DETROIT - Finally some good economic news in Michigan. On Friday morning, the new General Motors Co. exited Chapter 11 protection, with the auto maker emerging as a leaner, more-focused manufacturer, with only four brands. At a Detroit press conference, GM Chief Executive Frederick "Fritz" Henderson announced the birth of a "new GM," committed to
WASHINGTON - Effective July 10, small businesses that would otherwise have difficulty securing private equity or venture capital may find funding easier to get as a result of changes made as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to the U.S. Small Business Administration's Small Business Investment Company program. "The Recovery Act expands SBA's
GRAND RAPIDS - The Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest, The West Michigan Science & Technology Initiative and Grand Valley State University are sponsoring a community conversation with West Michigan residents to discuss entrepreneurship and how the state can best foster growth of entrepreneurial activity. This free Grand Rapids event is one of four facilitated conversations organized
LANSING - With a new toll free phone number, the Michigan Transportation Team has created a direct line for frustrated drivers who want to voice their opinions to lawmakers about the state of Michigan roads and whether to implement more funding to fix them, a spokesperson said Thursday. Mike Nystrom, vice president of government and
LANSING - Advocates in California have started a television campaign this week highlighting how legalizing marijuana and taxing it could help balance the state's $26 billion deficit, but a spokesperson said Wednesday the group has no plans to do the same in Michigan. The Marijuana Policy Project, which lent more than $1 million to the
ANN ARBOR - NanoBio Corp., a biopharmaceutical company, announced Wednesday that it has closed a $22 million Series B financing round after recently securing an additional $10 million investment from NanoBio's majority shareholder Perseus, L.L.C., based in New York, N.Y., and Venture Investors of Madison, Wis. and Ann Arbor. The $10 million is in addition
DETROIT - Four Michigan and Ontario, Canada, based angel investors have banded together to create Nouveau Angel Capital Corp., which plans to raise $18 million on the Canadian public market to invest in start-up companies in Michigan and Ontario. This band of angels includes a member of the Great Lakes Angels, based at TechTown in
ANN ARBOR - Michigan could lose 310,700 jobs during 2009, the latest forecast from the University of Michigan-based Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics said, the worst year for job losses in the state since the 1950s. And the latest forecast for job losses is 2.5 times the number of jobs the organization predicted back in
LANSING - While in the current budget cycle federal stimulus dollars may have managed to keep the state "crawling and screaming" toward balance, without a serious change in spending and a dramatic new tax plan by 2012 Michigan could look a lot like California, a state drowning so far in its own debt it seems
LANSING -Gov. Jennifer Granholm has signed legislation aimed at keeping the North American International Auto Show in Michigan beyond 2010, preferably at its current home in Detroit's Cobo Center. The new laws signed today call for a nearly $300-million expansion of Cobo and the creation of a regional authority to run and renovate the aging