State News

Michigan’s 10,000 Licensed Professional Counselors will be able to continue their practices under legislation that unanimously passed the Michigan Senate yesterday. The measure to assure that LPCs would be able to continue to counsel patients had unanimously passed a House vote last week. At issue were new guidelines from the …

Michigan’s unemployment rate held steady in September. Seasonally adjusted figures released by the state’s Department of Management and Budget pegged the rate at 4.2 percent. That’s seven-tenths of a point above the national average, and three-tenths of a point higher than a year ago. Statistics used were collected before the …

The superintendents of five tiny, isolated Michigan school districts have sent a very strongly worded letter to the governor who cut their funding. The five districts typically receive extra funding, because they are so small, and too remote to merge into other districts. That funding was vetoed out of the …

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the Michigan House and Senate have both overwhelmingly passed legislation that will raise the age at which defendants are treated as juveniles from 16 to 17. Michigan is one of only four states in the nation which has been lumping 17-year-olds in with adult …

A state house committee is considering a proposal that would reverse the process of adding a state park passport to your car license plate. Currently, it’s an opt-in feature. You pay an extra $11.00 to get year-round access to Michigan State Parks. About one-third of license plates sold in Michigan …

Seven unions that represent state workers have reached tentative deals for new contracts. Reports indicate that the agreements call for three percent salary increases in each of the next two years, with no increases in employee health insurance contributions. A state spokesman said specifics won’t be released until after the …

Governor Gretchen Whitmer wants to put back into the Michigan budget some of what she cut out of the Michigan budget. Supplemental spending bills introduced into the Senate yesterday would restore $34 million for rural hospitals and $11 million for road patrols, along with money for veteran services, literacy coaches, …

Michigan’s ban on the sale of flavored nicotine-based vaping products remains in place, after two days of court hearings in Detroit. Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stevens declined to issue an immediate ruling in a case brought by 906 Vapor owner Mark Slis of Houghton. Stevens will take some time …

Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ordered U.S. and Michigan flags to be lowered to half-staff today to honor the service of Army Staff Sgt. Kelly Richards. Richards died September 25th at age 32, while competing for an expert field medical badge at Camp Casey in Seoul, South Korea. No cause of …

Michigan has recorded its first death in the widening lung damage problem related to e-cigarette use. For privacy reasons, no information about the victim is being released, other than it was an adult male. Thirty lung injury cases believed to be vaping-related have been reported in Michigan over the past …