efforts to train new teachers and keep them on staff, including apprenticeships, mentorship and recognition programs, and research into the teacher workforce.
Grand Rapids Public Schools, one of West Michigan’s largest school districts, is feeling the strain. The district – once home to the best high school in the state as ranked by one publication – is now struggling to hire and retain teachers like elementary school teacher Malori Salamango.
The numbers tell a difficult story: Michigan’s education workforce has grown over the past three years – but teacher shortages still persist across many parts of the state, particularly in special education.
That’s despite the state spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a wide range of efforts to train new teachers and keep them on staff, including apprenticeships, mentorship and recognition programs, and research into the teacher workforce.
Grand Rapids Public Schools, one of West Michigan’s largest school districts, is feeling the strain. The district – once home to the best high school in the state as ranked by one publication – is now struggling to hire and retain teachers like elementary school teacher Malori Salamango.
Arctic Cat's pause signals snowmobiling's shaky era
Though snowmobiling is in broad economic terms a niche, highly regional, highly weather-dependent, market, it is, as a pastime, an integral part of rural northern Michigan’s winter tourism economy, and outdoorsy culture.
Two of the big four snowmobile companies are folding up shop after this year. The economic headwinds contributing to industry uncertainty (for snowmobiles, and the larger powersports sector) are various.
Well-known brand Arctic Cat announced in December it would stop building new snowmobiles sometime in early 2025, citing soft consumer demand. Ironically, a snowy winter has given riders in Michigan more chances to ride the trails as manufacturers survey a changing landscape.
Two of the big four snowmobile companies are folding up shop after this year. The economic headwinds contributing to industry uncertainty (for snowmobiles, and the larger powersports sector) are various.
Well-known brand Arctic Cat announced in December it would stop building new snowmobiles sometime in early 2025, citing soft consumer demand. Ironically, a snowy winter has given riders in Michigan more chances to ride the trails as manufacturers survey a changing landscape.
"It cost us dearly." The legacy of Ann Arbor's Gelman plume
Marianne Martin has lived in the same house since 1972. She bought a home in Westover Hills, a small neighborhood in Scio Township just west of Ann Arbor, as a “challenge” for her and her newly retired father to work on.
“It was just perfect, and it was a fix-me-up house,” she said. “It was something I could afford to do little by little.”
But that neighborhood was irrevocably changed in 1986 when the county notified residents that their drinking well water was contaminated with a chemical known to cause liver issues from a plant across the road.
Gelman Sciences LLC, a medical filter manufacturer, had slowly dumped wastewater laced with 1,4-dioxane into the ground around its facility for almost 20 years before it was discovered.
The contaminant had traveled through groundwater underneath nearby homes and businesses. Over 120 drinking water wells in Scio Township had to be plugged or paved over. Martin’s was one of them.
“It was just perfect, and it was a fix-me-up house,” she said. “It was something I could afford to do little by little.”
But that neighborhood was irrevocably changed in 1986 when the county notified residents that their drinking well water was contaminated with a chemical known to cause liver issues from a plant across the road.
Gelman Sciences LLC, a medical filter manufacturer, had slowly dumped wastewater laced with 1,4-dioxane into the ground around its facility for almost 20 years before it was discovered.
The contaminant had traveled through groundwater underneath nearby homes and businesses. Over 120 drinking water wells in Scio Township had to be plugged or paved over. Martin’s was one of them.
Data centers in Michigan: What you need to know
You’ve probably heard alarming headlines: “Your AI searches are draining water supplies!” or “Data centers will make your electricity bills skyrocket!” Maybe you’ve heard the opposite: “Data centers will bring jobs and economic growth to Michigan!”
So what’s actually true?
If you’re feeling confused, you’re not alone. The data center boom is one of the fastest-moving infrastructure stories in the Great Lakes region, and it’s happening faster than most people — including many policymakers — realize.
This guide cuts through the noise.
We’ll answer the questions people are actually asking, fact-check common claims you’ve seen on social media, and help you understand both the real risks and the real opportunities that data centers bring to the Great Lakes.
Who this guide is for:
So what’s actually true?
If you’re feeling confused, you’re not alone. The data center boom is one of the fastest-moving infrastructure stories in the Great Lakes region, and it’s happening faster than most people — including many policymakers — realize.
This guide cuts through the noise.
We’ll answer the questions people are actually asking, fact-check common claims you’ve seen on social media, and help you understand both the real risks and the real opportunities that data centers bring to the Great Lakes.
Who this guide is for:
- Michigan residents hearing about data center proposals in their communities
- Anyone trying to understand what data centers mean for our water, energy, and climate
- People who want balanced information, not just hype or panic
- Advocates, policymakers, and journalists looking for accessible explanations
- What data centers actually are and why they’re booming in the Great Lakes
- The facts about water and energy use
- What’s happening in Michigan and across the region right now
- The potential economic benefits and immediate environmental concerns
- What can be done to develop data centers responsibly in the Great Lakes
Travel and legal tips for green card and visa holders
This story was originally published by Outlier Media.
President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement is instilling fear in many communities — including people with green cards and visas.
That’s in part due to reports of lawful permanent residents facing increased scrutiny at airports or even being wrongly deported without due process.
Over the past decade, arrests in Michigan and Ohio accounted for about 2% of nationwide arrests by federal immigration officials. In the past four years, more than half resulted in no criminal convictions or charges beyond immigration violations.
It’s not yet clear how those numbers will change under the Trump administration.
Your options for protection from detention and deportation are limited. But advocates and attorneys urge all immigrants to make safety plans for themselves and their families.
