For five years, the Hidden Kalamazoo tour offered a different take on the history of the city’s downtown. It took people to storage areas, to basements and old apartments. They weren’t traditional historic sites, but they offered clues about how life has changed over the last 150 years.

After an internal competition at Western Michigan University, the best ideas were sent on to the National Science Foundation. WMU has three of the 33 nationwide entries in the NSF’s 2026 Idea Machine. Those ideas include #WhyNotMe: Stem Diversity Drivers from Western’s Vice President for Research, Terry Goss Kinzy, who is also Professor of Biological Sciences, and the Director of Research at WMU’s Evaluation Center Lori Wingate. The STEM Teaching and Learning Incubator from Western Geography and

Equality Michigan Executive Director Erin Knott says 2020 will be an important election year for equality of LGBTQ people as well as other issues. She says it’s important to mobilize people and talk about “issues that matter.” Knott is also Kalamazoo’s Vice Mayor, she was named Executive Director of Equality Michigan in May. Knott had been leading the LGBTQ advocacy organization since late last year on an interim basis.

A new exhibit on the history of baseball in Paw Paw includes bats, balls, scorecards and other items. Village Council President Roman Plaszczak says former major league all-star Charlie Maxwell has donated bats, gloves and one of the uniforms he wore for the Detroit Tigers. Maxwell will be the special guest for the opening of the exhibit on Sunday June 9th from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Carnegie Center in Paw Paw. Maxwell played 14 years in the majors, including six full seasons, and parts of two

Webb Miller was trying to get a story when he became the news himself.

Today, the Ladies' Library Association building, a two-story, red brickfaced structure , seems a natural part of the landscape at 333 S. Park St., at the corner of Park and Lovell streets, behind the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre and near Bronson Park in downtown Kalamazoo. But, it took an act of legislation from the Michigan State Legislature in order for the group to construct it. Why? Women didn't have the rights they have now when it was built in the late 1870s.

Author James Carl Nelson says as World War I was winding down on November 11, 1918, fighting in northern Russia was getting more intense. He says it was frustrating for American troops who wondered what their mission was. Nelson’s book is called The Polar Bear Expedition: The Heroes of America’s Forgotten Invasion of Russia, 1918-1919. He tells the story of men, most of them from Michigan and Wisconsin, and their strange trip from what was then called Camp Custer near Battle Creek to Russia, 600

Tim Bartik says employers should go beyond thinking of job training as a one-time program. The Senior Economist for the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research says if workers can stay on the job, companies won’t have to take on as many costs that come with job turnover. Bartik and Senior Researcher Michelle Miller-Adams are two of the authors of the Upjohn Institute’s report called Building Shared Prosperity: How Communities Can Create Good Jobs for All. Bartik says job coaches can help find

Remember the late celebrated astrophysicist Carl Sagan? An interesting tie exists between science phenom Neil deGrasse Tyson and him besides both having hosted the popular "Cosmos" show begun by Sagan. It's that Tyson met Sagan as a teenager. In fact, Sagan personally invited Tyson to visit Cornell University to convince him to enroll there. Sagan met Tyson in his professor's office on a Saturday, gave him a campus tour, then gifted him one of his books with a foretelling inscription: "To Neil

Kalamazoo Schools Superintendent Michael Rice says despite many “headwinds” the Kalamazoo district has been able to increase graduation rates. Rice says those challenges have included a reduction in “inflation adjusted funding” and a more difficult Michigan Merit Curriculum. Rice says it’s hard to know how much the increase in graduation rates is due to the Kalamazoo Promise, but he says it is a factor. Rice has been Kalamazoo Superintendent for the last 12 years, but he will soon become state