Tagged: morning news roundup

Faith-based groups look to health insurance alternative

"Members of faith-based groups in Michigan could soon be allowed to share the costs of their medical bills as an alternative to buying health insurance. The state House is expected to vote this week on the measure. Several states already allow faith-based groups that share the costs of medical bills. Republican state Representative Lisa Lyons sponsored the measure. She says some families and businesses have found it’s a way to manage their healthcare costs. And that’s because there’s no guarantee anyone’s medical bills will be covered. The commitment to share the costs of medical bills is a faith-based promise, but not a legal contract. Members of health care ministries are exempt from the requirement in the new federal health care law that most people carry insurance starting in 2014. That’s led some critics to complain that faith-based medical bill-sharing could undermine the benefits of the federal health care law," Rick Pluta reports.

World's largest property auction in Wayne County

"Wayne County has finished the first round of what’s been called the 'world’s largest property auction.' The county is trying to get rid of more than 22-thousand tax-foreclosed properties by auction. More than 20,000 of them are in Detroit. But despite the glut of vacant properties, housing prices are headed up in certain areas of the city. Leaders in Detroit’s downtown and midtown areas say housing demand now outpaces supply there," Sarah Cwiek reports.

Hunters track deer virus

"State wildlife officials are looking to hunters to help track a virus that's been killing thousands of Michigan deer. Many hunters spent this weekend in the woods, a few of them deer-hunting legally, but most stalking deer ahead of next month's opening of bow season. Some 4,000 deer have died of the virus in Michigan since July. And there are outbreaks in eleven other states as well, including Ohio and Indiana. Dan O’Brien is a veterinarian with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. He says the Michigan outbreak has affected deer in 24 counties. O’Brien says the outbreak will continue until a hard freeze kills off the insects that spread the virus to the deer.  The virus is not harmful to humans," Steve Carmody reports.

Michigan unemployment rate up to 9.4 percent

"There were more Michiganders out of work in August. The state’s unemployment rate jumped last month. Michigan’s unemployment rate rose to 9.4 percent in August. That's up four tenths of a percent from the July jobless rate. Unemployment has been rising in Michigan for the past four months. Now is at its highest point since last November. A big reason for the jump is large cuts in manufacturing jobs. On the positive side, Michigan’s unemployment rate was still a full percentage point lower last month than it was in August 2011. There were also some gains in the number of people finding work in the professional business and government sectors," Steve Carmody reports.

Public defense bill moves forward

Some election officials will ignore citizenship question at polls

"A handful of local election officials say they won't ask voters to affirm their U-S citizenship at the polls in November. Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson wants ballot applications to include the question. A spokesman for the Secretary of State's office says the intent is to clean up voter rolls. Until 2008, the federal government required the Secretary of State to ask anyone who got a driver's license whether they wanted to register to vote. Some non-citizens were inadvertently registered, although it's not clear how many," Sarah Hulett reports.

Palisades inspections start this week

"Federal inspectors begin a critical review of operations at West Michigan’s Palisades nuclear power plant beginning Monday. Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors want to determine if Palisades’ owners have addressed problems that have raised questions about the nuclear plant’s “culture of safety." The problems have resulted in four unscheduled reactor shutdowns. If Palisades doesn’t get very good ratings from the NRC inspectors, the west Michigan nuclear plant will be subject to a much more intensive inspection that could take 18 months. Despite the problems a federal official insists Palisades can be operated safely," Steve Carmody reports.

Michigan Civilian Conservation Corp gets support

"Colleges, universities, and community groups are lining up to support an effort to revive Michigan’s Civilian Conservation Corps. The corps puts unemployed young adults to work on conservation projects. Legislation at the state Capitol would turn the MCCC into a public-private partnership, which wouldn’t use any taxpayer dollars. But not everyone thinks the program can just sprout back up overnight. The program hasn’t had adequate state funding for years. But sponsors of the bi-partisan bill say the level of enthusiasm so far suggests the program can make a strong comeback," Jake Neher reports.

