Today, March 17th, 2015. All day long, the flag at the local UAW hall across the street has been flying at half-staff. Nobody at my work has any idea why.
Did somebody famous die?
Was there a disater someplace?
Did another state pass Right To Work legislation? 
No idea.
All the flags at my location remain full-staff.
Curious.
Maybe it has to do with the Florida helicopter crash in which 11 servicemen died?
It could be a very local thing. The flags at my college alma mater would be at a half-staff whenever a trustee died.
ETA: The UAW website has no mention of it for this day.
As a trustee, I think this is a great idea.
Never mind.
Likely the helicopter crash off the Florida coast. Three of the lost were from Michigan: Marcus Bawol, Andrew Seif, and Trevor Blaylock.
If it’s just across the street, maybe you could amble over there and ask someone? When I see flags at half-staff, I sometimes ask someone at the place where I see it – sometimes at a police station, fire station, or post office. Half-staff flags at fire stations are often something local or regional, like firefighters getting killed in some local or regional wildfire.
Sometimes I also turn on the news radio, which will have non-stop chatter about it, if it’s some major national thing. That’s how I learned about the Columbia wreck in February 2003.