LANSING - Scholarship program plans unveiled last month by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in her State of the State address for increasing access to postsecondary education picked up the backing of multiple business groups Thursday. Business Leaders for Michigan, the Detroit Regional Chamber, the Grand Rapids Chamber and the Small Business Association of Michigan announced they supported the
LANSING - The saga of unlicensed medical marijuana facilities continues this week as a judge blocked the state's upcoming March 31 deadline for an estimated 50 provisioning centers to close. At least six provisioning centers, some of which were denied licenses by the Medical Marihuana Licensing Board and are going through or plan to go
LANSING - Though insurance rates in Detroit have long been a target of reform proponents, nearly the entire state faces rates deemed unaffordable under federal standards, a report from the University of Michigan Poverty Solutions said. The U.S. Department of Treasury Insurance Office says insurance rates of more than 2 percent of median annual income for a
LANSING - The much-criticized Medical Marihuana Licensing Board's days are numbered after an executive order Governor Gretchen Whitmersigned Friday eliminating it and creating the Marijuana Regulatory Agency to handle medical and recreational pot moving forward. Through the order, Whitmer eliminates the Bureau of Marijuana Regulation and replaces it with the Marijuana Regulatory Agency to handle both
LANSING - By midday Thursday Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer was faced with a challenge not placed before an occupant of the governor's office in more than a generation: full rejection of an executive order. The Senate's 22-16 party-line vote in the Republican-controlled Senate on HCR 1, rejecting the governor's proposed restructuring of the Department of Environmental Quality and
GRAND RAPIDS – A bipartisan panel of four top legislators Friday saw divided reaction to a proposal from former legislative leaders for a 47-cent increase in the gasoline tax over time, but also some consensus on the need to change how the state funds its roads. At the Michigan Press Association's annual conference, House Majority
LANSING - Michigan officials will have some more money to work with through the remainder of the 2018-19 fiscal year and for the upcoming 2019-20 fiscal year, but not much more, the state's Revenue Estimating Conference decided on Friday. But that additional revenue growth will be the product of slowing overall economic growth in both
LANSING - In reviewing his two years leading the House, former Speaker Tom Leonard said in a recent interview he could have gone slower on the income tax cut he pushed in early 2017, which was defeated, though he does not regret putting the bill up for a vote. In the first bill to be
LANSING - The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Friday a district court's denial of motions to dismiss against five Flint water crisis defendants including the former director of the Department of Health and Human Services and the state's former chief medical executive, though it sided with the lower court in denying motions to
LANSING - As eight years of total Republican control of state government ended at noon Tuesday, Democrats crowded the Capitol lawn with a smattering of Republicans on hand as well to mark the opening of a new political era in state government. A Democratic governor, secretary of state and attorney general. A Republican Legislature and
