NEW YORK - Microsoft will spend $500 million this year to promote upcoming products designed to make business workers more productive, CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday at a Microsoft-organized customer event. Software due to arrive over the next year will cater to information workers in corporations, CNET.Com reported. The event was specifically targeted at business
LANSING - Michigan High school students would have to pass a stricter curriculum that includes specific credits in English, science, mathematics, social studies and foreign languages under legislation the Senate approved unanimously Thursday. A controversial amendment that would allow students to take "an alternative approach" to Algebra II in consultation with a student's parents, math
LANSING - The Michigan House on Thursday, following the lead of the Michigan Senate last Thursday, approved legislation that would hike the state's minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.95 an hour beginning in October. SB 318 won approval on a 73-34 vote. Twenty four Republicans voted for the increase along with 49 Democrats. The House
LANSING - The deadline for nominations for the second annual Governor's University Award for Commercialization Excellence (ACE) is March 17. Two $25,000 cash prizes are up for grabs for Michigan public university researchers.The awards will be presented at the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium May 16 at the Eagle Crest Conference Center in Ypsilanti. Lead Researchers
LANSING - Companies that get Michigan tax breaks would be required to pay them back if they outsource jobs from state operations to overseas plants, and they would also have to give workers 60-days notice their jobs are being moved, under a proposal Senate Democrats unveiled on Monday. The proposals would also call on companies
GRAND RAPIDS - Former SageStone Solutions President Mark Lardieri on Friday bought a minority stake in CQL, a custom software developer in Grand Rapids. Lardieri was named president of CQL last May. Lardieri had been president of SageStone until the company was purchased by NuSoft Solutions in November 2004. "When I negotiated my contract to
GRAND RAPIDS - Van Andel Institute Chairman and CEO David Van Andel will keynote the March 16 Rotary Club of Grand Rapids luncheon by discussing what it will take to sustain the explosive growth of the life sciences industry in Western Michigan. Grand Rapids has experienced well over $360 million in health science industry development
LANSING - More than 4.5 million visitors to the state's web site use cell phones, personal digital assistants and other mobile devices to get online info. The state responded Monday by launching a mobile version of its e-Michigan web site to accommodate these wireless users. The mobiel Michigan site connects to some of the state's
SOUTHFIELD - Airfoil Public Relations, which began its business life in 2000 as a five-person tech-focused PR firm, has since grown its staff eight-fold, built a portfolio of a dozen clients, and cracked the $6 million annual fees barrier. In April, Airfoil will pass another milestone when it opens an office in California to take
LANSING - Michigan could lose $49.3 million of its anticipated $274 million in the Tobacco settlement, a decision that could weigh heavily as the state prepares its 2007 budget, and could impact the plans for the state to invest $2 billion over the next decade to develop high-tech businesses. Tobacco companies involved in the Master