SAN FRANCISCO - Total Kickstarter pledges have surpassed $1 billion, the company announced Monday. The total came from 5.7 million donors, and half of the sum was pledged in the last 12 months alone. In Kickstarter's first month in April 2009, its users raised nearly $3,900. Kickstarter, along with competitor Indiegogo, have become funding places
LANSING ? Fourteen checks for more than $7.6 million were handed out Friday by the Michigan Strategic Fund as part of the Downtown Infrastructure Grant program for public infrastructure improvements. ?These grants will improve Michigan downtowns and spur additional economic growth in the surrounding areas,? said Gov. Rick Snyder. ?The DIG program helps make our
LANSING - As Detroit public pension holders have complained about the cuts they may see in their retirement incomes, an analysis released Monday by a top Wall Street rating agency said Detroit bond holders are being hurt worse than pensioners. The analysis of the city's proposed plan of adjustment done by Moody's Investors Services says
LANSING ? Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger unveiled an auto insurance overhaul on Thursday that would provide 10 percent yearly savings in premiums for two years, a $10 million cap on catastrophic medical benefits and more transparency within the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association. Bolger (R-Marshall) said he has addressed all of the opposition's complaints about
LANSING - The Michigan Senate passed a supplemental appropriations bill Thursday for the current fiscal year addressing funding road maintenance, what is expected to be a major cost after the long hard winter with extreme temperatures. SB 608 cleared the Senate on a 32-6 vote, with Sen. Darwin Booher (R-Evart), Sen. Jack Brandenburg (R-Harrison Township),
LANSING - The credit ratings agency Moody's called the city of Detroit's decision to sue to invalidate a $1.45 billion certificates of participation pension swaps deal an "extreme act," but also said it is such a rare move it would be unlikely to affect the broader municipal bond market. If the city succeeds in federal
LANSING - Backers of a ballot proposal increasing Michigan's minimum wage start out in a strong position, according to a new poll released Thursday. The survey, conducted by the Lansing polling firm EPIC/MRA, showed 60 percent of likely voters would vote yes on increasing the minimum wage from $7.40 an hour to $10 an hour
LANSING - Governor Rick Snyder's budget recommendation for K-12 schools makes a variety of changes, including pushing back the submission date for annual financial reports from November to October every year, and providing more flexibility in districts' spending of funds for at-risk students. The House Appropriations School Aid Subcommittee heard an overview of those recommendations
LANSING - Rep. David Knezek, Rep. Theresa Abed and Sen. Jim Ananich announced a proposal on Tuesday that would cover tuition for low-income students in universities and community colleges that would allow students benefiting from the program to pay back into the fund to keep the program going. The group called the proposal, announced at
LANSING - Leading business groups have begun pouring money into a committee that will aid efforts to pass the proposal on the upcoming August ballot earmarking a portion of the state's use tax revenues to local governments as a partial replacement for revenues they will lose as part of the related reduction in the personal