Legislative Session Begins
The 2012 legislative session began yesterday at the state Capitol. “The House and Senate used their first day back… as a planning session for their first real week of lawmaking and votes that starts Tuesday,” the Detroit News reports. Republican Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville says the legislature will not quickly spend the estimated $1.2 billion dollar budget surplus (though, really, there’s predicted to be just about a $400 million surplus because much of the money has already been committed for the budget year). Some Democratic lawmakers have called for the surplus to be put towards K-12 education funding.
MI Home Foreclosures
The number of home foreclosures in the state dropped last year to the lowest level since 2007, according to Realty Trac. Steve Carmody reports:
The actual number of foreclosure filings dropped 26% compared to 2010. The decline is partly due to a slowdown in the paperwork process. The average time between the first foreclosure filing and final repossession of a home in Michigan took 283 days last year. That’s a 46% increase over the number of days it took in 2010. Daren Bloomquist is with Realty Trac. He says mortgage lenders will be speeding up the pace of home foreclosures this year. Michigan had the sixth highest home foreclosure rate in the nation last year with one in every 45 homes receiving a foreclosure notice.
Hearing for Nuclear Plant Officials
Officials from the company that operates the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Southwestern Michigan appearedbefore the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday. “The company is hoping to avoid getting another safety violation; it was issued one already this month. The hearing was about two separate incidents at the plant last year. The more serious of the two incidents was a week-long shutdown of the power plant last September. The NRC will issue its final report within 60 days. Because of the violation from May that’s already finalized, Palisades will have more oversight beginning this year,” Lindsey Smith reports.
