Breaking News

Granholm Sees Kilpatrick Resignation As Rebuilding Opportunity For Detroit LANSING - With the resignation of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Governor Jennifer Granholm said Thursday she hoped that a new chapter can begin for the state and city both, "to see this as an opportunity to build a great city and region together, city and suburb, east and west, north and south."

Helen Of Troy Web Design Awards Deadline 5 PM Sept. 5 TROY - Friday is your last chance to add to your trophy case or promote your clients' talents. Do you have or do you design web sites with killer graphics, great content or innovative technology? You could be a 2008 winner of the Troy Chamber's Helen eWards for Web Excellence. The submission deadline is 5 pm Sept. 5.

11 Percent Of National CIO Plans To Hire Tech Pros In 4th Quarter MENLO PARK, Ca. - Eleven percent of chief information officers surveyed for the Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report expect to add staff in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 3 percent forecast personnel reductions. The net 8 percent increase compares with a net 10 percent increase projected last quarter. The majority of respondents, 83 percent, plan to maintain current staffing levels.

Poll: 58 Percent Of Detroiters Think Situation Will Be Better In A Year LANSING - A poll of 600 voters in Detroit, commissioned by non-profit leadership organization Detroit Renaissance, shows that while 80 percent of respondents believe the city is on the wrong track, 58 percent believe the situation will be better a year from now, 22 percent believe things will stay the same and 12 percent believe things will get worse.

Kilpatrick Ready To Accept Plea Agreement - Resignation, Jail, Restitution LANSING - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick appears prepared to accept a plea agreement and plead guilty before Wayne Circuit Chief Judge Edward Ewell on Thursday morning. Should that happen it would effectively end the hearing that Governor Jennifer Granholm now has underway to determine if Kilpatrick should be removed from office.

Google's Omnibox Could Be Pandora's Box SAN FRANCISCO - The auto-suggest feature of Google's new Chrome browser does more than just help users get where they are going. It will also give Google a wealth of information on what people are doing on the Internet besides searching.

Podcast

OnStar CIO Talks New Tech Available In September DETROIT - Tim Cox, CIO at OnStar, talks about the technology at use for this General Motors in vehicle telematics product, and the new wrinkles that will be rolled out in September. Cox was a keynote speaker at the recent Midwest Technology Leaders Conference.

Phil Bertolini Talks Oakland County Web Site DETROIT - Phil Bertolini, CIO for Oakland County, was one of three recipients of the Corporate Commitment To Michigan Award, at the Michigan Technology Leaders Conference. In this News Maker Interview, Bertolini talks about all the technology and Internet communications tools the state's second largest county is using to make it easier for residents to access government services.

Automation Alley

Automation Alley Names 6 For Brazil Trade Mission TROY - Technology marketing organization Automation Alley announced that six companies have signed on to attend its October trade mission to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Automation Alley Names Finalists For Annual Awards TROY - Automation Alley announced Tuesday the finalists for its Eighth Annual Awards Gala September 12 at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. The envelope please.

Entrepreneur's Corner

What Are You Doing? Twitter, UC And The Presence Revolution GRAND RAPIDS - AimWest's Sept. 17 meeting will take a look at Twitter, the social networking site that lets you and your peeps tell the world what you are doing at any given time, no matter how seemingly mundane or inane.

Battle Creek Unlimited Supports Web Development Group corePHP BATTLE CREEK - Battle Creek Unlimited has added another business to its growing Fort Custer Industrial Park complex - corePHP, a full service website development, graphic design and printing services company.

Security

Cybercrime Gets Its Game On NEW YORK - NASA's revelation this week that a computer virus had infected the International Space Station brought to mind images of cybercriminals sending astronauts plummeting toward a major U.S. city, Forbes magazine reported. Instead, the rogue software on the station's computer turned out to be doing something stranger: looking for passwords to the multiplayer online game "World of Warcraft."

Security Hole Opens Up Password Protected iPhones CUPERTINO, Ca. - A serious security hole in the latest iPhone software exposes e-mail, text, and voice messages to whoever gets a hold of the device despite it being password-protected.

ConnecTech

ConnecTech Opens Application Process For IT Awards TROY - Tech networking group ConnecTech has opened the submissions process for its new awards program, which replaces the former ICE Awards. Submission deadline is Sept. 19.

Bob Montgomery - ConnecTech July Mentor Of Month TROY - Bob Montgomery, Executive Director of Information Technology, Oakland Community College, is the July 2008 Mentor of the Month. To hear more about the program, and what Montgomery gets from it, listen to this special edition of News Maker Interview on the ConnecTech channel.

GreenTech

New Standards For State Renewable Energy Portfolio Expected LANSING - Michigan officials participating and observing in the ongoing discussions on a utility regulation and energy package are expecting to shortly see a new substitute on SB 213 that would set the amount of the energy the state would see developed by renewal resources.

MEDC Could Soon Have Centers Of Energy Excellence Grant Money LANSING - The Michigan Economic Development Corporation could begin receiving applications shortly for Centers of Energy Excellence grants after the Michigan Strategic Fund named it the manager for the program and approved the application process.

Politics

Latest Poll Shows Presidential Race Tighting Up LANSING - Michigan has rejoined the ranks of battleground states and a total of 14 states are now considered battleground states, according to the latest Outlook, created by the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research. The latest iteration of the poll of polls again shows Democrat Barack Obama winning the electoral college vote over Republican John McCain, but the race has narrowed so that victory for either candidate could come down to one state.

Opponents Argue Reform Michigan Now Proposal Not Constitutional LANSING – Citizens Protecting Michigan's Constitution have filed documents with the court arguing the ballot proposal does not meet the constitutional definition of an initiated amendment and arguing two justices not recuse themselves from hearing the case.

Biotechnology

Wayne State Grad To Receive da Vinci Lifetime Achievement Award SOUTHFIELD - Jeffery Kocsis has been named to receive the da Vinci Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Michigan Chapter for his work with new treatment strategies for people with MS.

Karmanos Cancer Center Lands $4.7 Million Army Medical Research Grant DETROIT – The Karmanos Cancer Institute's National Oncogenomics and Molecular Imaging Center will get $4.7 million in federal appropriations from the U.S. Army to help develop technology that will allow for the diagnosis of human cancer by defining oncogene signatures that characterize cancers in individual patients.

Guest Columns

Lack of Technological Innovators Threatens Michigan TRAVERSE CITY - A sharp decline in engineering-school enrollments in Michigan will have an adverse effect on the state's economy and also threatens the long-term recovery of the nation's domestic auto industry.

Serious Concerns With Exceptions In Great Lakes Compact In an article you ran on August 4, 2008 "US Senate Approves Great Lakes Compact - House To Vote After Labor Day," you state that the Great Lakes Compact will "strictly limit water diversions." While the Great Lakes Compact could be a means to protect Great Lakes waters, there are serious concerns with the exceptions laid out in the Compact – such as that allowing the packaging and sale of Great Lakes water as a "product" for private gain as well as its explicit exemption of bottled water.

New Products/Contracts

Plante & Moran Opens Monterrey, Mexico, Office SOUTHFIELD – Certified pubic accounting firm Plante & Moran on Wednesday announced it has opened an office in Monterrey, Mexico - joining Plante & Moran’s Shanghai, China, office abroad.

Edge Technology Joins Appia Communications Network TRAVERSE CITY - The Edge Technology Group has joined Appia Communications nationwide network of partners that provide managed IT and telecommunications services to small and midsize companies and organizations.