Water Damage Restoration in Lansing, MI

Could the rumblings be true? Could this iconic gas station meets convenience on steroids that has a cult-like following be coming to Michigan?

Buc-ee's (pronounced with a hard 'c', sounds like 'duck') is convenience store and gas station chain, primarily in the southern parts of the United States, that got its start in Texas in 1982. Since then, the mission has remained the same; "providing a clean, friendly, and in stock experience for our customers." That includes freshly made food and plenty of drinks, snacks, and souvenirs.

Currently, there are locations in Alabama (4), Colorado (1), Florida (2), Georgia (2), Kentucky (2), Missouri (1), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (2), and Texas (35).

Could a Buc-ee's be coming to Michigan?

Read Related: 24/7 Convenience Store Opens First Location in Michigan

Recently, a billboard went up near Grand Rapids along I-96 advertising the nearest Buc-ee's to Michigan coming soon. "444 MILES" and a picture of famous beaver mascot is all that the sign has on it.

Buc-ee's has 11 locations coming soon, and officially broke ground on their soon-to-be Ohio location in August this year. The Huber Heights, Ohio location is estimated to be opening in late 2025.

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With this move northward, could Michigan be on the short list for a future Buc-ee's? Rumblings in the Lansing Foodies Facebook page say YES.

So, keep this in mind, this is a little bit of a he-said, she-said situation... aka, these are just rumblings, we cannot confirm this but, here's the scoop:

I guess people went to a Buc-ee's location and spoke to employees who said that they were looking at Lansing for the next location.

Here's the thing... Buc-ee's locations are absolutely HUGE. Hundreds of gas pumps, a huge convenience store (Buc-ee's literally holds the world record for "Largest Convenience Store"), and sometimes car washes and more... this would need a lot of space.

Where in the Lansing area could a Buc-ee's even go?

It's got to be off an interstate and it needs a ton of space. Plus, you would probably want to catch people who are on their way "up north". Maybe near Lansing Road between 96 and 69? Or maybe where 96 and 69 meet near the Capital Area Humane Society is?

If this dream ever comes to be, maybe it'll be located right next to the Sonic everyone wants in Lansing so badly?

“This contract should be of interest to everybody that lives in the greater Lansing area, in fact, in this region.”

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) -University of Michigan Health—Sparrow nurses worked without a contract on Thursday. The Nurses’ union and the hospital could not reach a deal before the agreement expired at midnight.

Their union, the Professional Employee Council of Sparrow Hospital-Michigan Nurses Association represents around 2,000 registered nurses and healthcare professionals within the hospital.

“Right now in negotiations, we are quite a ways apart we are looking to come together, we are looking to come to something that is going to be acceptable,” said Jeff Breslin, a registered nurse and the President of PESCH-MNA.

Although, their contract expired the union says they will not be walking or going on strike.

“We’re going to do everything that we can to keep patients safe, we’re going to do our job, we’re professionals, we need to be able to attract more and keep the ones that are currently here, here so that we can take care of patients in the way they deserve, they shouldn’t have to go across the state to get good care. We should be able to do that right here,” said Breslin.

Currently, the Union is negotiating better wages to attract and retain talent and more affordable healthcare costs for Sparrow employees.

“This contract should be of interest to everybody that lives in the greater Lansing area, in fact, in this region. This is the biggest hospital in the region and this is where everybody comes in the event that they need good healthcare. We need to make sure this place is staffed with the talent to be able to take care of the patients that come in,” said Breslin.

A U of M Health Sparrow spokesperson said in a statement to News 10:

University of Michigan Health-Sparrow is working in good faith with our colleagues from the Professional Employee Council of Sparrow Hospital (PECSH)/Michigan Nurses Association to negotiate a fair contract for team members in this bargaining unit.

We remain optimistic about reaching an agreement with PECSH-MNA and have bargaining sessions scheduled throughout November. State and federal mediators have joined the discussions.