Snyder promotes vocational training

"Governor Rick Snyder says Michigan and the rest of the country lost sight of the value of vocational training as young people were encouraged to get four-year college degrees. The governor spoke Thursday at a business conference in Grand Rapids.  He says too many students have been pushed toward getting four-year college degrees when vocational education or community college might have made more sense. The governor says the result is thousands of jobs in skilled trades go unfilled while people are looking for work. Snyder says he intends to convene a summit of educators and employers early next year to get a better sense of where the demand for jobs is strongest – and use that information to help re-design Michigan’s education system. The governor has also called for stronger integration of pre-school through post-high school education," Rick Pluta reports.

Report finds 17 percent of Metro Detroit youth are not working or in school

"A new report says Metro Detroit has one of the country’s highest rates of youth who are not working or in school. The group Measure of America looked at 16- to 24-year-olds in the nation’s 25 biggest metro areas. It found Metro Detroit had the third-highest rate of so-called “disconnected” youth, at about 17-percent. Only Phoenix and Miami had higher rates. The report recommends universal preschool education, and re-building vocational education programs, as effective ways to fight the disconnection problem," Sarah Cwiek reports.

Public defense overhaul stalled

"The state Attorney General has stalled a plan to overhaul Michigan’s public defense system. The state is consistently ranked as one of the worst in the country for providing defense attorneys to those who can’t afford one. But Bill Schuette’s legislative relations director Alan Cropsey came to the hearing with a long list of concerns about the bill. He says it would open the state to lawsuits, and doesn’t provide enough oversight. Supporters of the bill hope to have another hearing this month," Jake Neher reports.

Casino Ballot Proposal

Opponents of a ballot proposal to allow 8 new casinos in Michigan are celebrating. The state appeals court ruled that the ballot proposal goes against Michigan’s constitution. Lindsey Smith reports:

A group of current casino owners said the ballot question is illegal because it isn't clear what laws it would change. So the opponents challenged it in court. "The current constitution say that if you’re going to make changes to an act or something in the constitution you have to identify for the voters what you’re changing. They did that nowhere in the proposal,” said John Truscott, spokesman for the group. Michigan’s Court of Appeals agreed. The court said the ballot initiative would change the Michigan Gaming Control and Revenue Act if voters passed it. Supporters say they will appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

DPS Finances

A Wayne County judge has issued a mixed ruling in a case that pits the Detroit Public Schools’ emergency manager against the district’s elected school board. “Since the emergency manager law was suspended last week, some elected officials have tried to reverse decisions made by emergency managers. That’s the case in the Detroit Public Schools, where the elected school board has moved to un-do some actions of emergency manager Roy Roberts. Roberts sued to stop that, and Judge Stephen Murphy has ruled those decisions remain in effect—for now. Murphy also ruled that Roberts is still charge of the district’s finances, but the board has control over academics,” Sarah Cwiek reports.

Tree Health

Two popular tree species are under attack in Michigan and now, state foresters are hoping to harvest some healthy trees before they’re killed off. “Forests throughout Michigan are undergoing big changes as millions of beech and ash trees are killed by pests and disease. Beech Bark Disease and the Emerald Ash Borer first arrived in Michigan around twelve years ago.  Both problems continue to spread, but many forests still have healthy trees in them. Foresters from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Michigan Tech are taking a closer look at more than 30,000 acres of state forest land. The DNR says the goal is not to remove all beech or ash trees in these forests, but to thin them to a healthier level,” Mark Brush reports.

Detroit Finances

Detroit’s Financial Advisory Board met for the fourth time yesterday.The nine-member board has significant powers over the city’s budget under Detroit’s consent agreement with the state. Sarah Cwiek reports:

City officials told the board that the sweeping restructuring of city operations is largely going ahead as planned. The first major step—a 10-percent pay cut for nearly all city union employees—will go into effect within days. But Detroit City Council member Gary Brown warned that a Council fiscal analysis shows the city still running a significant deficit. Brown says the Council wants to address that debt through budget amendments as soon as possible. Detroit’s Chief Financial Officer, Jack Martin, says Mayor Bing’s office plans to submit budget amendments to Council by the end of September.

Palisades Update

Workers at the Palisades nuclear plant have found the source of a leak that caused the plant to shut down over the weekend. “The leak is inside the building that holds the nuclear reactor. The heat generated by the reactor is restrained in part by 45 control rods. A Palisades spokesman says the source of the leak is at least one of those control rods, which they will replace. He says they don’t know why the rod is leaking. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sent a special inspector to oversee the repairs. It’s unclear how long they will take,” Lindsey Smith reports.

