When Kalamazoo Schools Superintendent Michael Rice takes on the job of State Superintendent he will tasked with the job of improving education in the state. Western Michigan University Professor of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology Brett Geier says Rice is up to the challenge. Geier was a teacher, principal and Superintendent of Bloomingdale Public Schools, before he became a professor. He says Rice is very intelligent, a good listener and understands the challenges and dynamics of

Jud Hoff says watching kids play baseball in the Miracle League you can see the “Joy and glee on their faces.” He wants to bring a new field and the opportunity for disabled kids to play baseball to Southwest Michigan. Hoff is one of the owners of the Dome Sports Center in Schoolcraft, and president of the board of the Southwest Michigan Miracle League . A $1.1-million fundraising campaign is starting to bring a custom designed field in Schoolcraft. It will allow young people with disabilities

South Haven is now called “the blueberry capital of the world.” Tom Renner says in the early 1900’s, the town was known for growing pears. In the 1950’s he says it was peaches. Renner says agriculture has been an important part of South Haven over the last 150 years. A celebration to mark South Haven’s incorporation as a township is being held Friday May 10th at Stanley Johnston Park. It will include free food, entertainment and activities for children. Renner is a member of the Sesquicentennial

When Tunde Wey makes you a meal, he wants you to enjoy the food, of course. What is less usual is that the New Orleans-based chef also wants his diners to think about power, who has it, who does not and how to change the status quo. And now Wey has a plan for lowering Kalamazoo’s persistently high rate of black infant mortality.

A new conference exploring African-American mental health issues opens on Thursday, May 2 in Kalamazoo. Maternal and infant health expert Dr. Arthur James is one of the two keynote speakers at the daylong Breaking the Stigma: African-American Mental Health Symposium . He specializes in the role of race in health disparities, especially black infant mortality.

The Kids Count in Michigan Project Director for the Michigan League for Public Policy says this year’s report on child well-being in the state is a mixed bag. Alicia Guevara Warren says fewer children are living in poverty, but the overall number is still high. Guevara Warren says younger kids and minority children are more likely to be living in poverty, and she says there are troubling numbers in terms of education and abuse and neglect.

Bridge Senior Writer Ron French says the odds that a shooting will happen at any one school are astronomically low, but he says schools still have to spend time and money preparing for an active shooter in their building. Bridge examined what districts across Michigan are doing to make buildings more secure and the drills in case of an active shooter. French says that even though the costs of school security keep rising there is little agreement about best safety practices. He says there are a

Western Michigan University History Professor David Benac says the solutions to climate change have to be innovative and big. He says Earth Day is a good time to think about the future of communities and neighborhoods. Benac says every great change in the country was thought to be impossible “until people made it happen.” Kalamazoo’s Earth Day celebration will run from noon until 5:00p.m. on Saturday April 20th in Bronson Park.

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

Sterling Riethman, 26, says she had been an ardent watcher of NBC's "Law & Order: Sexual Victims Unit," and felt certain she could recognize sexual assault if it happened to her. But it wasn't so, she tells WMUK's Earlene McMichael. Riethman says sports doctor Larry Nassar abused her in his office without her knowledge. "I had this assumption that, if you were a victim of sexual assault, it would happen in dark alleys and you would be caught off-guard and you would walk away with bruises and