The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - An Ingham County judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Michigan's right-to-work law.

The Lansing State Journal reports that Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina rejected the suit on Monday because it should have been filed directly with the state Court of Appeals.

She didn't rule on the underlying legal challenge.

The right-to-work law takes effect in late March and makes it illegal to require financial support of a union as a condition of employment.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan's House Education committee chairwoman is calling on a state department to rescind its complaint over the use of American Indian mascots in schools.

Alto Republican Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons released a statement Monday criticizing the Michigan Department of Civil Rights for taking its complaint to the federal level.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Labor unions are asking a federal judge in Detroit to block part of Michigan's right-to-work law from taking effect in late March.

The lawsuit filed Monday is the second to challenge the law in recent weeks. It prohibits requiring workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan Public Service Commission and Michigan Energy Office officials plan to hold the first of seven forums this week on the state's energy future.

Among those scheduled to speak Thursday in Lansing include representatives of the Michigan Manufacturers Association, Michigan Environmental Council and Citizens Against Rate Excess.

The four-hour public forum called "Readying Michigan to Make Good Energy Decisions" starts at 1 p.m. at the Library of Michigan.

PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) - A $145 million expansion of the Blue Water Bridge customs plaza in Port Huron has been halted due to a lack of federal funding.

The Times-Herald reports that Port Huron city leaders have been told the federal government isn't interested in continuing the project.

The update was given Friday by federal and state officials. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Dennis Counihan says the project is not part of the agency's current five-year plan.

CHICAGO (AP) - An environmental policy group has identified hundreds of Midwest manufacturers that stand to benefit from the web of high-speed rail routes emerging from Chicago.

A report released Friday by the Environmental Law & Policy Center says 460 supply-chain manufacturers in seven Midwest states are poised to reap new business, along with a dozen highly visible companies that make rail cars and locomotives.

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. (AP) - Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will be the keynote speaker at the 2013 Mackinac Policy Conference in May.

The Detroit Regional Chamber's annual conference brings together politicians and business leaders on Mackinac Island. The chamber says Bush will talk about education, immigration and economic growth.

Bush is the son of former President George H.W. Bush and brother of ex-President George W. Bush. He was Florida's Republican governor from 1999 through 2007.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A Michigan lawmaker plans to quickly introduce a bill to legalize medical-marijuana shops after the state Supreme Court said they're not allowed under a 2008 law.

Republican Representative Mike Callton of Nashville, Michigan says he's concerned cancer patients and others won't have access to the drug without dispensaries.

He says many of the state's 125,000 medical-marijuana users can't grow their own and there aren't enough caregivers to grow it for them. Callton says patients will be forced to go underground to find pot.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - The former Ann Arbor headquarters of bookstore chain Borders Group has been sold.

The Ann Arbor office of Colliers International tells The Detroit News that the buyer requested a confidentiality agreement, so no name was publicly disclosed. Colliers International is handling the sale.

The 330,000-square-foot headquarters was listed last year for $6.9 million.

Ever since Michigan voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 2008, confusion over how to implement the practice has reigned. 

In one of the most significant rulings to date, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled today that medical marijuana dispensaries can be shut down as a public nuisance.

Update 4:51 p.m.

MPRN's Jake Neher spoke with Michael Komorn of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association.

Komorn said the ruling is a setback, but that it will be up to local communities to shut down medical marijuana dispensaries.

"I don't think, at the end of the day, that communities - and the people that are within the communities that are going to sit on the jury – are going to convict on these," said Komorn.

"The local authorities have made it clear that they don't want to, nor do they care about, this behavior. They don't find it to be a nuisance and it's not important for them to prosecute," he said.

Neher reports that Michigan State Attorney General Bill Schuette says he plans to send a letter to county prosecutors explaining how the ruling empowers them to close the dispensaries.

2:45 p.m.

After the Court of Appeals ruling in this case back in 2011, shutdowns and busts followed.

Now we're reading that some dispensaries are being advised to close their doors by their lawyers.

Emily Monacelli reports for MLive on the Med Joint Community Compassion Center in Kalamazoo County. After the ruling, the Center's founder, Kevin Spitler, said his doors would stay open, but that changed:

But less than an hour later, Spitler said his lawyer had advised him to shut down. He said he did not know how long the dispensary would stay closed.  Spitler has seven employees, including himself, all of whom are registered medical marijuana caregivers, he said. He declined to say how many patients they serve. 

"That means everybody has to go to the streets to get their medicine now," Spitler said of the effect of the Michigan Supreme Court ruling.

12:22 p.m.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled today on a case heard before the Michigan Court of Appeals in August 2011.

In 2011, the Court of Appeals found that the Mount Pleasant dispensary, Compassionate Apothecary, was a public nuisance and in violation of the public health code, and that the sale of medical marijuana is not protected under the law.

Many dispensaries closed their doors after that ruling, waiting to see how police might respond. Some departments responded with raids and crackdowns, while others allowed the dispensaries to continue.

It remains to be seen what will occur in the wake of this ruling

The justices who signed the majority 4-2 opinion said their reasoning was different, but the conclusion they reached was the same.

From today's Michigan Supreme Court ruling:

Although it did so for a different reason than the one we articulate, the Court of Appeals reached the correct conclusion that defendants  are not entitled to operate a business that facilitates patient-to-patient sales of marijuana.  Because the business model of defendants’ dispensary relies entirely on transactions that do  not comply with the MMMA, defendants are operating their business in “[a] building . . . used for the unlawful . . . keeping for sale . . . or furnishing of any controlled substance,” and plaintiff is entitled to an injunction enjoining the continuing operation of the business because it is a public nuisance.

