BENTON HARBOR WATER: Lead lines are gone, but clean water remains a luxury in Benton Harbor, where residents have been inundated with challenges facing their water system for years: Lead in pipes. Ineffective corrosion treatment. Threats of water shut-offs. Some relief is at hand, now that two years of construction and $45 million in federal aid have made it possible to replace most of the city’s lead lines. By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya. FOR ALL POINTS.
WILD RICE: Tribes across the state, including the Nottawaseppi Band of Huron Potawatomi in Kalamazoo County and the Bay Mills Indian Community in the U.P. are restoring beds of wild rice, a historically tribal staple grain once common in Michigan but wiped out by development. We talk to tribal experts and the author of a book on wild rice. Sponsors of a proposal to designate it as the official state grain include legislators from Traverse City, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Wyoming, Marquette, Detroit and Hamtramck. By Ashley Zhou. FOR BAY MILLS, MICHIGAN FARM NEWS, TRAVERSE CITY, SAULT STE. MARIE, PETOSKEY, MARQUETTE, HARBOR SPRINGS, STURGIS, IRON MOUNTAIN, THREE RIVERS AND ALL POINTS.
“This initiative has been in the works for a while because we’ve noticed as a county with such a diverse population and 16 % of the population identify as Asian we knew that the county needs to understand different traditions,” said Chowdhury.
Montgomery County, Maryland, has produced the nation’s first Hindu Handbook for healthcare providers to help learn more about Hindu and Jain patients. The handbook was created with the help of Ishani Chowdhury, who serves as the co-chair for the county’s Asian advisory committee.
The handbook was originally created by Queensland Health and has been adapted to use in the Montgomery County area. Within the handbook readers can find three sections: guidelines for health services, Hindu beliefs and additional resources.
Queensland Health Handbook edited for the state of Maryland
“In racial bias in medicine you’ll find that currently they’re saying that half the medical professionals believe that those who are Black have a higher pain threshold, ” said Shen, who serves as the Asian liaison for Montgomery County. To help with disparities in medicine the handbook serves a way to help those in the medical field understand the needs of those who are Hindu and Jain.
“For example if you are in the hospital and you’re vegetarian like my mother was when she was in the hospital in New York their answer was steamed broccoli and carrots or jello,” said Chowdhury.
The handbook lists the many options that are available as a food source as well as limitations. Jell-O is one of the foods that providers should avoid because of the collagen found in bones of a cow or pig.
The handbook lists the 14 different types of languages that are most commonly used by Hindus in Maryland and how to contact an interpreter if necessary.
Chowdhury and Shen have reached out to numerous organizations to spread the word about the handbook.
RENAMING: The Department of Natural Resources is taking the final step to eliminate an offensive term for Native American women from the name of a boat launch in Oakland County. DNR’s Parks and Recreation Division is removing the word “squaw” from the name of the boat launch in Oxford Township. It will be called the Paint Lake DNR Boat Launch. We talk to the department and the executive director of the United Tribes of Michigan. By Ashley Zhou. FOR DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.
FREE SWIM LESSONS: Free swimming lessons for children in Southeast Michigan are part of a larger effort to reduce drownings in the Great Lakes. There have been 15 so far this year and 1,170 since 2010. Inconsistent red flag warnings such as those at state and local beaches on Lake Michigan also confuse swimmers about whether water conditions are unsafe. We talk with the founders of the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, a swim instructor, a DNR expert and a woman whose grandchildren are taking lessons in Howell. By Ashley Zhou. FOR DETROIT, FOWLERVILLE, HOLLAND, PLANET DETROIT, WKTV, MANISTEE, OCEANA COUNTY, BENZIE COUNTY, LEELANAU, TRAVERSE CITY, PETOSKEY, HARBOR SPRINGS, CHEBOYGAN, LUDINGTON AND ALL POINTS.
LEARNING AFTER COVID: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants more tutors to help students catch up after the pandemic but some advocates question whether that’s enough. More help for mental health is also required, they say. We talk to a Kalamazoo parent, a teacher at Detroit Virtual School and the Michigan Education Justice Coalition. By JADEN BEARD. FOR DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.
HIGH SPEED RAIL: Plans for high-speed rail connecting Detroit and Ann Arbor to Traverse City and Petoskey are chugging along. A Traverse City nonprofit is studying the possibility of using existing freight lines for passenger travel, a necessary step in the process. Some say the Democratic majority in the Legislature could help and signs indicate the Whitmer administration is on board. By Andrew Roth. FOR DETROIT, TRAVERSE CITY, PETOSKEY AND BUSINESS AND NEWS PAGES OF ALL POINTS.
Black Celebratory is a ceremony focused around Michigan State University’s Black students accomplishment of successfully completing an undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral degree from Michigan State University.
After weeks of seeing negative and hurtful comments on walls throughout the school, Bath High School students covered them with kind words.
The Chalkboard Project took over the walls of Bath High School in March, a project where students and teachers posed holding a chalkboard of a slur, offensive or rude comment directed at them. On April 3, those words were covered with kind, encouraging and helpful words to bury the effects of bullying and bring kindness to campus.
INCARCERATION: Michigan’s correction budget remains high, even though the prison population has dropped from 52,000 in 2007 to 33,000 in 2021. We speak with prison officials, a prisoner advocacy organization and a state budget analyst. By Maggie George. FOR ALL POINTS
