The federal government is giving a Wayne county agency $600,000 to assess more than 30 potentially contaminated sites in Southwest Detroit.

The grant will not cover the costs of cleaning up or redeveloping these sites but Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano says it's exciting to see more focus being placed on the city's neighborhoods.

Last night, Michigan Radio's Steve Carmody reported on the city of Flint's budget.

While the emergency manager delivered a balanced budget for next year, the city council was concerned the budget cuts would negatively impact basic city services. 

This morning, MLive and the Flint Journal reported that the emergency manager, Ed Kurtz, wants to raise income taxes in order to stabilize the city's finances.

That's the nugget in Tim Skubick's MLive column today on politicians' practice of being 'transparent' only when it's convenient.

Skubick writes about an effort to find out how much money has been spent on the one person grand jury investigating Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall).

Bolger was caught up in a potential election rigging scandal last year.

Skubick writes the information about the Bolger investigation was hard to get - at first:

Eventually that hard and fast, “I can’t divulge” stonewall turned into a little sunshine.

And two days after the original inquiry came, a one liner: The cost for two lawyers, Mike Ferency and John Smeitanka, was $28,362.44...

They’ve worked a combined total of 211.90 hours plus $2,046 in gas mileage and other expenses.

The one-person grand jury - Judge Rosemary Aquilina - was recently granted more time to investigate the scandal. Information about the scandal can continue to be collected through August 22 of this year.

Operators at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant announced yesterday that it will take until early summer to repair the plant and get it back online.

The plant was shut down after it was discovered that radioactive water had been entering Lake Michigan.

The leak came from a water storage tank that has continually caused problems at Palisades. Water from the tank dripped into the plant’s control room in May of 2011.

This time the water leaked onto the roof, down the roof drains, and out into the lake.

“The Donald” is coming to Oakland County.

The real estate mogul and television star is scheduled to speak today at the Lincoln Day Dinner at the Suburban Collection Showcase convention center in Novi.

Lincoln Day is an annual fundraising event for state and county Republican Party organizations. Tickets to the meal start at $750.

According to the Detroit Free Press:

An anti-bias group says it has received a written apology from Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne for his use of a pejorative word to refer to Italians.

The Italian American ONE VOICE Coalition says Marchionne apologized for using the word "wop" during a press conference at the Detroit Auto Show.    Marchionne was commenting on the long-delayed introduction of the new generation of Alfa Romeos.  He stated, “I won't put an American engine into that car. With all due respect to my American friends, it needs to be a wop engine.” 

Rescue workers in Oklahoma are searching through the wreckage this morning searching for survivors.

With all the destruction, experts think this tornado could be listed as the costliest in U.S. history.

This tweet shows it all:

TOUCHING PHOTO: Teacher hugs child at Briarwood Elementary in OK after tornado @theoklahoman (@micahgrimes) twitter.com/NewsBreaker/st…

— NewsBreaker (@NewsBreaker) May 21, 2013

Reports of the number killed in the tornado have been going up and down this morning. Mark Memmott at NPR's Two-Way blog is keeping track of events as they unfold.

Detroit Democrats propose auto insurance reform

Democratic state lawmakers from Detroit are proposing their own strategy to overhaul auto insurance in Michigan.

“The Democrats oppose Governor Snyder’s plan to cap insurance payouts for catastrophic injuries sustained in car accidents...Detroit caucus members say they’ll propose other measures, like requiring insurance companies to justify rate increases,” Michigan Radio’s Sarah Cwiek reports.

Flint’s EM recommends income tax increase

Flint’s emergency manager says his budget plan for the next year is balanced, but he warns that without new tax revenue sources, the city will again fall into debt.

“[Emergency Manager Ed] Kurtz says the loss of grant funding and declining property tax revenues will leave the city millions of dollars in the hole each year through 2018. Kurtz says Flint needs to raise its city income tax rate. Otherwise, Kurtz says Flint will face another round of budget cuts, including to police and fire,” according to Michigan Radio’s Steve Carmody.

Salaries for state officials expected to stay the same

“A state salary commission is expected to recommend no salary hikes for the governor or legislators. Governor Rick Snyder and legislative leaders sent word they’re not seeking bigger paychecks. There could be a battle over judges’ salaries, though, when the State Officers Compensation Commission meets today. Some judges have asked for a bump after a 10-year salary freeze,” Rick Pluta reports.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero has a long list of items he plans to veto in the budget passed by the city council last night.   

The Lansing city council struggled for three hours trying to agree on amendments to the proposed city budget for next year.  

The numbers got so confused, the council took a forty minute break to give the city’s finance director time to figure out if the budget was still balanced, as it’s legally required to be.

Mayor Virg Bernero says the meeting was extremely disorganized.

COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Operators of the idled Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in southwestern Michigan say repairs to a tank that leaked slightly radioactive water into Lake Michigan will take until early summer to complete.

The plant is in Van Buren County's Covert Township, about 80 miles east-northeast of Chicago,

You could soon be able to pick up a bottle of wine at your local farmers' market.

Tomorrow, the state House Regulatory committee will discuss legislation that would allow wine sampling and sales at farmers’ markets. The bills (SB 79 and SB 279) have already passed the state Senate.

Donna McClurkan is with the Michigan Farmers Markets Association. She says it’s a way to support another part of Michigan's agricultural industry.

“We see it as a potential growth opportunity for aspiring small wineries,” says McClurkan.

State lawmakers from Detroit say they will put forth their own package of bills to overhaul m auto insurance in Michigan.

The Democrats oppose Governor Snyder’s plan to cap insurance payouts for catastrophic car accident injuries at $1 million.

Snyder and some Republicans say Michigan’s unique “no-fault insurance” policy bumps up Michiganders’ auto insurance premiums. They say their proposal will bring those rates down by $125 per vehicle for at least one year, with possible future savings.

To many of us, Sunday mornings mean a full cup of coffee and our Sunday paper. And there certainly has been no shortage of dire and ominous headlines served up with that Sunday morning coffee.

That's why the Detroit Free Press has launched a new effort. It's called "A Better Michigan" and it will seek answers to the question, "What will it take to build a better Michigan?

Those of us at Michigan Radio and on "Stateside" are proud to be partners with the Detroit Free Press in this effort .

The editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, Stephen Henderson, joined us to talk about "A Better Michigan."

Listen to the full interview above.