LANSING - The Michigan Public Service Commission on Tuesday opened an investigation into Consumers Energy Company's estimated billing practices after hearing complaints from customers about estimated bills. "Problems have persisted for several years despite repeated meetings between the MPSC staff and the utility to reduce the number of estimated bills," PSC Chair Sally Talberg said
LANSING - Governor Rick Snyder called for some drastic changes in culture and communications to prevent another city suffering the crisis that struck Flint, but after the governor's State of the State Address Environmental Quality Interim Director Keith Creagh saw the most need for change in his agency. Neither Creagh nor Health and Human Services
LANSING - Governor Rick Snyder said tonight at the opening of his State of the State speech that he will release his emails from 2014 and 2015 on Flint water. Whether that will include just Snyder’s emails or those of all those in the Executive Office was not immediately clear. Under the Freedom of Information
FLINT - A group of roughly 100 citizens protesting the water crisis and associated conditions in Flint called for Governor Rick Snyder to resign, and House Minority Leader Tim Greimel agreed with them but only under certain conditions. "If the governor knew the seriousness of these problems and chose not to act, then he should
LANSING - A new group has formed with the goal of changing Michigan's laws affecting motor vehicle sales, with the Freedom to Buy coalition saying it was comprised of groups that had more than 250,000 individuals as members. The group is focused on recently approved legislation that requires most motor vehicles to be sold by
LANSING - Based on known markers for the pollutants, Michigan waters are being affected by septic tank effluents in the winter and cattle manure in the spring and summer, presenters at a symposium by the Michigan Agri-Business Association said. Controlling the former would mean additional controls on septic tanks, while controlling the latter could be
LANSING - Michigan lost population and grew poorer from 2002 to 2013, a report by the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency shows, and the growth in poverty affected every county during that time. In 2002, the state had a poverty rate below the national average, the report said, with poverty at 11.3 percent of the state's
LANSING - Rep. Aric Nesbitt said this week there is room for technical and clerical changes in legislation overhauling the state's energy laws, but changes to the competition and competitive bidding pieces are unlikely. Nesbitt's (R-Lawton) energy plan in HB 4298, HB 4297 and HB 4575 has been sitting on the House floor since early
LANSING - A bill that would allow in-person, no-reason absentee voting will come up for discussion among majority Senate Republicans, officials said Tuesday after Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill ending the option for voters to choose a party's slate of candidates with a single selection on their ballot. Snyder, in a signing statement, said
LANSING - Governor Rick Snyder apologized to Flint residents for the failures of state agencies and called on the departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services to reach out to experts on drinking water quality in light of additional preliminary findings of the Flint Water Advisory Task Force that put the primary responsibility
