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To: CNS Editors

From: Eric Freedman & Vic Rauch

MILITARY & VETERANS AFFAIRS AHEAD: Your correspondents will interview Major Gen. Thomas Cutler, director of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, on Monday, April 10. Likely topics include recruitment of Air and Army National Guard members in Michigan, the Guard’s level of preparedness for disasters and lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, programs to help families of Guard members on long-term deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan and plans for expansion or closing of Guard facilities and bases across the state.

• DENTALEXAM -- Michigan children may be required to get a dental examination before enrolling in  kindergarten under legislation proposed by a number of representatives, including ones from Detroit, Alpena, Flint and Bad Axe. Their goal is to help ensure that children’s performance in school doesn’t suffer as a result of poor health conditions that could easily be detected or prevented. By Sandra Kao. FOR MICHIGAN CITIZEN, ALPENA & ALL POINTS.
  
  
• PRISONFUTURE -- The Corrections Department says the future looks brighter for a former youth correctional facility in Lake County that closed last year. The department wants to house prisoners from other states – Wyoming is interested -- and from federal facilities in the vacant privately owned Baldwin-area facility. A Hart representative is pushing legislation to authorize the facility to accept such inmates. Corrections says there are other options for the site, too. Co-sponsors include legislators from Evart, North Branch, Three Rivers, Manistee and Bellaire. By Jenny Linn. FOR LUDINGTON, CADILLAC, UP NORTH, LAPEER, THREE RIVERS, STURGIS, SOUTH BEND & ALL POINTS.

• PRISONGOODS -- Michigan’s prison industries program helps inmates learn practical job skills, but some legislators and business owners worry that the products they make have an edge in competing with private enterprises. The program now may sell only to government agencies or nonprofit organizations, but a Senate bill would allow sale to nonprofits only if a similar product isn’t available from a private business. Sponsors include senators from Brant, Algonac, Three Oaks, Saugatuck Township, Bay City, Traverse City and Lake Leelanau. By Erica Richards. FOR MIDLAND, SOUTH BEND, HOLLAND,  CADILLAC, LANSING, MICHIGAN CITIZEN, LAPEER, UP NORTH, NW MICHIGAN BUSINESS, GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS, PETOSKEY & ALL POINTS.
  • With PRISONGOODSGRAPHIC: Map showing prisons with prison industries. Credit: Michigan Department of Corrections.

• PRISONWORK -- The chief of Michigan’s prison system says a proposal by some congressional Republicans to replace undocumented farmworkers with inmates is unrealistic. Patricia Caruso says the public mistakenly thinks there’s an unlimited supply of prison labor. Inmates consume most of what’s produced at the Corrections Department’s own system of prison farms in Marquette, Newberry and Jackson, including milk, beef and potatoes. By Derek Wallbank. FOR LANSING, MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN CITIZEN & ALL POINTS.

• STEWARDSHIP -- The Auditor General says three Agriculture Department environmental stewardship grant programs appear to be effective in promoting conservation and preventing  pollution but the department needs better ways to evaluate their impact. The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program operates in River Raisin, Lake Macatawa and Saginaw Bay watersheds. Groundwater Stewardship and Forestry Assistance programs are statewide. The department and Farm Bureau call the programs successful and argue that it’s difficult and cost-prohibitive to measure how much pollution is prevented. For news and farm desks. By Eric Freedman. FOR HOLLAND, MIDLAND, ALPENA, CLARE, MONROE, GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS & ALL POINTS.