Rina Miller

State health officials say three cases of tetanus have been reported in Michigan recently. The disease is serious, but it’s also preventable. 

Tetanus – also known as lockjaw --  is caused by a bacteria found in the soil and can also be spread through feces and saliva.

Pat Vranesich is with the Michigan Department of Community Health.

She says most years there are no cases reported. But in 2010 two cases were found, and there has been another increase this year.

If Michigan voters were asked today whether they approve of the state’s new emergency manager law  the majority would say “no.”

That’s according to a poll released this week by Gongwer News Service.

Bernie Porn is with EPIC/MRA,  the Lansing-based firm that conducted the poll.

“A 53-34 percent majority would reject the law, except for Republicans who would support that. Democrats overwhelmingly said they would reject it," Porn says. " And even independent voters, by a 58-29 percent vote – a fairly solid majority – said they would reject it as well.”

 Never mind the recession or the near collapse of the auto industry just a couple of years ago.

A report in the Wall Street Journal finds that Detroit and its suburbs have plenty of people whose bank accounts are very healthy.

Michigan Economic Development Corporation spokesman Joe Serwach says Michigan is holding its own.

“Detroit came in at No. 9, ahead of San Jose, which surprised me," Serwach says. "I would have thought Silicon Valley would have had more. But we had 92,100 millionaires.”

You have to have a job in order to get a job at some companies in America -- and it’s not against the law for them to say that right in their employment ad.

State Rep. Jim Ananich, D-Flint, has proposed a bill that would forbid discrimination against the unemployed.

“I just assumed that was something that wouldn’t be held against somebody," Ananich says. "Usually when you’re applying for a job, it’s because you don’t have one. So to tell someone that they can’t even be an applicant just doesn’t seem fair.”

Michigan has banned the sale of a highly addictive drug known as “bath salts.”

Dave Wade is with the Michigan Department of Community Health.

He says the substance is a type of amphetamine and probably comes from China.

It’s sold at smoke shops and online.

Wade says it’s a gray powder that may also be labeled “plant food” or “pond scum remover.”

He says it’s very dangerous to people who smoke, inject or inhale the drug.

Michigan’s older foster children can stay in the system until they're 21 -- an extra year under bills passed  by the state Senate.

Part  of the plan is to help them pay for college with about $1.8 million dollars in state funding and about $6 million in federal matching funds.

Vivayk Sankarin is the director of the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy. He says it’s a step in the right direction.

Michigan’s wind industry is just getting started, but a group led by two Michigan State University professors is calling for stricter noise levels at wind farms in the state.

MSU's Kenneth Rosenman says that’s why this is the perfect time to put tougher noise regulations in place on turbines.

Current guidelines call for a limit of 55 decibels. Rosenman says 40 decibels would be much better. He  gives some comparisons:

"Normal conversation is 60 decibels," Rosenman says. "A ringing telephone is 30 decibels. A whisper is 30 decibels."

Michigan lawmakers are working on  bills that would more closely regulate the sale of over-the-counter drugs that can be used to make methamphetamine.

People who buy flu, cold and allergy medications that contain ephedrine or pseudophedrine already have to sign a pharmacy log.

Under the new law, they would have to swipe their driver’s license or state ID card at the pharmacy. An Internet-based, real-time database  would show when, where and how much of the over-the-counter drugs they bought.

State Rep. Amanda Price sponsored one of the measures:

DETROIT -- (AP)  A Michigan museum is going to display the
original Emancipation Proclamation around the clock over a
three-day period at no cost.

     The Henry Ford Museum says it marks the first time the historic
document will visit the state since 1948. It'll be shown from
Monday evening through Wednesday morning.

     The Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves "forever
free" and invited black men to join the Union Army and Navy.

From The Associated Press

With gasoline prices in the state swinging back and forth around $4 per gallon, more Michigan motorists are riding mopeds.

The low-horsepower machines can cruise 100 miles on a gallon of gas.

The secretary of state's office says 17,064 mopeds were registered in Michigan in 2000, and by 2010, that number had risen to 40,978.

The price of gas is a major reason Kim Jackson of Dearborn has been riding a moped for the past two years.

Michigan International Speedway launches its new season this weekend. Track officials say they see signs of improved attendance this year. 

Campers are already arriving at the MIS track near Jackson to watch qualifying races, and the main event: the 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on Sunday.

MIS spokesman Dennis Worden says the upswing in ticket sales and camping reservations may show that the economy is improving

An organization that works to prevent teen pregnancy says steady progress has been made over the past couple of decades. But also it says the cost of teen pregnancy remains high, socially and fiscally. 

More than 260,000 teenage girls gave birth in Michigan between 1991 and 2008.

The cost to state taxpayers was about $7.6 billion, according to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Police and Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials are confirming the sighting of a black bear near Dexter this week.  

The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department says there were two reports of a bear at Hudson Mills Metropark last weekend. Then on Tuesday, a nearby homeowner spotted the bear, and took  photos.

Mary Dettloff is with the DNR. She says conservation officers confirmed evidence of a bear on the property.

A Detroit newspaper says a Detroit police lab closed two years ago was left unsecured,with evidence and live ammunition still inside.

The Detroit Free Press reports the lab recently had been left open for at least a week.

The report says evidence kits, personal information of rape and assault victims and live ammunition were scattered around.

The newspaper reported that the lab, housed in a former elementary school, also contained bulletproof vests, gunpowder and bottles of toxic chemicals.

A Michigan school superintendent’s open letter to lawmakers makes a startling request and it’s getting national attention.

Nathan Bootz runs Ithaca Public Schools,  a district with about 1,300 students.

Bootz wrote a letter to the Gratiot County Herald newspaper and suggested that the state turn his school district into a prison.

He says the state spends a lot more money on inmates than students.