Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative

The Michigan Department of Corrections has announced a $10,000-a-year hike in starting pay at five Upper Peninsula prisons. U.P. prisons house about a fourth of the state’s inmates but record nearly three-fourths of assaults on prison staff.

Throughout northern Michigan, some residents’ homes remain inundated after last month’s historic flooding, while others struggle to find a way to clean up and try to return to normal.

Grape growers are planting hybrid grapes that can withstand colder temperatures, irrigating their vines rather than relying on natural rainfall and turning to new strategies to ensure healthy soil.

Michigan’s neighbor Wisconsin is often cited as an example of how to fix prison staffing challenges. Outrage over staffing levels led to efforts to recruit more staff and raise pay.

All of Michigan's prisons have seen vacancies but in no part of the state is it worse than the Upper Peninsula, with high assaults, open positions and thinning ranks.

After their father was detained at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, two sisters from Grand Rapids committed to helping other detainees.

Mesick schools pulled screens from elementary classrooms to boost literacy scores. Some experts say there are risks that students could fall behind in the digital age.

Our review of complaints and records shows contractors were allowed to keep working long after authorities had credible evidence of their deception.

Mexican drug cartels are shipping purer forms of meth into rural Michigan, replacing the drugs that were once made in home labs and full of impurities, police and lab testing data shows.

Ice caves are forming along the lakeshore as Michigan experiences its coldest and snowiest winter in a few years. And while the caves attract attention, they can also be dangerous, especially as temperatures start to warm up.