The issues surrounding adoption and foster care are often in the news, but one part of the story is rarely told. That is the problem of foster kids aging out of the system.  Never adopted, they age out of the system and onto the streets.

The State has programs designed to help them into adulthood, but we can’t hide from the fact that the real world can be a minefield of potential missteps and bad company. Kate Hanley, director the Michigan Department of Human Service’s foster care permanency program, describes the number of those aging out “is a crisis” in Michigan. When asked what her thoughts are when a youth ages out, she doesn’t hide her feelings. “It scares me,” she says.

There are no solid numbers on those who eventually wind up in the corrections system, but she cites anecdotal evidence that has suggested up to half of those in a given group of inmates came from foster care.

...

Our obesity problem in Michigan, despite all the efforts to fight it, continues. Another recent study says Michigan is the seventh most obese state in the nation. We eat too much of the wrong things and are not active enough, according to critics.

Why can’t Michigan turn things around, when a state like Colorado is the slimmest state? I certainly can’t nail it down, but the answer has to start at home, where we have our first, and most important, lessons in eating and activity.

Parents have to get the message that even if they never talk to their kids about eating, they’re giving lessons by example. Policymakers don’t seem to like to get in the faces of parents, maybe because parents are the voters in the family.

...

When state lawmakers approved a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants (save for casinos, cigar bars, tobacco establishments), not much was said about the hookah bars that have popped up around the state.

Hookah bars, which are not specifically referenced in the law, offer communal water pipe smoking of flavored tobacco, and many offer food and drink as well.

The new law does not outlaw the bars, but it does force them into a decision (according to a reading of the bill at this printing).  They have to be either a tobacco specialty establishment (which is an accepted exemption in the law), or a bar or restaurant.  Not both.

...

While you don’t hear much criticism of term limits outside of the Michigan Capitol loop, it continues to rage among those on the inside, ranging from lawmakers to staff to lobbyists. Most raise the issue of leadership, which the critics say has been lacking since voters imposed constitutional limits on lawmakers’ terms.

But Small Business Association lobbyist David Palsrok (a former legislator) sees a different problem. He says it’s created a huge number of lawmakers who always seem to be seeking higher office, which he says has become a “major problem.”

For example, lawmakers are spending too much time competing with one another, including those from the same party, and that has led to poor public policy decisions, or else gridlock.

While some have said term limits can be eased if there’s a strong statewide ballot proposal effort, Palsrok isn’t so sure. He notes that as things get worse from a public policy standpoint, voters won’t want to vote for anything that seems to reward legislators.  As a result he says, it appears  “term limits will be around for the foreseeable future.”

...

As reported previously, Michigan has been charged with not properly providing a system that allows for effective legal counsel for defendants who don’t have the means to hire a lawyer.

A report issued last year says the state has failed to provide adequate defense services, in part because it forces counties to fund it, and in part because the state doesn’t have a statewide oversight and supervisory system.

So, some legislators are supporting legislation creating a Michigan Public Defense Act, to “provide effective and efficient, high quality, ethical, conflict-free representation” to defendants who can’t afford an attorney.

Under this system, the cost would fall on the State of Michigan. While there’s no specific cost analysis yet, it’s clear it won’t be cheap, and taxpayers will have to pay.

But supporters believe that it will lead to fewer sentencing errors, and fewer cases of wrongful conviction and imprisonment.  And that, they believe, will save money.

...

Look up  “hospital errors” on the Internet and you’ll bring up lawyers ready to represent you if you or a family member has become a victim of a hospital mistake. And indeed, ten years ago in Michigan was a perfect setting for lawsuits, as Michigan was among the more likely places you’d be victimized in a hospital.

Surgical-site infections, mislabeling of specimens, wrong-site surgery, sponges left inside, you name it. They caused everything from mere nuisance, to death. Up to 100,000 deaths nationwide were estimated in 1999 because of mistakes.

But things have changed.

Michigan has been cited nationally and even internationally as making great strides toward eliminating preventable hospital errors.

The Michigan Health and Hospital Association (MHHA) has led the way with the MHHA Keystone project, which has targeted the mistakes with new policies, procedures and actually a new culture when it comes to preventing errors.

They’ve significantly reduced all types of errors such as ventilator-associated pneumonia and blood infections, according to Brian Peters of the MHHA.

Peters says they’re not only lowering the mortality rates from preventable mistakes, they’re saving money in the healthcare system. One recent report said the effort to improve angioplasty outcomes reduced both complications and death, and saved$15 million to boot.

The task now is to keep the momentum going, which won’t be easy during a down economy.

...

Michigan is unique in a lot of ways and here are two: We’re the only state that virtually prohibits lawsuits against drug makers if the drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

And we’re also the only state that guarantees 100 percent of a person’s injuries in an auto crash be covered.

Democrats are trying to throw out the former and Republicans are trying to throw out the latter—and both parties have made little progress in their efforts.

		Rob Baykian is director of news and operations at the 67-station Michigan Radio Network. He has been covering the Capitol since 1981.