News

LANSING, Mich. – Secretary of State Ruth Johnson reminds residents that the Mohawk office returns to one-day-a-week service instead of two beginning in November as it adjusts to seasonal business volume. The office at 3616 U.S. Highway 41 will be open on Thursdays only beginning the week of Nov 2. …

What would you like to see for recreational opportunities in Hancock? That’s what city officials and the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region would like to know. The 2015 Recreation User and Citizen Survey is now available and the results would be used in formulating the city’s five year …

An Upper Peninsula lawmaker wants Congress to finish a project it first put in motion nearly 20 years ago. State Representative John Kivela is sponsoring a resolution encouraging Congress to come through with funding to replace two small locks at the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie with one large …

Legislation awaits a vote in the full Senate that would set guidelines for the Secretary of State’s (SOS) office to oversee the ignition interlock program. Under the bill package, the devices, which prevent a person who has had alcohol from driving, would have to be installed by a licensed technician …

Democrats in the Michigan House are using October, which is domestic violence awareness month, to draw attention to a handful of domestic violence bills they want to gain more traction. State Representative Winnie Brinks says the legislation isn’t getting caught up in party politics, it just isn’t moving. The bills, …

Remains from two more of the men that died in an Korean War-era military plane crash in Alaska have been identified so they can be returned to families for burial, but one man from Michigan still hasn’t been found. The remains identified belong to Captain Walter Perrin Tribble of Champaign, …

State lawmakers are considering a bill to allow lake towns combating invasive species to charge a fee for lake access. The idea is to charge boaters a fee to use the lake and that money would be used in the fight against whichever foreign species is invading the water body. …

Michigan is getting poor marks for its efforts to improve financial literacy education, so a bill is working its way through the legislature to do just that. The legislation, sponsored by State Representative Jim Tedder, would allow for a personal economics or financial literacy course to be taken as an …

An architect who designs pedestrian and bicyclist friendly transportation plans says there’s more to a bill to increase the state’s speed limit on some roads than allowing drivers to go 80 miles an hour on interstates. Norm Cox, with Greenway Collaborative in Ann Arbor, says the speed limit going up …

A state Senator is challenging any lawmaker that supports tax increases to fix the roads to a public debate. Senator Patrick Colbeck issued his challenge on the chamber floor saying it’s time to bring closed door discussions on raising taxes out into the light. Colbeck says using existing revenue is …