| October 5, 2021 
 Immigrants are helping buoy Michigan from population decline as the state struggles to add new residents. The 2020 census placed Michigan near dead last in the country for population growth during the last decade, enough to lose a seat in Congress. Experts say Michigan desperately needs to add residents to prevent an erosion of political power and economic growth, which makes adding new immigrants an attractive solution to stave off population declines. “We are on a line towards lower native-born population growth, and immigration is going to be the variable that determines whether we grow at all or how quickly we decline,” said Kenan Fikri, a researcher at the Economic Innovation Group who studies the effects of population decline. CONTINUE READING ►'The broken family we became:' Michigan siblings cope with deportation of both parents  Job levels in Michigan have rebounded to 93% of pre-pandemic levels – after Michigan shed nearly a quarter of its jobs in April 2020. Most industries are close to 100% recovered, like construction (99.8%), financial (98.2%) and professional/business (96.3%). But there’s an outlier: Leisure and hospitality jobs. Despite gains throughout the summer, leisure and hospitality jobs are only 81.6% recovered – by far the worst of all major industries. As of August, the industry had about 354,000 employees in Michigan, about 80,000 fewer than pre-pandemic. READ MORE  The Michigan redistricting commission’s initial attempts at drawing state House and Senate political district maps would skew considerably Republican as is, although their current Congressional mapping efforts are largely in line with partisan fairness expectations, an expert analysis concluded. During its Friday meeting, the 13-member panel made up of four Democrats, four Republicans and five Independents heard from consultant Lisa Handley on the partisan fairness of their initial statewide House, Senate and Congressional maps based on a composite of voting patterns in 13 statewide elections held over the last decade. READ MORE  There were many great things that happened for the Tigers this season. But the team still finished eight games under .500. They missed the playoffs by 15 games. They’re going home at the beginning of October, rather than playing until through the end of the month. “I’m very grateful for the players and for the opportunity here and ultimately the season was progress,” Hinch said. “But I’m never going to celebrate too much, because we’re going home. Tigers outfielder Robbie Grossman said he made that point to teammates: This is not when the season is supposed to end. READ MORE ►Tigers' Matt Manning finishes 2021 with a flourish, and states case for 2022 rotation spot  Fishtown’s historic Otherside Shanty got some help from a big crane and moving crew recently. It was lifted back into place - and onto its new foundation - after being pummeled by high water levels the last few years. Now there’s hope that this old storage shanty - its core dating back to the early 1900s - can resume its life next season as a sought-after vacation rental along the Leland River. The work to lift the Otherside and a few other shanties in Fishtown is part of a years-long project to save some of the endangered buildings in this tourist and shopping destination at the edge of Leland, where the river flows into Lake Michigan. READ MORE
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