Steve Carmody

Michigan’s home builders are optimistic about the year ahead.

The recession walloped Michigan’s home building industry. Many builders went out of business. Others merged and focused on home remodeling.

But a new survey shows Michigan’s home builders are optimistic about getting back into the business of building new homes. They say pent up consumer demand, especially for more expensive homes ($200,000 to $800,000), is pushing up the Michigan Housing Index.

Two former First Ladies will take part in a special event in Grand Rapids Monday.

Former First Ladies Barbara and Laura Bush are headlining the day-long symposium looking at the influence of First Ladies.

Elaine Didier is the Gerald R. Ford presidential museum director.   She says the Bushes have spoken at similar events at presidential museums in Texas.

“They are quite a dynamo,” says Didier, “The two have a great rapport. I mean it’s really is something……a mother-in-law / daughter-in-law first lady situation.”

Professional hockey is coming to Ann Arbor after all.

The National Hockey League announced today that the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings will play next year at Michigan Stadium.

The NHL's Winter Classic was scheduled to be played in Ann Arbor this past January.  But the game was canceled due to a contract dispute between team owners and the players.

When this year's event was canceled, the league had said it would schedule the next Winter Classic at the stadium, which holds more than 100,000 people.

Michigan is headed to Monday’s NCAA men’s basketball national championship.

The Michigan Wolverines survived a late surge by the Syracuse Orange to win Saturday night’s national semi-final .   The final score was 61 to 56. 

The Michigan Wolverines are just one game away from playing for the NCAA men’s basketball national championship. But first, they must play the Syracuse Orange in tonight’s national semi-final in Atlanta.

The Wolverines will have to solve the mystery of Syracuse's zone defense, which has perplexed all their opponents so far in the March Madness tournament.

“You can’t simulate it in practice,” U of M coach John Beilein told reporters earlier this week, “It’s a thing we have to work at and we’ll be as ready as we can be.”

A new study claims there is evidence that a small number of Asian Carp have reached the Great Lakes.   

Asian Carp is an invasive species that could potentially damage the Great Lakes environment and seven billion dollar fishing industry.

The paper released Thursday was written by scientists with the University of Notre Dame, The Nature Conservancy and Central Michigan University. It summarizes findings from a two-year search for the carp in and around the Great Lakes. 

A new report finds three regional cities are good places to buy and rent out single family homes.

A new Realty Trac survey lists Detroit, Saginaw and Toledo among the 20 best markets in the country to own and rent single family homes. Florida cities dominate the rest of the list.

The top 20 are based on the markets with the most potential cash flow and capitalization rates on a 3-bedroom home.

Saginaw ranked second on the survey.  Toledo came in third.  Detroit ranked 15th on the list.  Memphis, Tennessee topped the Realty Trac ranking. 

A federal judge has ruled that Blue Cross must pay hundreds of Michigan families who were denied coverage for behavioral therapy for children with autism.

Blue Cross contends the therapy is experimental, but doctors disagree.

The ruling may cost Blue Cross about five million dollars.

National credit rating agencies are warming to the state of Michigan.

Today, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s joined Moody’s in upgrading the state’s credit rating.

An improved credit rating may help the state get more favorable rates when it needs to borrow money.

John Nixon is the state budget director. He says the state has cut its long-term liabilities and taken other steps to get its ‘house in order.’

“We’ll continue that….it’s a slow process…we didn’t get to where we were overnight….we got downgraded over a series of years,” says Nixon.

Researchers at the University of Michigan are closely watching President Obama’s call for a big increase in federal funding for brain research. 

President Obama is proposing a 100 million dollar increase in federal funding for brain research.   

U of M has many different researchers studying the human brain.    From Alzheimer’s disease to Depression, neuroscientists on the Ann Arbor campus are approaching the brain from a wide variety of specialties.

A battle is brewing over where the city of Flint will get its tap water.

Last month, the Flint city council voted to join a project to get fresh water from Lake Huron.   Supporters say the project will save the city millions of dollars by replacing its current water source: the city of Detroit.

But the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is asking the state Treasury Department to veto the plan.

Bill Johnson is with the DWSD. He says state officials need to step in to prevent a “water war.”

A plan to close Lansing’s projected five million dollar budget deficit next year may cost some city residents and businesses more than others.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero wants the city utility to charge its customers a fee to pay for city streetlights and fire hydrants.   

Right now, Lansing city government pays for the streetlights and fire hydrants out of the city’s general fund. 

Lansing’s mayor wants the city’s utility to charge its customers a fee to pay for the streetlights and fire hydrants to help balance the capitol city’s budget.

The University of Michigan’s allotment of tickets to this weekend’s Final Four basketball games is going quickly.

The last of the more than three thousand tickets might be scooped up by season ticket holders and students by the end of today.

Wolverine fans are not only scrambling for tickets.  They are also looking for places to stay in Atlanta for Saturday’s semi-final game against Syracuse and hopefully Monday’s national championship game.

An equipment malfunction led to a small oil spill into the Grand River in Lansing over the weekend.

The Board of Water and Light admitted today that a malfunctioning piece of equipment at the utility’s Eckert Power Plant Sunday created an oil spill that overflowed the plant’s containment area.  

A utility spokesperson says fewer than 300 gallons of oil seeped into the Grand River.  Oil-collecting booms have been deployed to contain the spill. 

Two people from Michigan are among those sickened in a nationwide E. coli outbreak.

The E. coli outbreak has sickened 24 people in 15 states, including the two in Michigan.

The contamination has been traced to Farm Rich frozen food products including mini pizza slices, mini quesadillas with cheese and chicken, philly cheese steaks

with cheese, and mozzarella bites. The recalled products were sold at Kroger, Spartan Stores and other chain supermarkets.

Governor Rick Snyder is cool to a proposal to roll back Michigan’s new pension tax.

The pension tax was part of a package enacted in 2011 that eliminated the Michigan Business Tax.

A group of five Republican state senators wants to repeal the pension tax and reinstate some homestead property tax credits.

Governor Snyder says the tax on pensions is just a matter of fairness, so that the tax burden falls equally. The governor insists the tax that pensioners are now paying is not too much ask.

There will be one Michigan team playing in the Final Four in next weekend’s NCAA’s men’s basketball tournament. 

The Michigan Wolverines jumped to a double digit lead early in their Elite Eight game against the Florida Gators on Sunday. And they never relinquished their lead. The final score was 79 to 59. 

Michigan is the only Big Ten team to reach the Final Four. Michigan State and Ohio State both lost tournament games over the weekend.

U of M will play the Syracuse Orangemen in one of next Saturday’s national semi-finals in Atlanta.