Steve Carmody

Detroit’s real estate market posted some of the strongest price gains in the nation in 2012.

The just released S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index charts home sale prices in the nation’s twenty largest cities.

Detroit home sale prices rose more than 13 percent last year, the third highest percentage increase in the survey.

Craig Lazzara is the head of Index Investment Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices. He compiled the report. Lazzara says, despite the rise in prices, homes in Detroit are still selling for about what they did in 1997. 

The city of Flint is once again hiking water rates.

The move is likely to stir controversy.

Beginning March 1st, the city of Flint is raising the deposit required for water service to rental properties, from 100 dollars to 350 dollars.

A city spokeswoman says the 350 dollar deposit will begin to reduce the current $2.8 million owed the system.

Water rate increases have been highly controversial in Flint.

Since 2011, the city has hiked water rates by more than 100 percent.

Michigan hospitals could be among those hardest hit by automatic federal budget cuts this week.

Under the sequestration, Medicare reimbursements to doctors and hospitals would be cut by two percent.

Laura Appel is the vice president for federal policy and advocacy with the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.  She says sequestration would add up to tens of millions of dollars a year in loss reimbursements to Michigan hospitals. 

Feeling the blues?

University of Michigan researchers say so called ‘retail therapy’ can help.

Legislation to allow tourists to hold and pose for photos while holding bear cubs is being criticized by Michigan’s zoo keepers.

The state senate passed a bill this month that would allow exhibitors to let people come into very close contact with bears less than nine months old and under 90 pounds.

The legislation is intended to help a bear sanctuary in the Upper Peninsula that funds its operations, in part, by letting tourists hold and pose for pictures with bear cubs.

Tara Harrison says that’s a bad idea.  She’s the veterinarian at Lansing’s Potter Park.

The American Civil Liberties Union is raising questions about how Michigan police officers and sheriff’s deputies use tasers.

Tasers have become an important tool for law enforcement agencies across Michigan.    The devices are used to incapacitate individuals with a high voltage electric shock.

But the ACLU says there is not a uniform policy among Michigan law enforcement agencies for when to use a taser.

A Michigan company has been charged in a scheme federal officials have dubbed ‘Honeygate.’

Michigan-based Groeb Farms is one of the nation’s largest honey suppliers.   The company buys honey in 42 states and around the world.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say Groeb Farms and another honey supplier were involved in a scheme to dump Chinese honey in the United States. 

Federal officials say the Chinese honey was declared as other commodities and shipped through third countries. The defendants in the investigation dubbed "Project Honeygate" are accused of evading anti-dumping duties totaling more than $180 million.

Groeb Farms has agreed to pay a $2 million fine. 

“We take full responsibility for and deeply regret any errors that were made in the past regarding the import of honey,” said Groeb Farms CEO Rolf Richter in a written statement. 

Some of the honey contained antibiotics not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in honey.   None of the charges allege any instances of illness or other public health consequences attributed to consumption of the honey.

The investigation is continuing.

Michigan stands to lose thousands of jobs if automatic federal budget cuts take effect at the end of the month.

The effects could ripple through the state’s economy.

Stephen Fuller, an economist at George Mason University, has broken down the effects of the $85 billion in federal spending cuts that will go into effect if the so-called sequestration goes through next week.

He estimates Michigan will lose 23,000 to 25,000 jobs, mostly defense department related, but also about 10,000 non-governmental jobs.

That’s slightly lower than the more than 30,000 jobs lost he predicted last year, but he says the effect on Michigan’s economy will still be more than $2 billion.

Fuller says small businesses will feel the effect more than large businesses.

“They have a harder time adjusting…they don’t have stockholders or large deposits in the bank to live off of,” said Fuller.

Fuller says government workers will probably start to feel the budget cuts in April, but a Lansing area defense contractor has already announced layoffs tied to the looming sequestration.

Flint mayor Dayne Walling says his city must now make a transition to an era of 'reconstruction' after a 'generation of decline.'

Walling told the audience at his ‘State of the City’ address Monday that in order to begin that transition Flint must deal with its crime problem.

Flint had the worst violent crime rate in the nation last year. 

“We have lost too many lives. Too many of our promising youth who were confined to environments that were always dangerous and all too often became deadly,” Walling told his audience.

People trying to redeem deposits on bottles and cans purchased outside of Michigan may face some stiff fines in the future.

Michigan loses millions of dollars every year cashing in returnable bottles and cans bought out of state.  Michigan has one of the highest bottle deposits in the country.

Tomorrow, a state House committee will discuss imposing fines, as much as five thousand dollars, on people who try to fraudulently redeem out-of-state returnables. They could also face jail time.

Flint’s mayor delivers his State of the City address tomorrow.

He says he’ll map out a path for Flint to no longer need an emergency financial manager running his city.

Mayor Dayne Walling says now’s the time to begin preparing for life after an emergency manager.

The city has been under the direction of a state appointed manager since December of 2011.

The new emergency manager law that takes effect next month includes a provision that details how cities can get back to self-control.

Environmental and organic farming groups want a change in the way federal agriculture subsidies are handed out.

Michigan is close to ending its role as a leader in home foreclosures.

At one time the state had the highest foreclosure rate in the country.

But after 27 straight months of declines, Michigan’s foreclosure rate is almost down to the national average.

“It’s still in the Top Ten states for foreclosure rates…barely it’s at number ten,” says Daren Bloomquist with Realty Trac, “with one in every 837 housing units with a foreclosure filing in the month (of January)….and that’s not too far off the national average ….which is one in every 867 housing units.”

Tens of billions of dollars in federal spending cuts will take effect March first, unless Congress does something to stop the sequestration.

And Michigan’s major research universities may be among those feeling the sting.