Week 8 – 3/17/23
CNS Budget
To: CNS Editors
From: Eric Freedman and Judy Putnam
http://news.jrn.msu.edu/capitalnewsservice/
Welcome to the 8th CNS file of the spring 2023 semester.
For technical problems, contact CNS technical manager Eryn Ho at (616) 485-9295,
For other matters, contact Eric Freedman at (517) 256-3873; freedma5@msu.edu.
CONGRATULATIONS CNS CORRESPONDENTS. Current and recent CNS correspondents have won awards in the Michigan Press Association’s College Best Newspaper Contest: Morgan Womack, Dan Netter, Lindsay McCoy, Tia Postema, Jack Falinski, Andrew Roth, Cameryn Cass and Elaine Mallon.
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CONGRATULATIONS CNS PAPERS: By my count, 15 CNS member newspapers plus partners Great Lakes Echo and Bridge Michigan won awards from the MPA’s Newspaper Contest.
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MICHIGAN HALL OF FAME REMINDER: The induction dinner will take place on Sunday, April 23, starting at 5 at MSU’s Kellogg Center. The inductees are former MSU Journalism School director Lucinda Davenport; Lansing community broadcast journalist Sheri Jones; trailblazing journalist Louise Ruth Mahon Leismer; multimedia entertainment journalist Jim McFarlin; editor and professor Walter Middlebrook; and longtime Detroit Free Press journalist Patricia Montemurri. Early registration if you RSVP by April 1. Deadline to RSVP is April 18. For information, call Betsy DeSantis at (517)-353-6431. Register and pay online at mijournalismfalloffame.org.
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NEW CNS LOGO: Editors, here is a new Capital News Service logo. You are free to use in print and online. Credit: Asher Freedman
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Here’s your file:
DISABILITY COMPLAINTS: Disability discrimination complaints to the Department of Civil Rights now outpace complaints based on race. The department wants to ramp up its enforcement of legal protections and increase public education and awareness. The governor wants the Legislature to provide more money to do so. We talk to the executive director of the department, its head of special projects, and an advocate in Rochester. By Jack Timothy Harrison. FOR LANSING CITY PULSE, DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.
w/DISABILITY COMPLAINT TABLE: Number of complaints filed from Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022 by category. Source: Department of Civil Rights
w/DISABILITY COMPLAINTS PHOTO1: Director John Johnson Jr. of the Department of Civil Rights. Credit: State of Michigan
w/DISABILITY COMPLAINTS PHOTO2: Jenny Brown, CEO of Dutton Farm, with her sister, Rebecca ‘Becca’ Smither. Credit: Jenny Brown
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HIGHWAYS: Downtown Detroit’s I-375 Reconnecting Communities project highlights the question of how to reunite parts of Michigan communities where major highway projects destroyed urban, generally minority, neighborhoods. That project, the first in Michigan, is already on the planning board, but there’s interest in a similar project with I-475 in Flint. By Sophia Brandt. FOR PLANET DETROIT, DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.
w/HIGHWAYS PHOTO 1: The I-375 Reconnecting Communities project acknowledges the 1960s construction that destroyed Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood. Credit: Michigan Department of Transportation.
w/HIGHWAYS PHOTO 2: Credit: Michigan Department of Transportation.
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HATE GROUPS: Michigan ranks 4th among the states in the amount of hate literature distributed by white supremacist groups. Two national anti-hate organizations are tracking the disturbing trend. A U-M counterterrorism expert discussed. By Dan Netter. FOR LANSING CITY PULSE, DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.
