LANSING - Breaking from its hard line against anything resembling a tax increase, the Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday approved bills that would allow voters in the Detroit area to decide whether to establish a new property tax to fund the Detroit Institute of Arts and increase the existing levy for the Detroit Zoo. The Senate's
WASHINGTON DC - The Obama administration is preparing a stepped-up approach to policing Internet privacy that calls for new laws and the creation of a new position to oversee the effort, according to people familiar with the situation. The strategy is expected to be unveiled in a report being issued by the U.S. Commerce Department
LANSING ? Governor-elect Rick Snyder Friday announced the appointment of William Rustem, owner of Public Sector Consultants, as Director of Strategy in his new administration. Snyder also appointed Ann Arbor SPARK CEO Michael Finney and Central Michigan University Trustee Stephanie Comai to his Transition team. Rustem will help the Snyder administration implement the policies and
DETROIT ? $1 Million Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition Friday announced that it has chosen its 50 company semi-finalists that will compete for cash prizes and in-kind awards of services, staffing and software. The contest received nearly 600 entries, which were split evenly between the business and student portions of the competition. Entries were received from
NEW YORK - The results of the world's largest website traffic survey have been published in a freely downloadable report, which reports some disappointing results about how effective different traffic-building techniques are for driving visitors to businesses' websites. The survey, conducted earlier this year by website software and training company Intellimon, in partnership with the
NEW YORK - Major websites are moving to limit the number of tracking technologies like "cookies" spreading on their sites, hoping to keep lucrative data about visitors for themselves - and avoid privacy risks. More sites are counting the number of tracking tools - software that can clandestinely monitor people's activities online - that are
LANSING - A total of 4,755 state employees have opted to take the state's early retirement option, officials with the Department of Technology, Management and Budget said Tuesday, and the largest number of those is retiring from the Department of Human Services. The controversial retirement proposal was finally approved at the end of September and
GRAND RAPIDS - Register for this exciting all day event and attend amazing sessions with talented business, media, and communication professionals at Midwest Social Media Confab Nov. 10 at the J.W. Marriott in downtown Grand Rapids. The keynote will be presented by the author of "The Mirror Test" and former Kodak CMO, Jeffrey Hayzlett. He?s
ANN ARBOR - Governor-elect Rick Snyder, in naming House Speaker Andy Dillon and former Lt. Governor Dick Posthumus to his administration Monday as treasurer and senior adviser for legislative affairs, respectively, said the pair's experience in both the public and private sector was critical. Just as essential in Dillon's and Posthumus' background is their reputation
FRAMINGHAM - The world smartphone market continues to explode. For the first three quarters of this year, vendors shipped more than 200 million units, up two-thirds from the 119.6 million units shipped during the first three quarters of 2009. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of