11:35 a.m.

We will link to the ruling once we have it.

Karen Bouffard writes for the Detroit News that Supreme Court Justices Chief Justice Robert Young Jr. and Justices Markman, Kelly and Zahra ruled that the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act of 2008 only protects registered caregivers and their patients.

The justices also ruled patient-to-patient transfers of medical marijuana are not legal under the voter-approved law, appearing to contradict a Court of Appeals decision last week that concluded there's nothing illegal about a medical marijuana user providing a small amount of pot to another registered user at no cost.

Here's more on that appeals court ruling. 

10:43 a.m.

DETROIT (AP) - The Michigan Supreme Court says users of medical marijuana can't buy it at pot shops.

The 4-1 decision Friday is the most significant court ruling since voters approved marijuana for certain illnesses in 2008. It means the state's 126,000 approved users must grow their own pot or have a state-licensed caregiver grow it for them.

The state appeals court declared dispensaries illegal in 2011, but enforcement has depended on the attitudes of local authorities. Some communities took a hands-off approach while waiting for the Supreme Court to make the ultimate decision.

The case involves a Mount Pleasant dispensary that allowed medical-marijuana users to sell pot to each other. Owners took as much as a 20 percent cut of each sale. Isabella County shut it down as a public nuisance.

DETROIT (AP) - A judge has refused to dismiss corruption charges against former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, clearing a path for the trial's closing arguments Monday.

A request for acquittal before jury deliberations is a standard move in a criminal case but rarely granted. Federal Judge Nancy Edmunds kept the government's case intact Friday, although prosecutors on their own trimmed some of the many charges.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will propose giving
public schools, universities and community colleges 2 percent more
funding in the next school year.

State budget director John Nixon tells The Associated Press that
the governor's budget being released later Thursday requires
universities to hold tuition increases to under 4 percent or lose part
of their state aid.

The Republican governor also will ask lawmakers to double
enrollment in a preschool program for kids at risk of failing.

Democrats will complain that education spending isn't going up enough.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The Michigan Senate has voted to cut the tax people pay when they trade in an old car and buy a new or used one.

Michigan is among six states that don't allow a trade-in allowance against the sales tax applied to sales of cars, boats and recreational vehicles. That would change under bills approved overwhelmingly Wednesday and sent to the House.

The measure would apply the trade-in value of a car to the calculation of the 6 percent sales tax when a new vehicle is bought. The break would be phased in over 10 years to alleviate concerns about the corresponding drop in tax revenue.

DETROIT (AP) -The state agency that monitors judges for misconduct is dropping its complaint against Diane Hathaway now that she's no longer on the Michigan Supreme Court.

The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission said Tuesday there's nothing to gain. Hathaway pleaded guilty last week to federal bank fraud for shifting properties and failing to disclose assets while trying to dump her Detroit-area home in a short sale. She could go to prison and lose her law license.

The commission filed an ethics complaint against Hathaway and sought her suspension on Jan. 7 while she was still on the Supreme Court. That led to news that Hathaway had quietly filed retirement papers in December and was planning to quit on Jan. 21.

She was charged with fraud three days before leaving the court.

A Detroit City Council committee is expected to discuss where Mayor Dave Bing stands in appointing a new police chief.

The status of the search to replace ex-chief Ralph Godbee is scheduled to come up Monday morning before the council's Public Health and Safety Standing Committee.

The council was awaiting a report from Bing's office.

Godbee was promoted to chief in 2010, but stepped down in October after details surfaced of a sexual relationship with a subordinate. Bing promoted Chester Logan to chief on an interim basis.

The Board of Police Commissioners selected firms to conduct a search for a new chief, but no money was immediately available in November from the city to move forward.

ALLEGAN, Mich. (AP) - Western Michigan is cleaning up after a winter storm that brought 15 inches or more of snow in some areas, and the National Weather Service says up to 10 inches of fresh snow is possible through Monday night.

The weather service says parts of Allegan, Kent, Ottawa and Van Buren counties got more than 15 inches between Wednesday night and Saturday night. It says fresh snow will start falling Sunday, bringing two to four inches inland and localized accumulations of up to 10 inches along Lake Michigan.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan health officials have reported two more infections in the past two weeks linked to contaminated steroids supplied by a Massachusetts pharmaceutical company.

The Michigan Department of Community Health says at least 246 people have been infected with illnesses including fungal meningitis that are part of a national disease outbreak. The steroids are used in injections to treat neck and back pain.

The department reports that at least 15 people have died in the outbreak, unchanged from two weeks ago.

DETROIT (AP) - The Detroit Institute of Arts will display a famous Vincent van Gogh work later this month.

"Bedroom in Arles" is on loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. It'll be on view at the DIA from Feb. 19 to May 28.

The painting will be installed along with three other van Gogh paintings owned by the Detroit museum.

Van Gogh produced three almost identical paintings on the theme of his bedroom. The first, in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, was created in 1888 but damaged in a flood while the artist was in a hospital in Arles, France.

SAUGATUCK, Mich. (AP) - The proposed merger of Saugatuck and Douglas in Allegan County seems likely to be headed to a ballot.

88 signatures are needed. The Grand Rapids Press says the petition already has been signed by more than 300 residents in the two small cities. The deadline to get the names to Lansing is Feb. 19.

Groups on both sides of the issue already have formed. Citizens for Independent and Cooperative Communities questions whether there would be significant savings in a merger. Supporters say the savings could be $500,000 a year.