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Grand Rapids, MI – Two rounds of winter weather are expected to impact West and Central Michigan this week, beginning with lake-effect snow near Lake Michigan through Thursday, followed by snow spreading inland Friday into Saturday, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.

Forecasters said lake-effect snow will remain concentrated near the Lake Michigan shoreline through Thursday, with the highest totals expected in Ludington and South Haven, where snowfall may exceed 6 inches by Thursday evening. Other lakeshore communities, including Muskegon and Holland, may also see periods of heavier snow.

Farther inland, snowfall will be lighter through Thursday, but conditions are expected to change heading into the weekend. The National Weather Service reported that snow will push inland on Friday and continue into Saturday, bringing accumulating snow to Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, and surrounding areas.

While inland totals are expected to be lower than along the lakeshore, multiple rounds of snow may lead to slick roads and slower travel, particularly during commute hours Friday and Saturday. Snowfall amounts will vary by location, with sharper gradients near the edge of lake-effect bands.

Drivers are urged to remain cautious, especially along U.S. 31, I-96, and I-196, where conditions may deteriorate quickly during heavier snow bursts. Visibility reductions are possible during lake-effect bands near the lakeshore.

This pattern may be especially relevant for commuters, delivery drivers, and weekend travelers across West Michigan as snow coverage expands inland.

Residents are encouraged to monitor updates from the National Weather Service as snowfall placement and totals become more refined later this week.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Carli Snyder leapt in the air, took a powerful swing and smashed the volleyball inside the far corner of the court, sending the crowd into a frenzy and the outside hitter to her knees in celebration.

In front of a 6,147 fans at Van Andel Arena, Snyder delivered the final kill in the Grand Rapids Rise’s 3-2 comeback win over the Columbus Fury in Wednesday’s home opener.

PHOTOS: See our gallery from the Rise’s 2026 home opener

“I was like, ‘I’m going to score this point,’” Snyder said of her approach at the end. “We needed this game to be put away. We needed to take a risk, and we said in the timeout at 14-12, ‘We have two points. We don’t want to get hesitant. We don’t want to tip a ball. We don’t want to play it safe. We have two points to rip it, and so we’re going to do that.”

“From a personal standpoint, it’s nice to get a kill, but from a team standpoint, I’m just so happy to get the win,” Snyder added. “So, to do that at the end of the game, I just really wanted to show up for my team.”

Columbus had the upper hand early, winning the first set 25-23, before the Rise responded with a 25-17 victory in the second.

The visitors led for much of the third set and pulled away with a 25-19 win, putting Grand Rapids in must-win mode in the fourth.

The Rise played well with the game on the line, building a 24-17 lead, but Columbus went on a 4-0 run to make it a 24-21 game, before Grand Rapids put it away with a kill from middle blocker Rhamat Alhassan.

The Fury’s strong finish carried over to the fifth set, as Columbus opened with four consecutive points in the first-to-15 contest.

“It’s hard not to get frustrated being down by four in a fifth set, when it’s so short,” Rise setter Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres said. “We kind of just talked about passing the ball because that’s kind of where we were struggling, so we just wanted one pass, one set, one swing, and our hitters really wanted to take care of the balls, and we kind of emphasized that.

“We struggled to close out the fourth set, and so going into the fifth, we kind of wanted them to take care of their job, too, so it was kind of a team effort all around, but really taking care of the small things and each other’s jobs.”

The Rise eventually tied the score at 9 and took their first lead at 12-11 on a Snyder cross-court kill that brought he crowd to its feet and forced a Fury timeout.

Grand Rapids increased its advantage to 13-11, and though Columbus cut its deficit to 13-12, the Rise took the final two points on kills from Alhassan and Snyder.

“Volleyball is a game of runs, right?” Alhassan said. “Can you stop a run? And then how hard can you just continue to fight back? It just showed the grit of the team, and that’s something that we’ve been working on and just championing as what we want to be known for.”

Alhassan, a sixth-year pro and former All-American at the University of Florida, finished with 13 kills and a team-high four blocks, while Snyder, a former Michigan Miss Volleyball winner at Macomb Dakota and All-American at Florida, led the Rise with 16 kills to go along with two aces and 11 digs.

It’s Snyder’s second season with the team, after leading the Rise in kills during the 2025 campaign, and the Michigan native said she wouldn’t want to play anywhere else.

“I was really, really happy to come back,” Snyder said. “I think fans are great. I think we have the best organization in the league, and I think Cathy’s amazing, so I was really happy to come back.

“… Rhamat is one of my closest friends outside of volleyball, as well, so getting to have some close friends on the team and to come back and have some returners in Paige (Briggs-Romine), Lena (Ogilvie), Cam (Turner) and Garve (Alyssa Garvelink-Jensen), like close friends that I get to now play with again, so it’s great.”

In addition to the four returners, the Rise’s roster features 10 newcomers, and that can present some challenges in a sport that relies so much on knowing your teammates’ strengths and tendencies.

For a setter like Ka’aha’aina-Torres, building chemistry is even more important in running an offense.

