Michigan teachers' performance in the classroom would play a bigger role in the amount they get in their paychecks under a proposal being debated in the Republican-controlled state House.

The House Education Committee recently took up a bill that would make teacher job performance the primary factor in determining pay. It would render meaningless the number of years on the job and some advanced degrees.

Supporters argue that rewarding teachers who perform better and moving away from a system that rewards seniority will improve teachers and benefit students.

For the full article, see Alanna Durkin, "Michigan lawmakers debate teacher performance pay", Detroit News, May 12, 2013.

John Schneider, An elderly mother, the car keys and a conundrum for countless Michigan families : A new law recently slipped, below the radar, into a parking spot on Michigan’s books. It allows doctors to directly notify the Secretary of State’s Office if they believe the medical condition of their patients makes them unfit to drive. While the law presumably applies to people of all ages, its primary targets are elderly drivers....A threat to the mobility of senior citizens? A godsend to those who fear for the safety of the elderly drivers in their families (not mention the people who share the roads with them)? Well, as always, it depends on whose ox is being gored....Relinquishing the car keys is one of late-life’s most traumatic moments. After all, we don’t usually lose the ability to drive safely all at once. It happens the way these losses generally happen — in small increments, over a period of years. Who’s to say when a little absentmindedness, a little slowing of the reflexes, turns into a traffic hazard?

Helen Taylor, In Michigan, we celebrate - and ignore - nature's rhythms of change : I have had countless conversations with Michiganders who talk about their special places, the beauty of those places in the changing seasons and both the subtle and extraordinary dynamics of the places they love....So why in the world do we, society, seem to forget all this when it comes to planning and managing our natural resources? Extraordinary amounts of money are spent in an attempt to harness and control nature to assure no change — or our planning is designed as if there won’t be any change. Yet, science will tell you that the one thing we can count on is change; in fact, the name of the game is to plan for variability and optimize our ability to adapt to change.

Marianne Udow-Phillips, Oregon Medicaid study shows value of investment in mental health : Recent reports about a Medicaid experiment in Oregon reveal a major disconnect we have in the health care world: we make a historic — and unwarranted — distinction between “physical health” and “mental health.” Worse, that distinction actually interferes with both our investment in mental health treatment and patients’ willingness to seek treatment.

Bridge photo gallery: Tight lines, everybody

On May 12, 1891, Detroit barbers raised the price for a shave from 10 to 15 cents.

Source : Detroit Historical Society Facebook page

On this day in 1781, the Chippewa Indians sold Mackinac Island to the British for five-thousand pounds...

Deed to Mackinac Island; Chippewa Chief to George III [Mackinac Island], May 12, 1781, Native American History at the Clements Library, University of Michigan.

The Quarto, 1st Series, No. 37, February 1957, contains an article "Mackinac Island Deed is returned to Michigan" telling an interesting tale of how one of two copies of the original deed was purchased from a book dealer in Scotland for the Bentley Library. The other copy is available in the Dominion Archives in Ottawa, Canada.

High-level talks over fixing Michigan’s deteriorating roads are at a standstill in the Capitol, with Republican and Democratic leaders still unable to agree much on how to even start.

Feeling burned by passage of a right-to-work law five months ago, Democrats won’t consider tax or fee increases without public assurances that GOP Gov. Rick Snyder will veto other legislation seen as damaging to their cause. Specifically, they want a repeal of a law guaranteeing better wages on government construction projects taken off the table, along with a potential bill dividing the state’s electoral votes proportionally.

Majority Republicans counter that Democrats must move beyond making demands and put forth their own road-funding proposals.

Neither side appears to be budging.

For the full article, see David Eggert, "Michigan road funding talks still at standstill", Lansing State Journal, May 11, 2013.