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OPIOID: The Department of Health & Human Services is promoting a new app intended to help the public prevent and reverse opioid overdoses. We also hear from the head of a State Police program that combats opioid misuse. By Jaden Beard. FOR DETROIT, LANSING CITY PULSE AND ALL POINTS.
w/OPIOID PHOTO: OpiRescue app. Credit: OpiSafe
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WILDFLOWERS: The Wildflower Association of Michigan has awarded almost $15,000 for local projects promoting the use of more native plants. Recipients include Friends of the St. Clair River in St. Clair, Little Traverse Conservancy based in Harbor Springs and nonprofit groups and local agencies in the Upper Peninsula, Metro Detroit and Montcalm, Kalamazoo and Ottawa counties. Reference to Michigan Wildflower Farm in Portage. By Morgan Womack. FOR IRON MOUNTAIN, MARQUETTE, PETOSKEY, HARBOR SPRINGS, CHEBOYGAN, WKTV, STURGIS, THREE RIVERS, HOLLAND, MICHIGAN FARM NEWS, SAULT STE. MARIE, ST. IGNACE, PLANET DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.
w/WILDFLOWERS PHOTO: Volunteers from Friends of the St. Clair River, based in St. Clair, organize seeds for a native plants project. Credit: Friends of the St. Clair River
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MOBILITY ADVANCEMENT: It’s hard for many Michigan adults and children without transportation to get to medical appointments and social services. Some local transit agencies are helping out, including ones in Saginaw, Traverse City, Metro Detroit, Flint, Muskegon and Grand Rapids. To better recruit and retain workers, employers can cover employee bus fares by depositing money in their “mobility wallets.” We hear from MDOT leaders. By Maggie George. FOR GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS, WKTV, TRAVERSE CITY, LEELANAU, DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.
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GREEN CEMETERIES: More communities are considering green burials as part of a trend in using cemeteries as multi-functional urban open spaces that are valuable to ecosystems and to passive recreation. Fourteen green cemeteries are already established in Michigan in Chassell in Houghton County, Clinton Township, Eagle Harbor, Houghton Township, Houghton, Roseville, Milan, Wyandotte, Muskegon, Marquette, Traverse City, Grandville, Waterford and Muskegon with talks underway in Williamstown and Meridian Townships. An Ann Arbor architect explains. By Andrew Roth. FOR PLANET DETROIT, LANSING, MARQUETTE, MONROE, GRAND RAPIDS, TRAVERSE CITY AND ALL POINTS.
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GAMING: Microsoft has rolled out new Xbox designs that help users save energy, depending on when they use it. The goal is to reduce harmful carbon emissions into the atmosphere. For news and features sections. By Samuel Batchford. FOR ALL POINTS.
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ARTS AND SCRAPS: A Detroit group blends art and science while diverting materials from landfills and teaching kids about the environment. It also promotes the 4Rs – reuse, reduce, recycle and refuse. We talk to the executive director and a former classroom teacher who leads projects at the Arts and Scraps nonprofit. By Genevieve Fox. FOR PLANET DETROIT, DETROIT, GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS, CORP! AND ALL POINTS.
w/ARTS AND SCRAPS FRIENDS PHOTO: Students hold up their art models they made in Friends of the Earth class. Credit: Arts and Scraps
w/ARTS AND SCRAPS KIDS PHOTO: Kids create art from pre-packaged kits that include a variety of materials. Credit: Arts and Scraps
w/ARTS AND SCRAPS MOBILE PHOTO: Arts and Scraps Mobile travels to schools throughout Michigan where students can fill a bag with materials to create art pieces. Credit: Arts and Scraps.
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MAGNET MAN: Magnet fishing is catching on as a little-recognized recreational opportunity and we talk to practitioners, including an MSU student who talk about some of the weird things they retrieve, from abandoned laptops to historic condom cases to guns to bikes galore. They also explain the environmental benefits of removing contaminated material from Michigan rivers, including the Cass, Rouge, Detroit and Red Cedar, as well as rivers in Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Saginaw, Battle Creek and Kalamazoo and in Lake Erie. By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya. FOR WKTV, PLANET DETROIT, LANSING CITY PULSE, MONROE, DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.
w/MAGNET MAN PHOTO:These porcelain license plates were retrieved from the Grand River in Lansing. Credit: Tanner Torrez
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CNS