Changing Gears

The Oprah bounce. Many small business owners have felt the boost when their product makes Oprah's Favorite Things list.

Feeling the bounce from the Oprah Winfrey Show

This week marks the last we’ll be seeing of new broadcasts of the Oprah Winfrey Show.I’m someone who basically has grown up with the show (to be exact,…

The Toyota North American Quality Advisory Panel found Toyota paid less heed to problems reported by its customers, regulators and outside experts, than it did to those inside the company.

Give Americans more authority, Toyota told

Toyota’s reputation for quality suffered a significant blow the past two years in the wake of millions of recalls.Now, a blue-ribbon panel of outsiders…

Zachariah, left, and Craig Boyd, Saturday morning regulars at Gary Public Libary's main branch.

Politics & Government

Across the region, shutting the local library

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/michigan/local-michigan-968206.mp3What happens when your local library shuts its doors? That’s a…

Hard to Count: The Barbara in Southwest Detroit

Politics & Government

Detroit census challenge

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/michigan/local-michigan-966621.mp3Imagine trying to prove that thousands of people exist, when you…

McDonald's hopes to hire thousands of new workers.

McDonald's "National Hiring Day" is tomorrow

"Would you like some fries with that?"That’s the phrase many are perfecting for McDonald's National Hiring Day tomorrow. Many of the McDonald’s jobs will…

Part of Streetsboro, Ohio's current zoning map - separate colors for separate uses. The city is working on doing away with these blocks of color, and trying to mix more uses - a method called "form-based" code.

Politics & Government

Zoning out: Cities rewrite codes to transform their look

Zoning is the DNA of a community: it controls how you live, shop, and work.After nearly a century of many cities separating those uses, now, they’re going…

Donald Betlem bought this home for $5,000 in 2008. He had to convince Detroit it wasn't worth ten times as much.

Local governments face more losses as cases pile up in tax courts

Property values have plummeted across the region.That means cities and towns have watched their tax revenue plunge as well. But many homeowners and…

Strikers guarding window entrance to Fisher body plant number three. Flint, Michigan - 1937.

Politics & Government

Are today's protests in Wisconsin similar to Flint's sit down strikes?

Are the Wisconsin protests becoming public employees’ equivalent of the Sit Down Strike in Flint, Michigan?Professor Steven Ashby at the University of…

Is Right-to-Work next?

The labor battle seizing the Midwest right now is focused on the collective bargaining rights of public sector employees. But the fight over breaking…

Second year nursing students Travis Pierce, Shelby Feldpausch, Staci Pierson (kneeling), Jennifer Meaton, Ashley Neybert and Jamie Hill. And of course, Mr. Pointer, center.

Health

High-tech dummies help educate health care students (Part 2)

The country is facing a nursing shortage, but schools in our region can’t keep up with the demand for nursing education.As we reported in our first story,…