Rina Miller

Michigan students who think standardized tests are tough now may be in for a rude awakening.

The Michigan Board of Education is considering tough new performance requirements on the MEAP and merit exams.

Joseph Martineau is with the Michigan Department of Education. He says this is the last step in a plan the state’s been working on for the last seven years.­

“It really is time for us to look at the end result of K-12 education being readiness for college and career, and not readiness to perform in what we might term the old manufacturing economy.”

 There’s a tug of war over control of Detroit’s public access television channels. Mayor Dave Bing wants to expand programming, but City Council says the service is fine as it is.

Mayor Bing is suing the Detroit City Council because it voted to give itself control over the city’s public access TV programming.

The channels are used mostly to broadcast and re-run council meetings. Bing says the resource could be better used.

Councilman Kwame Kenyatta says the mayor’s suit is disrespectful of council.

Bing spokeswoman Karen Dumas disagrees.

Public forums on bullying will be held this month in Detroit and later this year elsewhere in the state.

But not everyone agrees that more school or government programs are needed to curb bullying.

Glenn Stutzky is with Michigan State University's School of Social Work. He says the solution lies in the home.

Patients at Battle Creek Health System are expected to have more services and physicians available to them after a deal with a larger hospital is completed.

Bronson Health Group of Kalamazoo is buying a 51% stake in the smaller BCHS.

Denise Brooks-Williams is president and CEO of the Battle Creek facility. She says the two hospital systems have common goals.

Members of a controversial church group that protests outside soldiers' funerals will speak at Central Michigan University next week.

Journalism professor Tim Boudreau says he invited Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church to talk to his students.

Members of the Kansas church believe U.S. soldiers' deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.

Boudreau says he caught his students by surprise when he told them who was coming.

A University of Michigan student leader has dropped his request for a personal protection order against an assistant state attorney general.

Andrew Shirvell used his blog to attack Chris Armstrong for promoting what Shirvell called a radical homosexual agenda on campus.

Shirvell also protested at events where Armstrong was present.

Philip Thomas is Andrew Shirvell's lawyer.

A public forum on the future of trains in Michigan will be held tonight in Monroe.

John Langdon with the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers says college students and senior citizens like trains. He says he hopes everybody else will see that increasing rail service is good for the economy, the environment and their own pocketbook.