LANSING - After months of wondering whether their party would be able to mount a credible challenge to Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow in 2012, Republicans exulted Tuesday with the news that former U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra has changed his mind and will run. No official word came from Hoekstra or anyone on his behalf,
LANSING - While the economy remains tough across the state, a growing number of Michigan's small-and mid-sized business owners believe things are beginning to move in the right direction, according to a recent survey. The survey further indicated that Michigan business owners are expressing less concern over the challenges they have been facing that impact
LANSING - The headlines have been written about the federal government allocating hundreds of millions of dollars to support a high-speed passenger rail line between Detroit and Chicago, but residents won't see that speedy service until the state wraps up negotiations with Norfolk Southern, which owns most of the rail line Amtrak uses. Amtrak's Wolverine
LANSING - The Michigan legislative redistricting map is almost on the desk of Governor Rick Snyder, but the head of the Eastside Republican Club is joining with Rep. Tim Bledsoe (D-Grosse Pointe) to protest the lines. Under the new map, Grosse Pointe Shores and Grosse Pointe Woods would fall under the 1st House District, while
LANSING - Governor Rick Snyder supports the basic thrust of a letter from the National Governors Association urging federal budget negotiations not to transfer additional costs in the Medicaid program to the states. In a letter to President Barack Obama and congressional leaders as they attempt to work out an agreement on extending the nation's
LANSING - Governor Rick Snyder promised Thursday to the Detroit City Council that the area of Detroit where a new bridge to Windsor, Ontario, would be built would receive at least comparable treatment in community benefits as Port Huron did when the Blue Water Bridge plaza was redone. Snyder spoke by phone during a council
LANSING - It will still take concurrence from the Michigan Senate, but the House on Thursday signed off on a change to public employee health care cost sharing that would provide the options of both a hard dollar cap and 80/20 split. But the chamber failed to win the two-thirds support required on SJR C
LANSING - A group of current and former Michigan union workers announced Thursday an effort to push the Legislature to enact a right-to-work law in the state, saying it would help unions as well as business. And even though Governor Rick Snyder has said repeatedly that he was not pushing for a right-to-work law, saying
LANSING - Neither Republicans nor Democrats have been able to come up with maps that meet federal requirements for treatment of minorities, members of the Legislative Black Caucus said Tuesday in threatening a federal legal challenge if the caucus' concerns are not addressed. The state has lost overall population, but has seen its minority population
LANSING - Michigan would benefit from having a more coordinated university structure instead of its current system with 15 completely autonomous public universities, said Bill Sederburg, a former senator and president of Ferris State University who now oversees Utah's colleges and universities. Sederburg, in an interview with Gongwer News Service, said the Utah structure, in