Our nurses and health care professionals are vital to protecting the health of our communities and the future of this health system. We understand the urgency and the importance of a contract that meets everyone’s needs, while also ensuring our patients receive the best possible care. We hope to emerge from these negotiations with a stronger relationship and a collective commitment to building a better future for our health system and our community.

PECSH-MNA is encouraging people to stop by their informational picket on Nov 12. outside the hospital from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

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Courtesy Michigan Nurses Association

Posted Wednesday, December 4, 2024 7:25 am

(Due to reporting error, an earlier version of this story cited the wrong estimate of how many additional nurses Michigan hospitals would need to hire if the state legislature passed mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios. That number, provided by the Michigan Health and Hospitals Association, was 13,000, not 1,300. City Pulse regrets the mistake.)

Leah Rasch worked as a medical surgical nurse at Sparrow Health System for five years before University of Michigan Health acquired it in April 2023.

“A lot of us were excited when they came in. We thought they were going to pump money into things we need, but right now they’ve just been putting it into buildings and signs,” she said. “We deserve more than a logo change. We deserve some changes in the hospital staffing, in keeping patients and us safe. We just haven’t seen it.”

Rasch is among just 15% of nurses who have stayed in their profession for more than half a decade, the recruiting website Zippia.com reported. Nearly a quarter quit within their first year, while 34% do so within their first two.

Her tenure included serving patients through the COVID pandemic that accelerated the vacancies. She and her peers are pushing for better conditions to help retain more workers as America ages. The United States has more citizens over 65 than ever.

Now, more than 2,000 University of Michigan Health-Sparrow nurses unionized under the Michigan Nurses Association, including Rasch, are voting through Wednesday (Dec. 11) on authorizing a strike, should the union decide to call one.

Prompting the vote is that their contract — signed with Sparrow Health before it was bought out — expired Oct. 31. MNA President Jeff Breslin said his team has spent more than 300 hours across 35 bargaining sessions trying to secure a new contract, but so far, the matter remains “unresolved.”

Further complications came Nov. 19, when UM-Sparrow announced it will end the East Lansing-based Physicians Health Plan by December 2025. It covers more than 65,000 area residents, including a large proportion of MNA union members.

Breslin was blindsided. As of Nov. 14, he said, members believed that PHP coverage would continue under a new contract.

“There was no indication we would have anything different. We were under the understanding that what we were negotiating for was basically the price of the plan and what it covered. It’s hard to believe they didn’t know this was coming,” he said.

UM-Sparrow spokesperson Mary Masson said the “increasingly competitive health insurance landscape” and changes to Medicare policy made the plan “unsustainable.”

“Over the next year, there are anticipated layoffs that will occur as part of the wind-down plan. Every effort will be made to reassign displaced employees and help them with alternative opportunities,” Masson said.

Breslin said the decision only heightens the need for a new contract.

“They’re telling us that they’re looking for another company to provide insurance so we have choices. Right now, we don’t even know what that is, what it’s going to cover and how much it’s going to cost. These are all things that we bargain over in good-faith negotiations,” Breslin said.

Breslin, 54, has worked as a nurse at Sparrow for almost three decades. In that time, he said, he’s watched numerous co-workers exit the field.

“According to the narrative that there is a nursing shortage, we just don’t have enough nurses to fill the positions, which is a twisted representation of what’s really going on. There is a staffing crisis at the bedside. Hospital conditions, pay and benefits have led people to get out of the profession altogether,” he said.

He worries an unfavorable contract will create an even larger gap in adequate healthcare services. UM-Sparrow’s proposal to build a $97 million psychiatric hospital at the site of the former Lansing Eastern High School building and a $32 million healthcare facility under construction near Grand Ledge only add to his concerns.

The nursing shortage is a multi-pronged issue, however. A lack of qualified college instructors has also slowed the pipeline. Nursing programs denied 65,766 qualified applications in 2023, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

“Full-time nursing is not traditionally as flexible as some other professions where people can both work and also teach,” Laura Appel, vice president of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, said.

