This Week's File

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Feb. 9, 2007 – Week 4

To: CNS Editors

From: Eric Freedman & Vic Rauch

HUMAN SERVICES AHEAD: On Monday, Feb. 12, CNS correspondents will interview Marianne Udow, director of the Department of Human Services. Potential topics include Human Services-related elements of Granholm's State of the State address and budget proposal; impact of Michigan's high unemployment rate on caseload for public assistance, Medicaid, food stamps and other assistance programs; rising cost of Medicaid; problems with or improvements to foster care, adoption and juvenile justice programs that the department runs.

HERE’S YOUR FILE:

ALTERNATIVEENERGY: The governor’s proposed three-year, $100-million alternative energy push may boost jobs and economic opportunities in Oakland County, Detroit and elsewhere in Michigan, state officials say. Republicans say Granholm’s timing is off. Industry groups are generally supportive but raise economic questions. By Hannah Northey. FOR OAKLAND, MACOMB, MICHIGAN CITIZEN & ALL POINTS.

NATIONALGUARD: Members of the National Guard returning to Michigan from Iraq or Afghanistan would have the option of unpaid  time off before they must go back to work under a new legislative proposal. We interview sponsoring representatives from Grand Ledge, Three Rivers and Grand Rapids. The Small Business Association of Michigan says business owners don’t have a problem with granting more time off but oppose a legislative mandate. By Justin Kroll. FOR LANSING, GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS,  STURGIS, THREE RIVERS, SOUTH BEND, MICHIGAN CITIZEN & ALL POINTS.

            w/FOWLERPHOTO: Rob Fowler, president of the Small Business Association of Michigan. Credit: Sarah McLeod, Capital News Service.

REALESTATEMARKET: Home buyers may find 2007 more welcoming and more affordable due to a soft market, Monroe-area Realtors say. Statewide, the number of homes sold dropped 13.8 percent in 2006 compared to 2005. By Tanya Bigham. FOR MONROE & ALL POINTS.

BULLYING: Lawmakers are getting serious about bullying—maybe serious enough to do something about it this year. We hear from sponsors from assistant principals in Greenville and Three Rivers legislators from Galesburg, Westland and Midland, the MEA and the School Boards Association. By Brian McVicar. FOR GREENVILLE, THREE RIVERS, STURGIS, SOUTH BEND & ALL POINTS.

PRISONS: Scouring the budget for places to cut, the governor wants to eliminate 6,000 beds from Michigan’s close-to-capacity prisons. She says big money could be saved by revising sentencing guidelines and expanding a program that prepares ex-cons in major cities and the Traverse City area to return to their communities. A DeWitt senator says the governor’s promised savings may be impossible without closing at least one prison. The guards’ union warns that some potential early releasees are violent, including the one who recently attacked and nearly raped a prison nurse in Marquette.  By Michael Carney. FOR MICHIGAN CITIZEN, GREENVILLE, LANSING, TRAVERSE CITY, MARQUETTE & ALL POINTS.

PROMISE: The much-vaunted Kalamazoo Promise is paying tuition for more than 200 Kalamazoo high school graduates this year at public community colleges and universities across Michigan. It’s the success story that inspired the governor’s new statewide Promise Zone plan to underwrite higher education for students from low-income, high-unemployment communities statewide. A Western Michigan  University official says student achievement is an even more important goal than economic benefits to participating communities. A Holland senator considers Granholm’s plan seriously flawed because it relies in large part on tax dollars rather than private funding, which underwrites the Kalamazoo program. By Erik Adams. FOR GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS, GREENVILLE, HOLLAND, SOUTH BEND, THREE RIVERS, STURGIS, MICHIGAN CITIZEN, LANSING & ALL POINTS.

            w/PROMISEGRAPHIC: List of four public colleges and universities with 10 or more Kalamazoo Promise students this year.

PRISONALTERNATIVES:  Expanding a Chelsea-area boot camp program to some nonviolent second offenders could reduce the state’s inmate population and save taxpayers $10 million to $12 million a year, an Ann Arbor senator says. The Corrections Department wants lawmakers to approve the plan, which is currently limited to first-time felons. By Alexander Scott. FOR OAKLAND, MICHIGAN CITIZEN, LANSING & ALL POINTS.

CNS

Download a Microsoft Word version of this budget here.