What is the current state of journalism? Where does it go next? The Daily Show takes the Michigan Daily to task for its oh-so old timey ways in a segment called "Internet Killed the Newspaper Star." Watch it here.  

Children with serious health challenges must often spend a lot of time thinking about their limitations. Thanks to a new, 105-acre camp that just broke ground in Pinckney this week, about 1,500 of those kids will get a chance to focus on what they can do — including how much fun they can have.  "They're so used to hearing 'you can't do that because of your illness.' At camp it's always, 'you can do that,'" says North Star Reach Marketing and Communications Specialist Marji Wisniewski. "They make friends and meet kids just like them. And that's important. They are being cured of their illness at their hospitals, but it's at camp where they heal." Beginning in the fall of 2015, North Star Reach will host fall and spring weekend camps and weeklong summer camps for children with children with cancer, heart disease, ventilator dependency, organ transplants, sickle cell disease. Many will be referred from their healthcare providers, as North Star Reach has partnered with 13 hospitals for the project.  So far, $21,000,000 of the $26,000,000 needed to construct the many buildings of North Star Reach and to maintain operations for the first two years.  "We're going to have a complete medical center on site, a beautiful dining hall and rustic cabins," says Wisniewski. "Everything is 'state of the art rustic,' meaning it has everything these children with special needs need to have, but they won't have to think about it. For them, they're just going to camp."  The Pinckney camp is a provisional member of SeriousFun Children’s Network, which was founded in 1988 by Paul Newman. North Star Reach will be the ninth such camp in the U.S. In addition to 20 to 25 staffers, North Star Reach will rely on a number of volunteers to complete their programming. More than 100 volunteer opportunities will be available each week. For more information on volunteering or taking part in the capital campaign, people may visit NorthStarReach.org.  Source: Marji Wisniewski, North Star Reach Writer: Natalie Burg

Until recently, St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea's Dexter Internal Medicine and Pediatrics office was bursting at the seams. But running out of space gave the clinic the opportunity to address a few other issues with their downtown Dexter location. "We were on the second floor and parking wasn't the greatest," says Chris Ray, office manager for Dexter Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. "We didn't have the greatest signage to let people know where we were. The conversation started with our providers about looking for a different space within the community." They found it in the Dexter Crossing shopping center on Dexter-Ann Arbor Rd. The 4,500 square foot space nearly doubled their original size, allowing for their growing staff and patient population to operate with a lot more elbow room. All that space, however, won't change the office's quality of care. "Regardless of the space of how big it looks, we're still providing the same great patient care we were before," says Ray. "We want to provide more opportunities to our patients and better access."  Dexter Internal Medicine and Pediatrics made their move from one clinic to the next in about five highly orchestrated hours on July 15. As the provides and staff become more acquainted with their additional space, says Ray, they'll begin considering what new those new opportunities they hope to provide to their patients may be.  Source: Chris Ray, Dexter Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Writer: Nataie Burg

For the longest time, Nutshell was a tech startup with a handful of employees. For most of its first five years it was primarily software developers and other techies building out the company’s customer relationship management software platform. That's changing this year. The downtown Ann Arbor-based software firm has hired three people so far (including one that started this week) growing its staff to a dozen employees. It is now looking to hire another dozen people in software, marketing, customer service, administration and design. "Now we're filling out the ranks of the rest of the organization," says Joe Malcoun, CEO of Nutshell. Nutshell's first years consisted of it developing its software and growing organically without any strategic marketing. It has already crossed the $1 million threshold for sales. "The company has been growing pretty steadily since it launched its first product," Malcoun says. That attracted the attention of some investors and it’s now closing on a Series A1, which is an extension of the original Series A round for its initial investors. The Series A1 is expected to come in at about $1 million, money that will allow the company to grow rapidly over the next couple of years. "I'd like to see us doing $2.5 million a year in revenue by the end of 2015," Malcoun says. Source: Joe Malcoun, CEO of Nutshell Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Staffing firm Vaco has made three hires in Ann Arbor, expanding its internal staff in Tree Town to eight people. The firm is also looking to add a couple of more internal resources (staffers) this year. "We're looking for additional recruiters that have a strong human resources and recruiting background," says Paul Bishop, managing partner with Vaco. The national company provides staffing services for technical and executive professionals. It has a couple dozen offices across the U.S., including a Metro Detroit office that Vaco moved to Ann Arbor in 2011. Vaco established itself with its staffing services in the tech industry but has expanded into the likes of accounting and finance industries recently. "As we have grown our business we have found it important to us to find more industries we can support," Bishop says. Bishop adds the increase in industry diversity has created more work opportunities for the staffing candidates it offers to business. He notices that Vaco's clients utilize the diversity of the services more. "It's creating value for our clients with human capital," Bishop says. Source: Paul Bishop, managing partner with Vaco Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Andy Ross and his wife, Amanda Ross, launched their own design firm a couple of years ago called Stunning Creative. The move was prompted by Amanda Ross' job loss and turned into an opportunity for the Ann Arbor couple to create their own business. That lasted for a year or two until Amanda landed a new job. That left Andy with a company that just didn’t quite fit right anymore. So he started a new one this year called Andy Ross Design. "I've been pretty busy," Andy Ross says. "I have done some work for some larger local clients like Aysling.  It's a newer client." The design company has also been taking on more advertising agency work, including working with Lowe Campbell Ewald on its Cadillac account. Andy Ross says he has doubled his workload in the last year as more and more marketing firm take on an increased workload. "A lot of it is I have put more effort into marketing the company," Andy Ross says. "Advertising budges have increased over the last year." Source: Andy Ross, owner of Andy Ross Design Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The Arts Alliance conducted a survey of candidates running for office in Washtenaw County regarding their views of arts and culture. The results of their questionnaire have been gathered in this pdf document. Interesting to see how many voice strong support for public art and its community importance but only hand-full seem to actively support public funding of the arts. You may conclude from that what you may. Read the candidate answers here.

While banks and bankers may not be the public's favorite folks in our age of controversial bail outs and investment instruments, The Bank of Ann Arbor is proving that a local institution can sometimes outperform a multi-national corporation. Excerpt: "In 2007, before the recession hit, the Bank of Ann Arbor was sixth in deposit market share with 8.04 percent in the city, with deposits of $329.8 million, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. KeyBank was No. 1 at 16.45 percent with deposits of $675.1 million. As of June 30, 2013, the latest date for which data are available on the FDIC website, Chase was No. 1 at 17.3 percent with deposits of $901.6 million, while the Bank of Ann Arbor had climbed into second place at 12.38 percent and deposits of $646.2 million. " Read the rest here.