GRAND RAPIDS ? Grand Rapids area native Nick Sarnicola, who has built a fortune through his direct sales weight loss company ViSalus, has pledged $1 million to his Sarnicola Foundation to support other young entrepreneurs. Sarnicola, 33, grew up in a blue collar family in Wyoming, a Grand Rapids suburb, and was exposed to entrepreneurship
LANSING - The Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget is currently working to resolve an error that is impacting 85,000 food assistance recipients and their families. As a result of human error, benefits to the Bridge Cards providing food assistance for clients with account numbers ending in 0 were not loaded to the cards
WASHINGTON D.C. - Google competitors unhappy with the way their search results are displayed on Google search pages will be able to opt out under an agreement announced today by the Federal Trade Commission. That was perhaps the most significant plank of a multipart agreement announced by the FTC after a lengthy investigation into Google's
SAN FRANCISCO - The hacking group issues a statement boasting of its cyberattacks against the U.S., Syrian, and Israeli governments in 2012, while warning people to continue to expect this type of activity. The hacking collective Anonymous has clarified that it has no plans to fade away in the New Year. It issued a statement
AUBURN HILLS - Chrysler Group Thursday reported its best December sales since 2007 with 152,367 units, up 10 percent from the same month a year ago. The Chrysler, Dodge, Ram Truck and FIAT brands each posted year-over-year sales gains in December compared with the same month last year. The FIAT brand?s 59 percent increase was
LANSING - Michigan's employment, per capita GDP and per capital personal income have grown more quickly than those of most other states since 2009, but it's still far behind the top 10 states, according to the 2012 Business Leaders for Michigan Benchmarking Report. Perceptions of Michigan's business climate are low and improving slowly, the report
WASHINGTON DC - Detroit and Grand Rapids had two of the best recoveries in the country from the depths of the recession three years ago, according to a study of 100 metropolitan areas by the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. Both of the Michigan metropolitan areas had top 20
ANN ARBOR - Internet-retail giant Amazon remains at the head of the class, according to the annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index released by customer experience analytics firm ForeSee. The eighth annual report?based on more than 24,000 customer surveys collected during the prime holiday shopping season between Thanksgiving and Christmas?expands from measuring satisfaction with 40 top
DEARBORN - Ford Motor Company is spending more than $773 million on new equipment and capacity expansions across six manufacturing facilities in southeast Michigan as it delivers on a commitment to invest $6.2 billion in U.S. plants by 2015. The investments in Michigan will create 2,350 new hourly jobs and allow the company to retain
ANN ARBOR - Bank of Ann Arbor announced Wednesday that it has acquired Ervin Leasing Company, a privately held national equipment leasing and finance company founded in 1978 and headquartered in Ann Arbor. Ervin Leasing, a subsidiary of parent company Ervin Industries, successfully navigated the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009, then ramped up sales