LANSING - Insurers can continue to consider customers' credit scores when setting rates for auto and homeowners insurance, a divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a much-anticipated decision. The ruling is a bitter setback for Gov. Jennifer Granholm, legislative Democrats and urban activists who have decried the practice, which they say unfairly leads to illogically
WASHINGTON DC ? The U.S. government is launching an expansive program dubbed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private U.S. companies and government agencies running critical infrastructure such as the electricity grid and nuclear power plants, according to people familiar with the program told the Wall Street Journal Wednesday. The surveillance by the National
LANSING - While she said the Legislature should have remained in session to continue working on the final resolution of the 2010-11 budget, Gov. Jennifer Granholm told reporters Wednesday completion of the budget may rest on federal action on the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentages issues. She also raised doubts that the Legislature would ever act
LANSING ? Ray DeWinkle, who was a fixture for nearly two decades at The Right Place economic development program in Grand Rapids, and left to become CEO of GreaterFindlayInc, has returned to Michigan, this time as senior vice president of Global Business Development for the Lansing Economic Area Partnership. More specifically, DeWinkle leads business development,
LANSING - An existing statutory ban on drilling for oil and natural gas in or underneath the Great Lakes would be placed into the Constitution under a proposal approved Wednesday by the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee. The measure (SJR Z ) comes about a week after the House overwhelmingly approved its own constitutional
LANSING ? Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the Legislature failed to deliver on their vow to complete the entire 2010-11 fiscal year budget by July 1, but they saved some face with a deal Wednesday on the K-12 School Aid portion of the budget, primed for final passage Thursday. Two items were key to springing the
WASHINGTON ? In just three years' time, the U.S. Small Business Administration's Patriot Express Pilot Loan Initiative has supported nearly $500 million in Patriot Express loans to small businesses owned and operated by veterans, reservists and their spouses. Patriot Express Loans, which can be used to start or expand a small business, increased over the
ANN ARBOR - Three Michigan companies recently received a combined total of $104,000 through the Michigan Microloan Fund Program, bringing the total amount invested through the Fund to over $1.3 million. Terra-Telesis, KnowledgeWatch, and uwemp received the funding to support commercialization of their core products. Terra-Telesis, doing business as AWGET (Airport Wind Generated Electric Turbine),
LANSING - Michigan residents are more optimistic about the economy than they have been in several years, but also are far more pessimistic about state government, figures from the latest survey from the State of the State Survey show. The survey, conducted of some 2,000 persons in the state, also showed that the number of
ANN ARBOR - University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University officials Tuesday announced the first six research teams to win funding for renewable energy and biomedical technology projects in a new joint program that teams up investigators from both schools. The first-round winners were announced at a ceremony in Shanghai. At the same event,