This Week's File

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Feb. 16, 2007 – Week 5

To: CNS Editors

From: Eric Freedman & Vic Rauch

HUMAN SERVICES INTERVIEW CANCELED: Our scheduled Feb. 12 interview with Human Services Director Marianne Udow was canceled because of a death in her family. We will try to reschedule for later this spring.

IN-DEPTH HEADS-UP: Your correspondents will file their first round of in-depth stories for the semester on Friday, Feb. 23

HERE’S YOUR FILE:

UNDERAGEALCOHOL: A Utica convenience store learned the hard way—through a $500 fine—to be more careful in checking the age of customers buying booze. The Liquor Control Commission, Federal Trade Commission and a nonprofit group funded by the distilled spirits industry are working with Michigan retailers, restaurants and bars to reduce underage purchase and consumption of alcohol. Last year, the state fined 2,395 licensees $1.1 million and suspended 74 licenses for selling to minors. By Chris Jackett. FOR MACOMB, MICHIGAN CITIZEN & ALL POINTS.

BRIDGERESTAURANTS: Food assistance recipients would be able to use their Bridge cards—the electronic version of food stamps—to buy meals from certain restaurants under a proposal from Detroit, Mount Clemens and Saginaw lawmakers. That option is now available only for recipients who are blind, disabled, homeless or older than 60 at four restaurants in Detroit, Inkster, Taylor and Mount Morris. If passed, Michigan would become the first state to allow that choice for all recipients. By Tanya Bigham. FOR MACOMB, MICHIGAN CITIZEN, LANSING & ALL POINTS.

DYINGINMATES:  Should terminally ill and elderly inmates be released early to die at home or in hospices? Yes, insists Terri Doer, an Eaton Rapids woman whose brother died behind bars of leukemia. The governor, Corrections Department and some lawmakers, including ones from Grand Ledge, Detroit, Jenison and Rockford, think so and argue that such a policy would save millions of tax dollars and reduce crowding in Michigan’s almost-full prison system. By Justin Kroll. FOR LANSING, MICHIGAN CITIZEN & ALL POINTS.

GREENENERGY:  A potential $100-a-year tax credit for customers who buy “green energy” from utility companies may promote more use of renewable energy sources, but some environmental groups question the plan. We also hear from Consumers Energy, the Lansing Board of Water & Light and state Chamber of Commerce. Sponsors include GOP legislators from Manistee, North Branch, Zeeland and Midland. By Brian McVicar. FOR LANSING,  LUDINGTON, LAPEER, GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS, HOLLAND & ALL POINTS.

HEALTHCUTS: State programs to combat diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s diseases are among those on the chopping block under a budget-cutting agreement between the governor and Department of Community Health. The money comes from the Healthy Michigan Fund, established with Michigan’s share of a national settlement with the tobacco industry. Savings would be channeled to the financially strapped Medicaid program. We hear from a health officer at the Mid-Michigan District Health Department who worries about the adverse impact of the cuts. By Brooke Meier. FOR GREENVILLE, MICHIGAN CITIZEN & ALL POINTS.

            w/ HEALTHCUTSGRAPHIC: List of some of the 15 programs that would lose some or all their state money from the Healthy Michigan Fund.

SEXOFFENDERREGISTRY: A proposal to expand Michigan’s sex offender registry to comply with federal law is stalled in a Senate committee—because the feds haven’t announced their own regulations to guide states in complying with the federal mandate. A Holland senator has drafted the bill that would add information about sex offenders’ cars, jobs and convictions for non-sex crimes to the Web site. The ACLU worries that the expanded information will deter some employers from hiring ex-cons.  We also hear from the State Police, which runs the registry, and a business group. By Erik Adams. FOR HOLLAND, MICHIGAN CITIZEN, LANSING & ALL POINTS.

INMATEMENTALHEALTH:  New courts that would handle cases of mentally ill criminal defendants would save the state money and reduce prison overcrowding, boosters say. The bill, backed by the Corrections Department, would set up a system modeled on Michigan’s drug courts. We hear from lawmakers from Eastpointe, Rochester, Detroit and Ann Arbor. By Alexander Scott. FOR MACOMB, OAKLAND, MICHIGAN CITIZEN & ALL POINTS.

PRISONRELEASE: The governor’s plan to save money by cutting the prisoner population is sparking controversy, with criticism from an Oakland County senator and the Midland-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Granholm opposes the idea of privatizing the prison system—citing the failure of a private management experiment at a juvenile prison in Baldwin. Oakland. Wayne and Macomb counties – which lead the state in the number of prisoners they generate – would see increased participation in inmate re-entry programs under the proposal. By Hannah Northey. FOR OAKLAND, MACOMB, LUDINGTON, CADILLAC, MICHIGAN CITIZEN & ALL POINTS.

TOURISMPROMOTION: Hotel and motel rooms in the Lansing and Grand Rapids areas would be subject to a tax hike of up to 2 percent to finance tourism promotion under a Grand Rapids legislator’s proposal. It could raise about $1 million a year to market Michigan attractions to out-of-state business and vacation travelers. For news and business desks. By Nick Pelton. FOR LANSING, GREENVILLE, GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS, SOUTH BEND & ALL POINTS.

FORESTMONEY: Schools and townships in some rural counties stand to lose federal funds if Congress doesn’t renew a law that guarantees payments from logging, mining and oil revenue from Michigan’s three national forests, and “that wouldn’t be good,” the Chippewa County treasurer says. Those counties had chosen a federal revenue-sharing option that guaranteed stability in their annual aid payments—a stability that kept payments high even logging and mineral revenues dropped. Most counties in the state, however, stuck with the traditional 25-percent share of revenue. To help pay for a proposed extension of the law, the Bush administration proposes selling about 284,000 acres of national forest, including 5,448 acres in the U.P. By Eric Freedman. FOR MARQUETTE, GRAYLING, ALPENA, CADILLAC, UP NORTH, TRAVERSE CITY, LUDINGTON & ALL POINTS.

CNS

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