President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement is instilling fear in many communities — including people with green cards and visas.
That’s in part due to reports of lawful permanent residents facing increased scrutiny at airports or even being wrongly deported without due process.
Over the past decade, arrests in Michigan and Ohio accounted for about 2% of nationwide arrests by federal immigration officials. In the past four years, more than half resulted in no criminal convictions or charges beyond immigration violations.
It’s not yet clear how those numbers will change under the Trump administration.
Your options for protection from detention and deportation are limited. But advocates and attorneys urge all immigrants to make safety plans for themselves and their families.
A Northern MI township of 6,000 residents must pay $50 million in wineries lawsuit
A tiny township that juts into Grand Traverse Bay might have to sell assets like the well-known Mission Point Lighthouse - and make massive budget cuts. Residents could also be required to pay a special assessment to pay the judgment.
That's after eleven Peninsula Township wineries were awarded $50-million dollars in their lawsuit against the township.
Attorney Steve Ragatzki of the Miller Canfield law firm represents the wineries.
He said for many years, the township wouldn't let them host weddings and other events, conduct off-site catering, advertise wine tastings, or sell non-wine merchandise like branded t-shirts. They were also not allowed to make wine that includes more than 15% of non-township grown grapes.
Ragatzki said the restrictions were unfair and unlawful, and wineries had been asking for permits for decades from a succession of township zoning officers, to no avail.
That's after eleven Peninsula Township wineries were awarded $50-million dollars in their lawsuit against the township.
Attorney Steve Ragatzki of the Miller Canfield law firm represents the wineries.
He said for many years, the township wouldn't let them host weddings and other events, conduct off-site catering, advertise wine tastings, or sell non-wine merchandise like branded t-shirts. They were also not allowed to make wine that includes more than 15% of non-township grown grapes.
Ragatzki said the restrictions were unfair and unlawful, and wineries had been asking for permits for decades from a succession of township zoning officers, to no avail.
Henry Ford Health didn't publish a vaccine study. Was it "buried" or just "rejected science"?
In September, a U.S. Senate committee heard a shocking claim: that a study from Detroit’s Henry Ford Health System had found a significant connection between routine childhood vaccines and chronic health conditions.
That study was never published, and witnesses at the committee hearing said that was because Henry Ford hid it. That’s a claim the health system fiercely disputes. It says the study was deeply flawed, and never advanced to publication because it didn’t meet basic standards for scientific research.
But that hasn’t stopped anti-vaccine advocates from holding it up as definitive proof that vaccines do cause harm. It’s even the subject of a new documentary film that presents the study as evidence of an ongoing conspiracy to suppress any scientific findings showing that. It’s a claim that, again, Henry Ford and a number of other experts say is not only untrue, but part of a dangerous trend of bringing once-fringe beliefs about vaccines into the mainstream.
That study was never published, and witnesses at the committee hearing said that was because Henry Ford hid it. That’s a claim the health system fiercely disputes. It says the study was deeply flawed, and never advanced to publication because it didn’t meet basic standards for scientific research.
But that hasn’t stopped anti-vaccine advocates from holding it up as definitive proof that vaccines do cause harm. It’s even the subject of a new documentary film that presents the study as evidence of an ongoing conspiracy to suppress any scientific findings showing that. It’s a claim that, again, Henry Ford and a number of other experts say is not only untrue, but part of a dangerous trend of bringing once-fringe beliefs about vaccines into the mainstream.
Kent County foster care system facing "emergency" as state cuts funding for local oversight agency
Kent County is facing a “child welfare emergency” after the state cut off funds to the agency that’s been handling foster care cases for years, according to the judges that handle child abuse and neglect cases in the county.
The nonprofit agency, the West Michigan Partnership for Children, is also suing the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, arguing the funding cuts are illegal. WMPC’s complaint alleges MDHHS "ghosted" the agency, cutting it out of the process without notice, posing "enormous potential risk for children who are already in vulnerable and high-risk situations."
Sonia Noorman, who leads WMPC, said she only found out about the cuts after hearing from other agencies in the county, which are contracted to provide foster care services.
“We basically, through them, found out that they were told that we no longer have a contract, that they may no longer talk to us about children, and that (MDHHS) would be working with them to take over, you know, the administration of foster care,” Noorman said.
The nonprofit agency, the West Michigan Partnership for Children, is also suing the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, arguing the funding cuts are illegal. WMPC’s complaint alleges MDHHS "ghosted" the agency, cutting it out of the process without notice, posing "enormous potential risk for children who are already in vulnerable and high-risk situations."
Sonia Noorman, who leads WMPC, said she only found out about the cuts after hearing from other agencies in the county, which are contracted to provide foster care services.
“We basically, through them, found out that they were told that we no longer have a contract, that they may no longer talk to us about children, and that (MDHHS) would be working with them to take over, you know, the administration of foster care,” Noorman said.
In "The Gales of November," author John U. Bacon investigates the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald
When it launched in 1958, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest freighter on the Great Lakes. On Nov. 10, 1975, the massive ship went down in Lake Superior during a wild storm. All 29 of the crew members died. Now, nearly 50 years later, there are still questions about what happened in the final hours before the sinking.
The history of the Fitzgerald, the lives of the men who served on the ship, and the repercussions of that final voyage are the subject of the new book The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And the author is a voice that's very familiar to Michigan public listeners, John U. Bacon.
The history of the Fitzgerald, the lives of the men who served on the ship, and the repercussions of that final voyage are the subject of the new book The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And the author is a voice that's very familiar to Michigan public listeners, John U. Bacon.
