News

By Scott Pohl, WKAR News

EAST LANSING, MI – The East Lansing city council tonight is expected to become the first local government to approve the creation of an authority to oversee improvements to Michigan Avenue.

AUDIO: Last year, East Lansing joined the city of Lansing and Lansing Township in exploring the creation of the Michigan Avenue Corridor Improvement Authority. If approved by all three, the authority could pay for improvements to Michigan Avenue with tax increment financing or other methods of funding.

By AP

DETROIT – Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb have scheduled a press conference Wednesday.

Bobb has conducted a number of audits into the district's muddled finances, spending, benefits eligibility and public safety department since being appointed earlier this year by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Audits released last week revealed the district has been paying $2.1 million per year in health coverage for ineligible dependents, boxes of unused BlackBerry phones and 11 motorcycles.

By AP

WASHINGTON – A study by the University of Michigan finds that the fuel economy of new cars and light trucks sold in July noticeably jumped, thanks to the "cash for clunkers" program.

The average mileage for new vehicles went from 21.4 miles per gallon in June to 22.1 in July. That's best one-month mileage improvement university researchers have seen since the Environmental Protection Agency reconfigured mileage estimates in
October 2007.

By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network

LANSING, MI – Public employees and union lobbyists are speaking out against House Speaker Andy Dillon's proposal for a statewide insurance pool.

AUDIO:

A dozen people - from firefighters to nurses to teachers - lined the steps of the state Capitol building to speak against the plan as representatives of hundreds of thousands of public employees.

Mark Gaffney is with the Michigan AFL-CIO lobby.

By WKAR

EAST LANSING, MI – The 2009 college football season is less then a month away, and for fans of Michigan State there is a sense of excitment that has not been around this program for quite a while.

By Rob South, WKAR News

LANSING, MI – Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero has picked up the endorsement of former mayoral candidate Charles Ford.

By Rob South, WKAR News

LANSING, MI – The Lansing City Council Monday night heard testimony from about 60 people on an ordinance supporters say would make the city more pedestrian- and biker-friendly.

The Complete Streets ordinance would require the city to develop a plan to increase the number of paths for non-motorized travel. The ordinance was brought to the council through a petition drive. But Councilmember Carol Wood says it's an idea that the council has been working on since 2005.

By AP

WASHINGTON – General Motors has quit working with a partnership that collects toxic mercury parts from scrapped automobiles, jeopardizing the project just as hundreds of thousands
of clunkers are heading to the scrap yard.

Participants in the environmental program tell The Associated Press that the timing of GM's departure could hurt their work to prevent mercury pollution.

By AP

DETROIT – Mayor Dave Bing says Detroit could run out of cash within 70 days and is on the brink of receivership.

Bing said Monday he wants unionized city employees to accept a 10 percent wage cut by month's end.

Bing told reporters nonunion city workers will take a 10 percent pay cut as he attempts to slice into a $300 million deficit.

Bing gave union leaders a 30-day deadline in early July to decide on contract concessions. The deadline passed last week.

By AP

DETROIT – About 27,000 Michigan utility customers remain without power after thunderstorms battered the region and left about 249,000 homes and businesses in the dark.

DTE Energy Co. spokeswoman Lorie Kessler says about 7,000 customers were without power Tuesday morning. That's down from about 130,000 that were out earlier.

By WKAR

LANSING, MI – The Lansing Lugnuts lost to the Dayton Dragons 6-2 last night. Dayton swept the four-game series.

By AP

ANN ARBOR – Michigan assistant athletic director Scott Draper says the school's new indoor football facility is the tallest of its kind in the country.

Draper provided a tour Monday of the 104,000-plus square foot building that is as high as 85 feet from artificial turf to the nearest obstruction. Meanwhile, the Wolverines went through their first practice on adjacent fields outdoors.

By AP

BOSTON – Nick Green hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly and one of Boston's three homers, and the Red Sox ended their three-game power outage and six-game losing streak with a 6-5 win over the Detroit Tigers on Monday night.

The Red Sox, which scored just two runs in the final three games of a four-game sweep by the Yankees in New York, squandered a 5-3 lead when Manny Delcarmen allowed two runs in the seventh. They went back in front in the bottom of the inning on singles by J.D. Drew and Casey Kotchman and Green's sacrifice fly.

By AP

LANSING, MI – U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow says she's confident a health care overhaul will pass this year.

The Michigan Democrat says the issue is complicated, making it easy for opponents to "scare people" with "misinformation."

Stabenow spoke with reporters in Lansing Monday after discussing health care legislation with public health officials.

By AP

JACKSON, MI – A Northwest Community Schools official expects heavy damage to a middle school roof outside Jackson to be repaired before the start of the school year.

Tom Goodwin, the district's director of operations, maintenance and transportation, told the Jackson Citizen Patriot that parts of the roof covering the Kidder Middle School's tech lab and curriculum office were lifted off during storms Sunday night and a corner of roof covering the gymnasium was peeled back.

Damage was estimated at $400,000.

By AP

MUSKEGON, MI – More than 200 Muskegon-area residents are accused of cashing duplicated Social Security disability checks and defrauding the federal government of more than $400,000.

The Muskegon Chronicle and WOOD-TV report state charges were announced Monday against 209 individuals.

By AP

LANSING, MI – Michigan tax revenues for the month of July came in about $50 million less than expected.

Senate Fiscal Agency senior economist Jay Wortley said Monday that sales tax revenue is down because people are buying less.

Those who have lost their jobs aren't paying income taxes, and businesses are paying less because profits are down.

The 3% monthly shortfall is worsening the state's financial woes and leaving less federal recovery money for the budget that starts Oct. 1.

By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network

LANSING, MI – A state Senate investigation into an elevator argument between two senators is over. State Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop released the details of the investigation Monday.

By AP

DETROIT – More than 100,000 Michigan utility customers are without power after thunderstorms battered the region.

DTE Energy Co. spokesman Scott Simons says as of 5:45 a.m. today about 66,000 customers were without power, down from about 117,000 when the storms began Sunday morning.

Consumers Energy says about 48,000 customers were without power as of 6:45 a.m.

Affected DTE customers include 20,000 in Oakland County, 23,000 in Macomb and 17,000 in Wayne.

By Mark Bashore, WKAR News

LANSING, MI – About 800 Lansing autoworkers return to their jobs today after an extended layoff.

A prolonged period of weak Cadillac sales has kept General Motors' Grand River assembly plant idle since late June. But GM Lansing spokeswoman Heidi Magyar says a popular federal incentive is raising the demand for cars.