Lansing
Bill is designed to helps homeowners hurt by disasters
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan legislation intended to help residents who rebuild their damaged house after a natural disaster is headed to Gov. Rick Snyder.
The state Legislature last week voted to clarify state law to ensure those who lose homes or buildings to “acts of God” won’t be subject to higher property taxes when they rebuild a substantially similar structure within three years.
Republican Sen. Tom Casperson of Escanaba introduced the legislation after the Duck Lake wildfire in the Upper Peninsula destroyed 136 structures in 2012.
Current law limits year-to-year increases in the taxable value of property to 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. But a property’s value can be adjusted higher for “replacement construction.”
Casperson says his bill ensures people who rebuild won’t be penalized with higher taxes.
Monterey Twp.
Official: Liquid manure from farm fouls fresh water
MONTEREY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Liquid manure has leaked from an open-air lagoon at a western Michigan dairy farm into a creek and spread for at least five miles, the state said Monday as health officials encouraged people to stay away from the water.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said it began investigating Friday after getting calls about a possible spill. Temperatures were in the teens Monday, and the DEQ said the cold weather helped lessen potential problems with the manure and bacteria.
“It will disperse as it goes,” DEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel said.
DEQ analyst Bruce Washburn said a stormwater system failure at Schaendorf dairy farm in Monterey Township, about 30 miles southwest of Grand Rapids, led to the leak into the Allegan County drain system. Manure seeped into Bear Creek and reached the village of Hopkins. Communities don’t draw drinking water from the affected area, Wurfel said.
“It’s going to take time to naturally flush the manure out of the stream and creeks,” Washburn said. “But, the farm is also working to mitigate as much as they can at this point by pumping out water and manure downstream of where the spill occurred to the extent they can.”
A valve failed between the stormwater system and the lagoon, which allowed manure to back up into the stormwater pipes, Washburn said. It wasn’t known Monday how much manure got into the drainage system or how long the leak lasted, the DEQ said.
Washburn said farm staff stopped the flow Saturday morning. Since then, workers at the farm have been trying to pump manure out of drainage ditches. On Monday, Washburn said the water near the spill has “cleared up significantly” since it was reported and the odor of manure has dissipated.
The manure seeped into Bear Creek, which feeds into the Rabbit River, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River that eventually ends up in Lake Michigan.
Farm owner John Schaendorf, who said he was out of state at the time the spill was discovered, told TV station WXMI that crews are working to collect the manure. He said workers plugged the broken valve area with concrete so more liquid manure can’t escape.
“We did make sure it isn’t going to happen again,” he said.
Schaendorf met Monday with the DEQ at his office to discuss the cleanup. He said the pipe where the waste was flowing was covered with snow, hiding it from view. He also said water conditions are improving in the area.
Health officials have issued a no-contact advisory for water in Bear Creek and the Rabbit River, The Grand Rapids Press reported. The advisory from the Allegan County Health Department covers the Rabbit River to where it enters the Kalamazoo River at New Richmond.
The department said Monday that fishing and other recreational activities should be postponed until the advisory is lifted. Manure spills can kill fish by boosting the growth of bacteria in the water and depleting oxygen from the water. Wurfel said so far no fish have been harmed.
The DEQ plans to coordinate cleanup and monitoring efforts with other state and local officials.
East Lansing
Value of MSU endowment tops $2B for 1st time
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The value of Michigan State University’s endowment topped $2 billion for the first time in the 2013 fiscal year, the school said.
The figure includes more than $300 million held by the MSU Foundation, which supports research and technology commercialization through organizations such as Spartan Innovations and MBI International, the Lansing State Journal reported.
The balance of the endowment is held in numerous funds designated for scholarships, faculty recruitment and support, research and other functions.
The East Lansing school said strong investment returns helped boost endowment’s value.
The endowment passed the $1 billion mark in 2004, early in the public phase of a capital campaign that would raise more than $1.2 billion. Its value plummeted during the 2008 financial collapse, losing more than $300 million, but rebounded in the 2011 fiscal year.
Endowment giving has mirrored those ups and downs, the school said.
“When people give to endowments, they’re typically giving out of investments,” said Bob Groves, MSU’s vice president for university advancement. “So, when investments are down, when their stocks are crashing, when they don’t have appreciated property, we’re less likely to get endowment gifts.”
The combined value of the endowments places Michigan State second in the state behind the University of Michigan, which has an endowment worth nearly $8.4 billion. Michigan State’s policy is to spend about 5 percent of the five-year-average value of its endowment funds annually.
Wise Twp.
Police: 2 arrested after grandmother assaulted over car
WISE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Police say an 18-year-old man and his 15-year-old brother are under arrest in mid-Michigan after their 60-year-old grandmother was assaulted during a dispute over the use of a car.
The Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant reports the brothers live with their grandmother in Isabella County’s Wise Township.
Michigan State Police Sgt. Lance Cook says neither of the brothers is legally licensed to drive. Police say the younger brother pulled a gun on his grandmother at her home on Sunday, then assaulted her after she drove them to a home in Clare County.
Police say one of the two brothers had a BB gun at the time they were arrested. They’re expected to face charges in both counties.
Lansing
Minimum wage supporters want voters to OK $10.10
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Supporters of boosting the hourly minimum wage in Michigan want to put a bigger proposed increase before voters than previously announced, organizers of the effort said Monday.
The Raise Michigan campaign said it now wants to raise the minimum wage from $7.40 per hour to $10.10 per hour by January 2017. The campaign previously had submitted proposed ballot language to increase it to $9.50 per hour by January 2016.
In a statement, the campaign said there is “strong public support” for the idea.
“This proposal gives people who work hard ... a better chance to escape poverty, and allows businesses more time to adjust to the proposal,” Raise Michigan said.
The Michigan Board of Canvassers plans to review the petition at its meeting Wednesday, the group said. If approved, supporters of Raise Michigan say they plan to collect 258,000 valid signatures from Michigan voters needed to put the proposal on the November ballot.
Critics say raising the minimum wage would hurt the economy. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who is up for re-election, has said increasing the wage could have negative consequences. Michigan’s GOP-led Legislature hasn’t embraced the idea of raising the state’s minimum wage above $7.40.
A full-time worker making $9.50 per hour earns $19,760 annually — right at the federal poverty level for a family of three this year. A worker making $10.10 per hour over the same time period would earn just more than $21,000 a year.
Michigan’s minimum wage is slightly higher than the $7.25 federal minimum.
Flint
Woman loses appeal over husband’s death
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A Flint-area woman who was convicted of enticing her online boyfriend to kill her husband has lost her latest appeal in a case that has gone as high as the U.S. Supreme Court.
A federal appeals court last week said the confession of Jerry Cassaday was admissible at Sharee Miller’s trial. The confession is controversial because Cassaday wrote it before committing suicide in 2000.
Miller is serving a life sentence for conspiracy and second-degree murder but was free for about three years during a complicated appeal process.
The Supreme Court got involved at one point because of changes in legal precedent about confessions. The 42-year-old Miller was returned to prison in 2012, but her appeals haven’t ended.
There was a cable TV movie about the case called “Fatal Desire.”
