News

The Michigan House Wednesday continued efforts to cut spending in the General Fund this year, by approving a $420 million reduction. It’s part of a larger effort underway to bring the state budget into balance. The measure transfers money from the School Aid Fund for community colleges. Minority Democrats opposed …

Governor Rick Snyder’s recommendation to increase school aid spending by $75 per pupil is being rejected by key GOP lawmakers. The Republican chair of the Senate K-12 budget committee Geoff Hansen wants to increase spending for schools at the lower end of the scale and take money away from richer …

A stretch of M-28 in Marquette County will remain closed for at least this morning. Due to worsening weather conditions, a decision has been made by the Alger and Marquette Road Commissions in conjunction with the Michigan State Police, and Michigan Department of Transportation officials to close M-28 indefinitely between …

State Representative Scott Dianda is the 2014 Timbermen Legislator of the Year. The award is given by the Michigan Association of Timbermen…an organization that works on important forestry issues, provides lines of insurance for timbermen, works with governmental leaders on issues and solutions and works to build support for forests by the …

Visitors to the Hancock Tori could see some nice enhancements this summer, if a pair of recent grant applications are successful. The first is an $11,000 grant application to the Department of Agriculture and the second is for $2,000 to the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. Hancock City …

Hancock’s city water and sewer code is now up to date. The city council passed an ordinance at Wednesday’s regular monthly meeting to amend the city code to match that of the state. At issue was the amount of time required for inspecting cross connections with the public water supply …

The second two-hour closure of the Portage Lake Lift Bridge has been postponed. MDOT had originally scheduled the closures for 2am to 4am earlier this morning and tomorrow morning. But with tomorrow’s forecast showing blistering cold temperatures, MDOT has bumped the date to this Saturday. The contractor for the Michigan …

Good news for startup businesses that recently graduated from the MTEC SmartZone. Former GE Aviation satellite site manager Jason Mack has been hired to serve as vice president of business development. He spent the past 10 years managing the remote, low-cost engineering site, growing it from a small team of …

Speaking of jobs, Michigan Tech students brought their sweat and resumes into the Student Development Center today, prepared to take on a record 242 employers as part of the Spring Career Fair. They spent the past week attending sessions to get ready, doing things like mock interviews and learning how to …

A deal has been struck by WE Energies and Cliffs Natural Resources. Last week, WE Energies had been accused of double-dipping by many organizations, including the governor’s office. Then earlier this week, We Energies said that to protect its other customers, it cannot stop collecting SSR payments without a long-term …