“I think one of the biggest things is personalities. It’s so hard coming into a team with new people and trying to gel in such a short amount of time, but the girls have been super open to working with me, and that’s kind of the biggest thing,” said Ka’aha’aina-Torres, who finished Wednesday’s match with 48 assists. “I need to be open-minded with them and kind of create that bond and that relationship.

“I’m just trying to figure out how to talk to them and keep them competitive and have the same kind of fire that I do, and they all show it different ways, so it’s kind of just like a little push and pull and just takes time, but we’re figuring it out.”

After dropping the first two road contests, the Rise are in the win column heading into their next game on Friday, Jan. 23 at the San Diego Mojo.

Now in its third season, the franchise will once again play 28 games – 14 home and 14 away – as part of its Major League Volleyball schedule, and George said previous lessons have everyone more prepared for what’s ahead in the 2026 campaign.

“We understand the rhythm of the season now, so I think the coaches that have been here feel much more comfortable in this setting than they did in the first and second year,” George said. “Plus, the league has also learned a lot over the last two years of how to better itself and continue to make it the top league.”

More Grand Rapids Rise coverage

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – After over a year of contract negotiations, the Grand Rapids Public Schools has finalized a new collective bargaining agreement with its teachers union.

The Grand Rapids Board of Education on Monday, Dec. 15, unanimously approved the new contract that includes an 11.8% increase to the district’s budget for teaching staff, including increases to wages and retirement costs.

Members of the Grand Rapids Education Association (GREA), the district’s teachers union, also approved the new contracts last week, at a ratio of 10-to-1, said President Matt Marlow.

Individual teachers won’t be getting an 11.8% raise ― rather, that number represents the overall percentage cost increase to the district’s budget, which includes increases to educator salaries and retirement funds. It equates to an overall $10.4 million investment, according to the district.

The new contract moves GREA members to annual salary increases, instead of a “silo salary” structure put in place years ago where teachers had to wait four years for a raise.

The raises for educators range from $2,000 to $10,000, based on years of service and education level, the district said.

The new collective bargaining agreement includes a 6.5% increase for the 2025-26 school year, which would be retroactively applied to teachers’ salaries starting at the beginning of the school year.

The 2026-27 contract includes a straightforward 3% salary increase across the board.

District leaders say the increase will help attract and retain high-quality teachers. The GREA represents over 1,000 members.

The district’s last three-year contract with the teachers union expired on June 30. Teachers were working under the same pay rates as last year as the GREA negotiated a new contract with the district.

State data shows Grand Rapids Public Schools ranked at the bottom of the Kent Intermediate School District for teacher pay in 2023-24, with an average of slightly over $60,800.

Under the new contract, educators with a bachelor’s degree at the first salary step who previously made $44,916 a year would now earn $46,460 in 2025-26 and $47,854 in 2026-27.

Bachelor’s degree holders with 25 years or more of experience ― those who currently make $74,426 ― will earn $77,164 in 2025-26 and $79,479 in 2026-27 under the new agreement.

Teachers with a Master’s of Arts (MA) at the first salary step, now earning $48,729, would make $51,005 in 2025-26 and $52,535 in 2026-27. Those with an MA and more than 30 additional graduate credits would increase their salaries from $52,198 to $54,035 in 2025-26 and $55,656 in 2026-27.

Teachers with an MA and more than 25 years experience now earning $84,976 would make $89,638 in 2025-26 and $92,327 in 2026-27.

More details about the proposed salary schedule based on degree and experience can be found here.

The approved contract bargaining agreement also included increased planning time and monetary stipends for elementary teachers, new agreements on teacher evaluation and discipline, increases to class overload payments and improved bereavement leave.

In October, the GREA and GRPS agreed upon a calendar for the 2025-26 school year, which included three fewer contractual workdays for teachers. The district also reached four tentative agreements with the union that included a new sick day donation program for teachers and established procedures for filling vacant positions.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) welcomes the return of its annual LEGO displays as it prepares to close “Fashion + Nature” after a three-and-a-half-year run.

Visitors are encouraged to take advantage of their final chance to see the GRPM original exhibit before it officially closes on Nov. 30.

“The museum cares for a wardrobe of more than 10,000 garments and accessories, many of which were donated by Grand Rapids residents,” said Andrea Melvin, collections curator at the GRPM. “It was an honor and joy to partner with local designers and community members, whose stories and expertise broadened our understanding of fashion through a Grand Rapids lens.”

With one leaving, another exhibit is set to open just in time for the holidays. “The Grand Junction” is where discovery meets creativity through massive LEGO® displays, hands-on build tables and the beloved Herpolsheimer’s department store train.

The West Michigan LEGO Users group built the displays. Returning for another year is the historic Grand Rapids display, which features incredibly detailed recreations of local landmarks from the Meyer May House to McKay Tower.

Each year, the build evolves, incorporating new figures and scenes for guests to discover. Several miniature trolleys zip around the streets and cross the Grand River.

