GRAND RAPIDS - The Fourth Friday Technology Forum, part of The Right Place Program, will be hosting Danny Beckett, president and CEO of Spearia Inc., on Jan. 22 at 7:30 am at CPR in Grand Rapids. Beckett bills himself as a Leader, reality-based visionary, communicator, team builder, and accomplished entrepreneur and professional motorcycle racer across
DETROIT - More signs the auto industry is starting to turn the corner. According to the Detroit Free Press, production in the first quarter in North America is expected to increase 70 percent compared to a year ago. The industry plans to build 2.9-million vehicles this quarter compared to 1.7 million last year. The average
LANSING - After nearly a year of reviewing a proposal to add a high-speed railway that would travel between Detroit and Lansing, workgroup members announced on Tuesday that they would urge the Legislature to go ahead with the proposal, although not without cautionary notes. Chair of the Interstate Traveler Taskforce, Rep. Bill Rogers (R-Brighton), said
LANSING - Senate Republicans placed a bull's-eye Tuesday on public employee pay and benefits as the centerpiece of their efforts to restructure the cost of government, calling for government workers to take a 5 percent pay cut and pay 20 percent of their health insurance premiums. The sweeping plan, which would accomplish the pay cut
MINNEAPOLIS - Seventy-four percent of organizations experienced a data loss incident at their workplace in the last two years. This is one of the key findings of a new survey launched in North America today by Kroll Ontrack, a provider of data recovery and legal technologies products and services. The problem of data loss -
SAN JOSE - The China-based cyberattacks on Google and other companies were "a watershed moment in cybersecurity," according to an executive at computer security company McAfee. "I believe this is the largest and most sophisticated cyberattack we have seen in years targeted at specific corporations," McAfee Chief Technology Officer George Kurtz wrote on his blog
ANN ARBOR - Four companies recently received a combined total of $170,000 in funding from the Michigan Microloan Fund Program. CTC Holdings, Energy Management Devices, MemCatch and Motor City Wipers will use the microloan funding to commercialize their products and accelerate business growth. CTC Holdings is commercializing advanced VOCs-to-Energy Products that convert VOC emissions into
ANN ARBOR - MichBio, Michigan's life sciences trade association, has launched a 2010 membership campaign with the theme, "It Pays To Belong." The group represents roughly one-third of the biosciences organizations in the state, and hopes to increase its membership to at least a majority. "MichBio has made a lot of progress over the past
LANSING - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be handing out $475 million in grants under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and legislators urged Thursday that Michigan receive funding proportionate to its role in the basin. Cameron Davis, senior advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency on Great Lakes policy, told a joint meeting of the
LIVONIA - Fisker Automotive has contracted with Boston-based A123 Systems to supply battery packs for the forthcoming Fisker Karma plug-in electric car, which is due in late 2010. The battery packs will be built at A123's Livonia and Romulus operations, adding some 500 jobs. The intent is to also supply batteries for Project Nina, a