News

By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network

East Lansing, MI – The state will have to defend Michigan's patchwork system for ensuring legal representation for criminal defendants who can't afford to pay attorneys. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the case must move forward.

By Scott Pohl, WKAR News

EAST LANSING, MI – Michigan State University Friday dedicated a major expansion of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. The celebration also looked ahead to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or F-RIB, a newly-awarded research facility which will be constructed at MSU.

By Melissa Ingells, WKAR News

EAST LANSING, MI – We may not have hit 90 degree temperatures yet, but our book reviewer Lev Raphael has some steamy summer reading for us this month. It's Flora Fraser's "Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire."

By AP

BASEL, Switzerland – BASEL, Switzerland (AP) - Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis AG says it's produced a first batch of experimental swine flu vaccine.

The vaccine hasn't been tested and cannot be used in humans yet. It was made in cells, rather than grown in eggs as is usually the case with vaccines.

But because vaccines grown in cells account for less than 5 percent of the world's flu vaccine capacity, Novartis' announcement is unlikely to provide a major boost to the world's pandemic vaccine supply.

By AP

NEW YORK – The New York Philharmonic has elected a new chairman.

Gary W. Parr was elected chairman of the board of directors of the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York Inc. on Thursday. He assumes his new position on Sept. 24.

Parr succeeds Paul B. Guenther, who has held the post since September 1996. As chairman, Parr will serve as the society's chief volunteer officer.

By AP

STOCKHOLM – General Motors' Saab unit says a deal to find a new owner was "just around the corner" but added nothing has been finalized and didn't name any potential buyers.

In a statement on its Web site today, the Swedish unit said it was moving closer to a deal to secure the future of the ailing brand.

A person briefed on the talks would not identify the final bidders for Saab but said yesterday news could come "shortly" -- perhaps as early as today.

By AP

LANSING, MI – Michigan's carrot producers are deciding whether to keep paying to promote their product.

The Ag Marketing Resource Center says Michigan grew 17 percent of the nation's processing carrots and 3 percent of its fresh carrots last year.

A vote runs Monday through June 26 on whether to renew the Carrot Industry Development Program for another five years.

By AP

AUBURN HILLS, MI – The man who led the rescue of Chrysler in the 1980s welcomes Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne after the Italian automaker's takeover of the U.S. company.

Ex-Chrysler Corp. chief executive Lee Iacocca signed an open letter to Fiat Group SpA's chief dated Friday, saying he wants "to be among the first to welcome you to a truly unique auto company."

Iacocca wrote as honorary chairman of the National Chrysler Retirement Organization. Group President Chuck Austin also signed.

By AP

MONROE, MI – DTE Energy Co.'s Monroe Power Plant has begun using new equipment that's part of a $1.7 billion overhaul to curb air pollutants.

The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press report Friday the utility installed the first of two flue gas desulfurization units - or scrubbers - at the plant in Monroe, about 35 miles south of Detroit.

By Melissa Ingells, WKAR News

LANSING – The Great Lakes Loons beat the Lansing Lugnuts last night 3-2 at Oldsmobile Park. The Lugnuts dropped to 0 and 5 in extra-inning games in 2009, all home games. The Loons and Lugnuts play the third game in their four-game series tonight at 7:05 p.m.

By AP

CHICAGO – Scott Podsednik hit an RBI single off Joel Zumaya with the bases loaded in the ninth inning, giving the Chicago White Sox a 4-3 rainy win over the visiting Detroit Tigers.

The start of the game was delayed nearly three hours by showers. The Tigers almost made it an even longer day when Curtis Granderson hit a tying, two-run homer off closer Bobby Jenks with two outs in the top of the ninth.

By AP

DETROIT – Mike Babcock is excited about Game 7. Not restless, nervous or anxious.

The Detroit Red Wings coach has every reason to be relaxed and confident. He's the leader of the Stanley Cup champions, who can repeat with one more win at their home rink -- a friendly place where they are 11-1 in the playoffs.

Of course they hoped to wrap up another title Tuesday night in Pittsburgh against the Penguins, but they fell short in a 2-1 loss.

Now they have another chance to reclaim the Cup at home in the deciding game tonight.

By AP

DALLAS –
A second wave of thunderstorms has swept through north-central Texas. A powerful system ripped shingles from roofs, knocked down trees and left hundreds of thousands in the dark.
In west Dallas, reverse 911 calls and firefighters moving door-to-door are urging more than 5,000 households to evacuate because of flooding concerns.

The earlier system broke up by mid-afternoon Thursday after unleashing more than 8 inches of rain in parts of Dallas. The storms canceled some 400 flights at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

By AP

RECIFE, Brazil – A Brazilian ship has recovered three more bodies as the search continues for victims from Air France Flight 447.

That makes 44 bodies that have been retrieved from the Airbus 330 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean May 31 while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

Authorities hope identifying the bodies will help them determine whether the plane broke up in midair by allowing them to match seating assignment with location of body recovery.

By AP

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he's eager to sign legislation passed by the Senate that would allow the FDA to step in and regulate tobacco.

The president, who has struggled to quit smoking himself, says the bill "will make history by giving the scientists and medical experts at the FDA the power to take sensible steps."

The House, which passed a similar measure back in April, plans to vote on the Senate's version Friday.

By AP

WASHINGTON – A crucial war-funding bill is back on track in Congress after a flare-up over controversial detainee abuse photos.

House-Senate negotiators sealed agreement on the measure Thursday night when President Barack Obama personally guaranteed the photos would never be released.

The promise came after White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel rushed to the Capitol to resolve an impasse between Senate Democratic moderates and House liberals over the photos issue.

By AP

NEW YORK – For TV viewers across America, D-Day has arrived. That's "D" as in "digital."

Starting in the morning and going into the night, TV stations across the U.S. are cutting their analog signals on Friday to go entirely digital.

It ends a six-decade era for analog broadcasting and could strand more than 1 million unprepared homes without TV service.

By Gretchen Millich, WKAR News

EAST LANSING, MI – A group of parishioners at St. John Student Parish in East Lansing is trying to stop the merger of St. John's with St. Thomas Aquinas.

This week, the group filed a petition with the Lansing Catholic Diocese, asking Bishop Earl Boyea to reconsider the merger.

By AP

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The Southern Poverty Law Center says the suspect in the fatal shooting of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum recently transferred the domain name of
his racist Web site to a man in southwestern Michigan.

Records show James von Brunn created www.holywesternempire.org
in October 2000.

The hate-crime watchdog group says Steve Reimink acquired the
domain name around the first of this month. The group designated it as a hate Web site in 2003.

By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network

LANSING, MI – Republican state senators unveiled an education reform plan Thursday that would allow teachers and parents to decide if their local public school is failing. If both agree the school is failing, a charter school would take its place.