She called the pairing of an aging populace with the educator shortage a “perfect set of conditions” that led to the nursing crisis. However, Michigan’s gap is narrowing, according to Appel: The state had more than 8,400 nursing vacancies last fall, but that has fallen to just over 5,000. While the MHA declined to comment on the UM-Sparrow situation specifically, Appel was able to speak on the state of the industry in Michigan as a whole.

“Not only did we reduce the number of vacancies, but we’re also looking good in terms of our retention rate. We have a lower turnover among nurses in Michigan compared to the national average, which I think shows that Michigan hospitals are trying to do everything they can,” Appel said.

The jury is still out, however. Data published by the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2022 indicates that Michigan is on track to have the fifth-largest nursing shortage per state by 2035, with a projected vacancy rate of 15%. That’s despite ranking 10th by population.

Despite the losses, Breslin believes “a majority” of qualified nurses who have left healthcare would return “if conditions improved.”

Many could be enticed through policy changes, he said. He’s keeping an eye on a trio of bills in the state Legislature to require mandatory nurse-patient staffing ratios, create a public database of staffing data and eliminate mandatory overtime. Relatedly, if state legislators opted to participate in the Nursing Licensure Compact, nurses with out-of-state licenses could take their expertise to Michigan with fewer barriers.

Appel said the MHA opposes all three bills but supports entering the compact. According to an MHA survey, Michigan hospitals would have to hire more than 13,000 nurses if the government regulated ratios come to fruition.

Breslin isn’t buying it.

“Most people go into nursing so that we can affect positive change in people’s lives. But when we are stretched so thin that we are barely able to get the minimum things done, we’re not able to treat every patient like somebody’s grandparent, child or spouse,” Breslin said.

Strike or no strike, Breslin said he’ll continue to push forward.

“Frankly, if the hospital focused more on staffing, they would be very solvent and have better outcomes,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Keywords

Michigan Nurses Association, Sparrow Health, UM-Sparrow, University of Michigan, nursing, nurses, shortage, health care, Laura Appel, Eastern High School, Jeff Breslin, Leah Rasch, Mary Masson,

These days, we all know about Krampus - the sidekick to Santa in European lore whose job is to handle the kids that are on the naughty list. Growing up, I was aware of this horned, hooved, nightmare-fueling creature because I come from a VERY German family.

But now, the Krampus doesn't seem as scary to most people - and is even celebrated.

And that, my friends, is how I assume that the annual Krampus Parade in Lansing came to be. It's not just that the folks in the Old Town neighborhood of Lansing hold a parade. No - they have an entire evening devoted to Krampus.

This year's free event, called Krampusnacht (Krampus Night) is coming up on Saturday, December 7, from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m.. In addition to the parade, the event will feature a vendor market; an art exhibit; live entertainment from fire dancers, the band Splendid Chaos, and the Katzenjammer Alphorns; a costume contest, kids' activities (from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m.); and an appearance by both the "real" Krampus and Saint Nick.

It's hard to say for certain, but this appears to be the second year for the event, which honestly sounds like a complete blast, and I kind of wish that I could attend.

READ MORE: Where to Find Santa in West Michigan for 2024

If you'd like to sign up to be in the Krampus Parade, there's still time and you can do so by filling out this form. It's important to note that weapons are prohibited, and you must be in costume to participate. Organizers suggest that you bring a "helper" if your mask impedes your vision.

Enjoy the less "holly jolly" sides of the holidays? Check out these hilarious photos of Santa visits gone wrong.

30 of the Funniest Photos of Santa Visits Gone Wrong

Parents, we've all experienced the bad Santa visit photos and we secretly giggle to ourselves as we watched it go down. Here are 30 of the best we've ever seen LOL!

Gallery Credit: ANGEL WELSH