Ron French | Bridge Michigan

The hearing on Michigan’s tribal boarding schools included accounts of physical and sexual abuse, including at a school in Harbor Springs that was open as recently as 1983. Some tribal leaders urged state funding for mental health and substance use disorder.

Bridge Michigan obtained a copy of the report which was commissioned by the state, then not released publicly. A House committee plans to have a hearing on the report next week.

Michigan’s Native American boarding schools were known for physical and sexual abuse. The last to close was in 1983, in Harbor Springs. A state study to document those abuses is finished but won’t be released to the public.

Traffic fatalities on Michigan roads have increased since the pandemic. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently launched a commission to lower traffic deaths by 30%

Stress over weather and markets to sell their products has endangered family farms. And now, state funding for farmer mental health counseling is gone — not among the items renewed in this year’s budget.

Michigan counties, townships and cities will split about $725 million in opioid settlement funds over 18 years, with communities harder hit by the opioid crisis receiving more money per capita.