Environment

State works to help localities with significant public lands

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By CHAO YAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan ranks seventh in the nation in its percentage of land owned by the public, and state officials are working to make sure that property does not burden local governments. State- and federal-owned land offers opportunities for tourism, recreation and resource extraction such as mining. But in some counties, particularly in the North, the land also limits local tax revenue and development potential. “In a county that is 50 percent state-owned and we manage it, they have a hard time standing up fire, police and schools because they don’t get full tax off that, though they get great recreational outdoor activity,” Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Keith Creagh said. “For them it’s very difficult to drive some long-term economic sustainability or community sustainability.”
According to the DNR, the state manages nearly 3.9 million acres in northern Michigan and 700,000 million in the southern part of the state.

Environment

State works to help localities with significant public lands

By |

By CHAO YAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan ranks seventh in the nation in its percentage of land owned by the public, and state officials are working to make sure that property does not burden local governments. State- and federal-owned land offers opportunities for tourism, recreation and resource extraction such as mining. But in some counties, particularly in the North, the land also limits local tax revenue and development potential. “In a county that is 50 percent state-owned and we manage it, they have a hard time standing up fire, police and schools because they don’t get full tax off that, though they get great recreational outdoor activity,” Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Keith Creagh said. “For them it’s very difficult to drive some long-term economic sustainability or community sustainability.”
According to the DNR, the state manages nearly 3.9 million acres in northern Michigan and 700,000 million in the southern part of the state.

Environment

Some Michigan fish safe for pregnant women, sometimes

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By CAITLIN TAYLOR
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan health professionals still want pregnant women to eat fish in safe amounts, despite local fish advisories throughout the state. Fish provide nutrients, like omega-3 oils, that are important to fetal brain development, Jennifer Eisner, public information officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, said. But some of the state’s water bodies are contaminated with toxins like mercury that could harm a growing fetus, she said. “We do want pregnant women to eat locally caught fish,” Eisner said. “But we want them to check our guidelines to find out how often it’s safe to eat them.”
The department develops Eat Safe Fish guidelines that  provide information on the health effects of chemicals in fish by geographic area.

Environment

Where people are, wrens aren't

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By JACK NISSEN
Capital News Service
LANSING — That short burst of tweets you hear from wrens might be the best way to tell if they’re near, but it isn’t the only way. A good way to predict the bird populations in the Great Lakes is to listen not for the songs of wrens, but for the roar of car engines. A recent study in the Journal of the Society of Wetland Scientists shows where humans are and where wren populations should be – but aren’t. One of the broadest research projects on two species of wrens in the Great Lakes region found that urban development has a primary influence on where the birds live. For the most part, where you find people is where you likely won’t find wrens.

Business & Economy

Small businesses warned against cyberattacks

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BY CHAO YAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — An unwitting business employee clicks the wrong link and suddenly finds her files have been locked. A message flashes on the screen: You can have your data back, for a price. Small businesses are falling prey to such “ransomware,” a type of cyber attack and one of a variety of networking threats companies now face. “Small business is vulnerable to a wide variety of cyber threats, like web-based attack, scripting, phishing, ransomware…and ransomware is huge in Michigan currently,” said Zara Smith, the strategic programs manager for the Michigan Small Business Development Center. Small business, big threat
More than 40 percent of cyberattacks target small businesses, according to a 2016 report by cybersecurity firm Symantec.

Diversity Issues

“Tampon tax” bills a move toward equity, advocates say

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By CAITLIN TAYLOR
Capital News Service
LANSING — An average American woman will spend $3,600 on feminine hygiene in her lifetime. That’s roughly $7 per month for about 40 years. In Michigan, around $200 of that cost is spent in sales tax alone. That’s the cost of nearly 67 boxes of breakfast cereal. Or the cost of 40 jugs of laundry detergent.

Environment

Proposed WIC cuts unclear for local health agencies

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By CAITLIN TAYLOR
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan public health officials are uncertain how President Donald Trump’s proposed $150 million cut to a federal women’s food assistance program will impact local agencies. Trump’s budget allocates $6.2 billion to the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) assistance program, according to the National WIC Association. The association requested approximately $6.4 billion, matching appropriations for the past two years. “At this point, it would be difficult to give any specifics about what would happen to programs at the state level because we don’t know for sure what the federal changes may be,” Jennifer Eisner, a public information officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email. Eisner didn’t provide details about specific agency concerns.

Business & Economy

Need a job? How about engineering a driverless car?

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By CHAO YAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — As Michigan accelerates toward leadership in the emerging driverless car technology, industry experts say its workforce needs to catch up. Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation in December allowing the public to buy and use fully self-driving cars when they are available — a package of four bills that is “leading the way in transforming the auto industry,” Snyder said in a statement. Michigan, led by Detroit, has a 100-year history as the heart of the U.S. auto industry, but to be the first is not always easy. “As the industry evolves and more information is available, we have a disconnection in workforce,” said Elaina Farnsworth, the chief executive officer of Mobile Comply and a member of the state’s Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Task Force. Farnsworth said the group discovered a problem when it started analyzing skill gaps, even though Michigan has a high concentration of engineers.

Education

Bills would create opioid education program for schools

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By ISAAC CONSTANS
Capital News Service
LANSING — In his 32 years of recovery from cocaine, marijuana and alcohol abuse, Rep. Joseph Bellino, R-Monroe, has seen coworkers, friends and constituents fall victim to his former vice. Recently, he’s seen more preventable deaths than before, as the lure of opioids in his community has intensified. “I being a man who lost a cousin a few years ago to a heroin overdose — it started with pills after a surgery. I have a small store in Monroe. I lost a bottle boy,” Bellino, who owns an alcohol shop, said.

News

Mapper tracks E. coli levels in watersheds

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By BEN MUIR
Capital News Service
LANSING — Almost 200 lakes, rivers and beaches in Michigan have high levels of E. coli bacteria, according to the Department of Environmental Quality. And you can find out where they are with an online tool created by the department. “Our tool is mostly for exploring your watershed to find out where the water quality is impaired by E. coli,” said Molly Rippke, the department’s senior aquatic biologist. “We are not going to be predicting anything, or have last week’s data on there.”
Instead, the “Mapper” tab shows whether a watershed — land that drains water into streams and rivers – has exceeded acceptable levels of E. coli in the past. The data on the tool are about two months old and will be updated every year, Rippke said.