Although this exhibit is returning just as another is leaving, it won’t take over “Fashion + Nature.” GRPM staff encourage guests to stay tuned for announcements regarding the exhibit that will take its place on the second floor.

“‘Fashion + Nature,’ which first opened in April 2022, examines the relationship between the natural world and the fashion industry.

Designed and built internally by the GRPM staff with input from community partners, the long-running exhibit showcases scientific specimens and garments from the museum’s collections.

Visitors encounter three areas in “Fashion + Nature:” discovery, exploitation and sustainability. The exhibit demonstrates how the fashion industry has impacted the environment, people’s lives and the global economy.

If you want to see both exhibits, plan your visit soon—there’s just 12 days left before “Fashion + Nature” closes on Nov. 30.

Admission tickets, which range from $5-$14, can be purchased online in advance. Kent County children receive free admission every day, with reduced admission for adults.

Michigan residents are less healthy than most Americans and fixing the problem will require policymakers to look beyond health care reform to address income inequality, education gaps and employment challenges.

That’s the conclusion of a report the Citizens Research Council of Michigan released Tuesday that points to a need to better address the so-called social determinants of health such as income levels and access to food and nutrition that can affect an individual’s well-being.

By focusing more on economic and social factors, Michigan can improve residents’ health status, according to the “Pathways to a Healthier Michigan” report.

The authors conclude that the state’s population “is not as healthy as it could be, and policymakers should be invested in making changes that work toward a healthier population.” They cite a need to take a far broader view of human health than focusing on access to care and health coverage.

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“We need to zoom out from just conversations about health care and coverage when we’re talking about policy … because essentially the biggest drivers of poor health outcomes appear to be more education, employment, and income, particularly for low-income communities and those with lower educational attainment,” said Karley Abramson, a health policy research associate at the Citizens Research Council, a Lansing-based independent policy research organization.

Issues affecting a person’s health can “almost always be traced back to whether an individual has the necessary financial resources to achieve good health outcomes, but policies in all sorts of other areas influence whether a person can get what they need to be healthy,” Abramson said. “The key to making Michigan’s population healthier is a better educated system and a more robust, fairer economy.”

The Citizens Research Council report cites how “the people of Michigan are less healthy than they could be, the problem is worse for vulnerable populations, and there are signs that the situation is deteriorating.” Improving the health of the state’s population “starts with making Michigan a more prosperous state,” report authors wrote.

“Policymakers have a wide range of opinions about how to provide the best education and strongest economy to the state’s residents,” they wrote. “No magic solution or set of solutions exists to improve the financial resources of Michigan’s residents, but wide-ranging ideas exist across the political spectrum.”

The report does not offer specific public policy recommendations or data on how much poor health outcomes affect the state’s economy through lost productivity and lost wages, although Abramson did note that in general, “a healthy population is essential for a better economy.”

The organization intended for the research report to show policymakers how public health is related to more than just health policy and help shift their attention to addressing a “very daunting task,” Abramson said.

“We’re hoping that this sets the foundation for the conversations and for people to be having the right discussions when we’re talking about health policy,” she said. “If the state is prosperous, if the economy is viable, it attracts people to Michigan and is also able to then feed into everyone’s health across the board and make it so that everyone’s health outcomes can improve.”

In 2024, Michigan ranked 29th in the nation for overall health status in the annual America’s Health Rankings report compiled by United Health Foundation using a wide range of metrics, including social and other factors. In one key health area, Michigan ranks 30th in the nation with an adult obesity rate of 35.4%, versus the 34.3% national rate.

The Citizens Research Council report notes that the main drivers of poor health are the ability to afford care based on personal income, not the availability of care and health insurance coverage.

For example, the incidence rate for cardiovascular disease in 2023 was 20.2% in Michigan for people who earn $25,000 a year or less and 12.6% for people who make $25,000 to $49,999 a year. It was 5.9% for people with an income of $75,000 or more.

Meanwhile, the diabetes incidence rate was 21.4% for people who make $25,000 a year or less, 15.9% for people earning $25,000 to $49,999, and 8.8% among people making $75,000 or more.

Michigan “performs well relative to the national average” for health coverage. The United Health Foundation ranked the state fifth in 2024 with just a 4.5% uninsured rate, which compares to 7.9% nationally.

The state also compares well to others on the availability of care and “does slightly better” than the national average on cost, although “given the impact of cost on access to care, this is a policy space where Michigan has a lot of room to improve,” Citizens Research Council wrote in the report.

For many years, health systems have focused more on social determinants of health, and many employers over time have steadily embedded wellness programs into their benefits to improve or maintain the health of employees.

Despite those best efforts, incidence rates for costly chronic illness and the overall health of the population have steadily worsened.

Reversing that trend will take more than public policy changes alone, Abramson said, noting the private sector has a large role to play.

“Business leaders are essentially some of the most direct stakeholders in healthy functioning people and in how costly health care is,” Abramson said. “I would like this to give the grounding for those business leader experts to be able to come to policymakers and have those conversations together, both with the understanding that they are stakeholders and they both have reasons to be very much invested in achieving the same goal.”

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