MI Fireworks

An ad hoc state House workgroup will review Michigan’s new fireworks law and could recommend some changes. “The law allows licensed retailers to sell high-powered fireworks.The law also forbids local governments from banning fireworks on the day before, the day of, and the day after a national holiday. State Representative Harold Haugh is the author of the law and co-chairs the workgroup. Haugh says he’s open to tweaks in the law, but considers it a success, by and large. At least one state lawmaker has called for allowing local governments to ban selling or shooting high-powered fireworks," Rick Pluta reports.

Nuclear Power Plant Shut Down

A new water leak is forcing operators of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Southwest Michigan to shut it down. Michigan Radio’s Lindsey Smith reports:

This is the second time this summer the plant has had to shut down for repairs.  The plant shut down to refuel in April, which is normal. But then a water leak caused the plant to shut back down just a few weeks later. Those repairs took a month and in mid-July the plant returned to service. But that’s when a Palisades spokesman says they discovered a different water leak – this time in the building that holds the nuclear reactor. The leak got as bad at 18 gallons an hour before operators shut it back down again this weekend.  The spokesman says there has been “no release of radioactivity in the environment.” The plant is under more scrutiny because it has one of the worst safety ratings in the country.

Voting Citizens

Michigan’s Secretary of State Ruth Johnson says she’s asked the federal government to help her purge the state’s voter rolls of non-citizens. “She says there could be a lot of non-citizens registered to vote in the state.That's because for about 3 decades, the federal government required secretaries of state to register people without asking if they were citizens. Johnson says the federal government is helping Colorado and Florida boot non-citizens off its rolls, and she hopes Michigan will be next in line,” Tracy Samilton reports.

EM for Allen Park?

The team responsible for reviewing Allen Park's finances says Gov. Snyder should appoint an emergency manager to run the city southwest of Detroit, the Associated Press reports. “The review team cited the city's deficit, $1 million in delinquent vendor payments, delayed pension payments and significant cash flow shortages. The city also had not filed an approved deficit-elimination plan for the 2011 fiscal year. The review team also determined City Council is "manifestly dysfunctional." Spokeswoman Sara Wurfel says Snyder has 30 days to make a decision,” the AP  reports.

Emergency manager law

The state Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday on a challenge to the referendum on Michigan’s emergency manager law. MPRN's Rick Pluta reports the challenge was filed by business groups that support the emergency manager law.

It says the size of the type used on part of the petition to put the question on the ballot is too small. The referendum campaign says the printer measured the font using the industry standard and it is correct. The campaign also says, regardless, small technical errors should not stop voters from deciding the question after more than 200,000 people signed petitions to put it on the ballot.

Groups opposed to the emergency manager law are planning to bus in protesters to demonstrate outside the Michigan Hall of Justice, where the Supreme Court meets. There are seven Michigan cities and school districts that are being run by state-appointed emergency managers.

Energy emergency in parts of the U.P.

Governor Rick Snyder has signed an executive order declaring an energy emergency in parts of the Upper Peninsula. He says a pipeline rupture in Wisconsin has affected the supply of gasoline and diesel fuel to the western and central U.P.

MPRN's Rick Pluta reports that West Shore Pipeline typically carries three million gallons a day between Chicago and Green Bay, which is used to supply much of the western half of the U.P.

Governor Snyder’s order will allow truckers to drive longer hours to get to fuel supplies in Milwaukee and Madison. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has also lifted restrictions because to allow truck drivers to work longer hours. The pipeline resumed moving fuel – although at reduced pressure -- this past weekend, but gas and diesel remain in short supply in some parts of the U-P. That has caused a spike in the price of fuel. Governor Snyder’s emergency order remains in effect for two weeks, unless he rescinds it sooner than that," Rick Pluta reports. 

Michigan casinos

Opponents of an amendment to allow eight new casinos in Michigan say the proposal violates the state constitution. So they’re going to court in an effort to keep the question off the November ballot. The Protect MI Vote coalition is made up of business groups and the owners of casinos in Detroit and on tribal land. The coalition’s attorneys say the question is both an amendment to the state constitution and a re-write of the state’s casino gaming law. Protect MI Vote says a ballot question cannot be both.