Rina Miller

Michigan’s county sheriffs would be given more leeway in how they run their jails under a bill passed by the state House this week.

The bill targets jail overcrowding by subdividing cells. The required 52-square-feet per inmate would be cut nearly in half.

It also allows for an inmate with no prior criminal convictions to be double-bunked with a convicted felon.

State Representative Matt Lori co-sponsored the bill.

"It’ll make things a lot easier for the sheriffs to keep inmates behind bars as opposed to releasing them when their population gets to the point they have to declare an overcrowding emergency," Lori says.

John Walsh is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Grand Valley State University. He says smaller jail cells could increase safety risks for inmates and staff and lead to lawsuits.

A bill in the state House would ban public employees from using most government property or services for political or union purposes. 

 Under the bill, anything that belongs to the government would be off-limits for public employees to use for fund-raising, lobbying  or campaigning -- including e-mail, phones and copiers.

The latest Republican candidate to challenge U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow says it’s time for regular citizens – like him -- to get into politics.  Clark Durant says he’s running for office because he’s tired of government getting in the way of citizens trying to build their dreams.

"I tremble for my country," Durant says. "Our government is overspending, has grown too fast and taxes too much. Ordinary people are having a hard time putting bread on the table and making ends meet, and our government is extravagant.”

Durant says there’s a danger of inflation unless the U.S. stops expanding its money supply.

The Grosse Pointe charter school executive has the endorsement of several influential Michigan Republican party officials. However, Gov. Snyder has thrown his support to former Cong. Pete Hoekstra.

U.S. Congressman Thaddeus McCotter from Michigan is in New Hampshire this weekend.

He’s one of several Republican presidential candidates campaigning in the state that traditionally holds one of the nation’s first primaries.

McCotter finished at the bottom of last weekend’s Iowa straw poll, getting just 35 votes out of more than 16,000.

But he says Iowa was just an introduction, and he’s not discouraged.

“We’ve had many people that have been running much longer, some on their second time, and they’ve spent millions of dollars, and they’re actually declining in the polls," McCotter says. "In fact, we’ve already seen one drop out. So after a month of not spending a million dollars, I think there’s room to grow.”

McCotter says he’ll focus on how to restructure the economy, and on China, which he calls a strategic threat to U.S. prosperity.

Pontiac residents could soon pay more for fewer service as the city tackles a projected $12 million deficit. 

Emergency manager Michael Stampfler's plan would  add more than $6 million  to Pontiac’s tax rolls.

Leon Jukowski is Pontiac’s mayor. He no longer has power, but says he monitors the actions of the emergency manager.

“These are some pretty significant obligations: $4.6 million for the pension and VEBA contributions, Jukowski says. "$1 million tax appeal for General Motors. So this could be a significant tax increase.”

A Genesee County Commissioner says a portion of a hotel excise tax should be spent on police protection, rather than promoting area attractions and county parks.

Commissioner Joe Graves says nearly$1 million is generated every year by the five percent hotel tax in Genesee County. Most of it goes to the Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. The rest goes to the County Parks and Recreation Commission.

Graves says it would make sense to take $250,000  get a matching federal grant, and put more police on the streets.

More than a half-million people in Michigan are out of work.

About 33,000 fewer Michiganders had jobs in July compared to the month before.

"The state jobless rate has now edged up for three consecutive months," says Bruce Weaver of the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget. "It rose by four-tenths of a percentage point in July to 10.9 percent."

It’s still better than a year ago, when the unemployment rate was 12.4 percent.

University of Michigan Health System nurses rallied in Ann Arbor  Saturday to protest concessions they’re being asked to give.

The 4,000 members of the University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council have been working under the terms of an expired 2008 contract since July.

Katie Oppenheim is chair of the union. She says the health system is profitable and shouldn’t be asking the nurses to pay more for health insurance, or to work longer before they can retire.

It’s not your imagination: The mosquitos are really bad in Michigan right now, and they’re not going away anytime soon.

It’s been a hot summer, with lots of rain, some dry spells in between, then lots more rain.

Perfect, if you’re a mosquito.

Mike Kaufman is a Michigan State University entomologist. He says not only do we have our usual crop of mosquitos, we’ve got psorophora ciliata, a big mosquito with a big bite. It’s native to Michigan, but fairly rare.

Business is about to get much better for a Port Huron Company -- and it needs about 275 workers, fast.

GMA Cover Corp. makes cargo netting and parachutes.

The company just got a big military contract to make about 20,000 parachutes in the next six months, so GMA needs people with sewing experience.

Two Michigan lawmakers have been named to a powerful committee that will work on a plan to reduce the nation’s budget deficit.

Michigan Congressmen Dave Camp and Fred Upton -- both Republicans -- will be on the 12-member bipartisan panel charged with creating tax and spending policies.

The panel was created from a compromise reached by last week’s debt-ceiling legislation, and it has to come up with a plan by November 23.

Rep. Camp admits it’s a huge undertaking:

From The Associated Press

Hundreds of new Michigan teachers are leaving for positions in other states, a reflection of Michigan's shrinking number of students, wealth of teaching colleges and budget cuts that are forcing schools to cut staffs.

 Since peaking in the 2004-05 academic year, the number of Michigan public school teachers has shrunk by nearly 9 percent, a loss of around 10,000 jobs, according to the Center for Educational Performance and Information.

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the sentences of five Michigan residents who were jailed because they could not pay their court fines.

Michael Steinberg of the ACLU of Michigan says judges are supposed to hold a hearing to prove whether an individual is too poor to pay a fine.

Steinberg says in the five misdemeanor cases they’re challenging, those hearings didn’t happen and the people were locked up. They’re called “pay or stay” cases.

A federal appeals court has overturned a death sentence for a Michigan man  convicted of drowning a young woman. He killed her to prevent her from pursuing a rape case against him.

Marvin Gabrion was convicted in 2002 of killing 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman.

Her body was found in a lake in Manistee National Forest in 1997.

Gabrion was sentenced to death because the body was found on federal property. Michigan does not have a death penalty.

David Moran is clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan.

Another Republican has announced he will run against Michigan U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow in next year’s election.

Gary Glenn is president of the Michigan chapter of the conservative American Family Association.  

The 53-year-old from Midland says his views on a variety of issues are very different from Senator Stabenow’s.