TROY - Automation Alley announced Thursday that the technology networking group received $394,800 in federal funding to build an international business center at its Troy headquarters. The money came from the Fiscal Year 2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill signed into law Thursday by President Obama. The project will create a 'soft business landing' center for international
LANSING - With legislation to revive the Consumer Protection Act seeing no movement in the Senate, Democrats announced Monday that they planned to start the action in the House. Supporters of the new legislation said a 1999 Supreme Court ruling essentially gutted the law and the goal of the bill is to overturn that ruling.
NEW YORK - This year's online holiday-shopping season has topped $19.9 billion so far - a 3 percent jump over the same period in 2008, according to ComScore. Online sales were bolstered last week when consumers spent more than $800 million on two separate days, ComScore said. On Thursday, for example, consumers coughed up $852
CANTON TOWNSHIP - Four of the world's leading renewable energy venture capital firms are partnering for the first time with co-investments to bring to market new technology that will make wind turbines more efficient, reliable and affordable by investing $13.2 million in Danotek Motion Technologies of Canton. GE Energy Financial Services, CMEA Capital, Khosla Ventures
LANSING - Gov. Jennifer Granholm said she would continue to seek the re-opening of the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility despite Tuesday's announcement by President Barack Obama that alleged terrorist detainees housed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be transferred to an Illinois prison, not Standish. The Obama administration's announcement that the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson,
LANSING - Transportation groups are gearing up for an effort in January to convince the Michigan Legislature to pass an increase in the gasoline tax to shore up road funding, whose decline has forced the state to shelve construction projects and put at risk federal money. John Niemela, director of the County Road Association of
LANSING - Finally, some good news as far as the state's fiscal situation is concerned: November's tax revenues netted state coffers $1.6 billion, 0.8 percent more than was raised in November 2008, and the first time monthly revenues have shown an increase since January. Even the good news was tempered with conditions, however. While an
LANSING - Michiganders no longer will confront cigarette smoke in restaurants and bars starting in May after the Legislature's passage Thursday of legislation making it illegal to smoke in most workplaces. Passage of the bill was a bitter defeat for the Michigan Restaurant Association, which had successfully fought the concept for years, contending restaurant owners
WASHINGTON - U.S. House lawmakers Friday approved legislation that would make historic changes to the government's oversight of U.S. financial markets and would revolutionize the way businesses and consumers deal with financial products. A year after a cataclysmic financial crisis threatened to take down world economies, House lawmakers voted 223-202 to pass the largest overhaul
LANSING - Local exchange carriers could charge long distance providers for the use of their networks on intrastate long distance calls no more than what the federal government allows carriers to charge on interstate long-distance calls under a bill unanimously passed Wednesday by the Michigan Senate. Companies with more than 250,000 customers already are limited