Episode Details

In this week's program host, Phil Tower, welcomes Scott de Varona, MiABLE program director. With hundreds of thousands of Michiganders with disabilities eligible to open a MiABLE savings account, the Michigan Department of Treasury recently marked the 8th anniversary of the signing into law of the MiABLE Act to encourage them and their families to discover more about gaining greater financial freedom. Experts estimate that approximately 500,000 individuals in Michigan are eligible to open MiABLE accounts, but only about 1% are enrolled statewide. Established in Michigan in 2015, MiABLE is a disability savings program administered by the Michigan Department of Treasury. It stands for Michigan Achieving a Better Life Experience and was designed to help ease the financial burden challenging families and people with disabilities. MiABLE accounts help people with disabilities save for current and future expenses without jeopardizing government assistance like Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).Online: MiABLE

In part two of the program this week, Phil Tower welcomes Dianna Stampfler, author of “Death and Lighthouses on the Great Lakes: A History of Murder and Misfortune," The History Press. Dianna shares the story of two lighthouse Keepers on Lake Superior’s Grand Island who disappeared one early summer day in 1908; their decomposed remains were found weeks later. A newly hired and some say depressed keeper on Pilot Island in Wisconsin’s Door County slit his own throat after a consultation with a local butcher about the location of the jugular vein. A smallpox outbreak in the late 1890s led to the tragic death of a lighthouse-hired hand on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. They all add up to compelling stories involving the Great Lakes and lighthouses. (*Encore from 2022)

ONLINE: “Death and Lighthouses on the Great Lakes: A History of Murder and Misfortune”