Michigan Radio Newsroom

Michigan taxpayers may soon be able to support Alzheimer’s and ALS research with just a flick of a pen.

Last week, the Michigan House passed a bill that would create a checkoff form supporting unpaid caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients, as well research and care for patients with ALS — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

By checking a box on their income tax form, Michigan residents could choose to give to the ALS of Michigan Fund, with money heading to research, patient services, and ALS clinics around the state.

The bill is expected to pass today in the state Senate.

But the provision supporting ALS research might raise some eyebrows, especially in light of Michigan’s contentious history with stem cell research.

Michigan Radio has had several reports on the petroleum coke piles along the Detroit River in southwest Detroit.

But to better visualize the situation, you should check out these stunning photographs.

James Fassinger, a freelance photojournalist, reported on the petroleum coke piles in “The human cost of Detroit’s petroleum Koch piles” on his website, Stillscenes.

This week in Michigan politics, Jack Lessenberry and Kyle Norris discuss Medicaid expansion in Michigan, immigration reform and how it could affect struggling Michigan cities, and the race for Senator Carl Levin’s seat in the U.S. Senate.

Farm Bill moves to U.S. House

The Michigan Farm Bureau is glad to see Congress is making progress on passing Senator Debbie Stabenow's farm bill. The U.S. Senate approved nearly a trillion dollars in support for food assistance, crop insurance and other programs this week.  Michigan Radio's Steve Carmody reports, "the U.S. House is still wrestling with its version of the bill."

Tea Party activists will sit out of governor's race

An open letter to Governor Rick Snyder released by a group of prominent Tea Party activists calls on their party to sit out next year's race for governor. They call for Snyder to change his position on Medicaid expansion. Tea Party group "Grassroots in Michigan" says Snyder is bucking the Republican platform by cooperating with the new federal healthcare law.

Duggan is out of the Detroit Mayoral race

A Wayne County judge has kicked Mike Duggan off of the ballot for Detroit Mayor. When Duggan filed for a mayoral run a month before the deadline, he didn't meet a city rule that requires candidates to be registered voters in Detroit a full year before filing.  But he did meet the rule by the filing deadline date.  Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton reports, "Duggan says he's reviewing his legal options."

The Associated Press reports that a derecho could create several storms in the Midwest with wind gusts reaching close to 100 mph:

The National Weather Service says derechos occur once or twice a year in the central U.S. with winds of at least 75 mph. The storms maintain their intensity for hours as they sweep across vast distances, and can trigger tornadoes and large hail.

Meteorologists project possible derechos in Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh metro areas.

Bloomfield Township plans to become the first community in Michigan to issue bonds that will pay for retiree pensions or health care.

Leo Savoie is the Bloomfield Township supervisor. He says the pension fund is something with which taxpayers have to deal. The plan to issue bonds to pay for retiree pensions will lighten the load on community members.

Eight people have overdosed from heroin over the past two days in Washtenaw County, according to the health department and the sheriff's office. One person died in Saline, and seven others were hospitalized.

Sergeant Geoff Fox of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office says heroin use in Michigan is increasing.

IHS Inc. announced on Monday that they would buy the automotive data firm R.L. Polk & Co. for $1.4 billion.

Polk has a long history in southeast Michigan.

Founded in 1870 in Detroit, the company started keeping statistical data on the automotive industry in the 1920s.

Wayne State University hosts Detroit's first public budget meeting

Kevyn Orr, Detroit’s Emergency Manager, told the public Monday night that the city is “technically insolvent” and suffers from an “addiction to debt.” “Orr says Detroit’s chances of avoiding a Chapter Nine municipal bankruptcy are still ‘fifty-fifty,’” reports Michigan Radio’s Sarah Cwiek. Mlive.com reports that 100 people were shut out of the meeting after it exceeded the auditorium’s capacity. 

Evidence does not link bullet to I-96 shooter

Ballistics tests have shown that a bullet recently recovered from an I-96 driver did not come from weapons taken from Raulie Casteel’s home.  According to the Associated Press, “Casteel faces terrorism and other charges in two dozen random shootings in a four-county area last October.”

Potential DNA testing for suspects

Michigan lawmakers are considering a law that requires DNA sample collection from anyone arrested on suspicion of a felony. Currently, DNA samples are taken from people arrested on suspicion of murder, rape, and other violent felonies. According to the Associated Press, “civil liberties advocates say collecting DNA before someone is convicted violates the presumption of innocence.”

Just as his father did fifty years ago, Martin Luther King III will address an expected march of thousands in Detroit.

This year Detroit celebrates the 50th anniversary of the day Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stood before 25,000 people at Cobo Hall in Detroit and declared, "I have a dream this afternoon." This was just two months before the historic March on Washington.

Tonight, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr will hold a public informational meeting. It's scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Wayne State University Law School Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium.

Michigan Radio's Sarah Cwiek will be there and will give us an update later tonight.

According to Kirk Pinho at Crain’s Detroit Business:

The meeting is required under Public Act 436 of 2012, the state's emergency manager law, within 30 days of Orr submitting his financial and operational plan to the state Department of Treasury, although it does not need approval from the electorate or the treasury department.

Orr submitted his plan on May 13.

The plan largely reaffirmed what was already known about Detroit's financial problems, including that the city has a budget deficit of $380 million and over $15 billion in debt and liabilities.

The Wayne State Law School is located at 471 W. Palmer St.

Two northern Michigan representatives want to keep the picturesque shoreline of the Great Lakes free of spinning wind turbines.

New legislation introduced by Republicans Greg MacMaster and Ray Franz would stop any proposed research or production of offshore wind power in the Great Lakes that border Michigan.

It would also ban it for the future.

Critics say the bill lacks foresight.

"We think it is a mistake to limit research in this area," said James Clift, policy director of the Michigan Environmental Council. "We have a number of universities who have gotten grants to do research on offshore wind. It may be decades down the road, but to restrict our ability to even learn the possibilities there is extremely shortsighted."

A push for change in Michigan term limits

There are efforts underway to change Michigan’s term limits amendment. Representative Joe Havemen (R-Holland) says the current lifetime limit of six years to serve in the House and eight years in the Senate are too short and consequently, legislators are lacking experience. Term limits were approved by Michigan voters ten years ago, and changing that amendment would also require voter approval.

Town hall to be held for road repairs

Lawmakers are expected to discuss how to pay for improvements to the state’s roadways at a town hall meeting tonight in Grand Rapids. Michigan Radio’s Lindsey Smith reports, "the public will get a chance to weigh in on Governor Snyder’s proposal to raise more than a billion dollars a year. Snyder wants to raise vehicle registration fees and the gas tax to cover the costs, but the Legislature passed a budget last week that only included a fraction of the money he wanted."

Michigan faces class action lawsuit from students

The state of Michigan may be facing a class action lawsuit over a student loan program. Starting in 2003 the Michigan Students First program provided a subsidy to people after they paid their first 36 loan payments on time, but that subsidy ended in 2010. Attorney Jeff Hank says that left thousands of Michiganders with much more to pay on their student loans. Michigan Radio's Steve Carmody reports that the lawsuit could end up costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars.