CNS Budget

March 24, 2017 CNS Budget

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March 24, 2017
To: CNS Editors
From: Perry Parks and Sheila Schimpf
http://news.jrn.msu.edu/capitalnewsservice/
For technical problems, contact CNS technical manager Pechulano Ali, (517) 940-2313, pechulan@msu.edu. For other issues contact Perry Parks, perryrobertparks@gmail.com, (517) 388-8627. FREE ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM WORKSHOP: Reminder: You and your staff are invited but seats are limited. MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism will host a free all-day workshop in Grand Rapids on Saturday, April 1. The topic is “Covering the Grand River – Covering Any River” and includes presentations by experts from DNR, DEQ, Annis Water Resources Institute, Environmental Health News and the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council.

Environment

Wetlands mitigation may get cheaper for local governments

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By CHAO YAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — A new partnership of state and local agencies is working to set aside state land to make it easier for public entities with expansion needs to fulfill wetlands replacement requirements. Because wetlands play a vital role in the health of the state’s environment and its tourism economy, the Wetlands Protection Act requires damage to wetlands that happens under a permit be compensated by creating a wetland someplace else. The Michigan Municipal Wetland Alliance (MMWA) is developing a wetlands mitigation bank system using Department of Natural Resources (DNR) property as bank sites. “By us using state-owned lands, we are saving on the purchase of lands for the development sites and restoration sites,” Stephen Shine, the wetland mitigation bank administrator for the DNR, said. “And we are creating an added benefit for those state-owned lands by enhancing recreational opportunities for a whole variety of enthusiasts — everything from birdwatchers, people who like to hike, hunters.”
According to the Department of Environment Quality website, the purpose of wetland mitigation is the replacement of unavoidably lost wetland resources with created or restored wetlands.

Government

Criminal justice bills would define problems to help solve them

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By LAINA STEBBINS
Capital News Service

LANSING — Michigan’s recidivism rate is significantly higher than the national average. Or is it? No one knows for sure, supporters of a criminal justice revamp package say, thanks to a lack of agreement among state agencies about which measurements to use in defining how often convicted criminals go on to commit future crimes. And that’s just one part of the problem. A piece of legislation defining recidivism and how to calculate a rate is one of 20 bills in a package that supporters say would enhance the efficiency of Michigan’s criminal justice system.

Health

Medical officials applaud new state vaccination campaign

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By ISAAC CONSTANS
Capital News Service
LANSING –  Michigan, with vaccination rates that put it near the bottom of a list of all states, has launched a new campaign — I Vaccinate — that it hopes will boost rates up to 90 percent. Currently, 67.6 percent of Michigan children aged 19 to 35 months have received all of their recommended vaccinations, according to a 2016 United Health Foundation report. The program, which was launched in late March, has an “innovative” multi-platform structure that will educate and encourage Michigan residents, according to state officials. I Vaccinate combines a social media, web and TV presence to convey the importance of vaccinations for communities by focusing on parents’ concerns. Its website offers vaccination schedules, links to the immunization registry and answers questions that parents and guardians typically have.

Agriculture

Productivity boost offsets acreage, price declines of corn

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By CARL STODDARD
Capital News Service
LANSING — Soon Michigan farmers will start planting millions of acres of corn, cultivating what has become a billion-dollar business in the state. Farming is one of the top three industries in Michigan, and corn one of the top crops. “Agriculture in Michigan has been a growing industry, contributing a great deal to the state’s economy,” said Kate Thiel, a field crop specialist for the Michigan Farm Bureau and its 46,500 member farmers. One of the largest crops in Michigan is corn, Thiel said. Michigan farmers grew about 2.4 million acres of corn for grain in 2016, generating $1.1 billion last year – despite a price drop.

News

Cemeteries protect biodiversity amidst death

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Four white-tailed deer graze atop a rise, oblivious to Jay P Lee and GW Palen, and other folks named Stowell and Whitehead and Slayton and Potter interred there. It’s afternoon — an uncommon feeding time for deer that usually prefer dawn and dusk — on a fall day at Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing. The deer browse amongst the graves, apparently unperturbed by the writer, photographer, and ecologist walking at the foot of their hill, discussing varieties of lichen on tombstones, the food value of non-native honeysuckle for wildlife and the evils of invasive buckthorn. The ecologist is Brian Klatt, director of the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, and we’re exploring the cemetery, which was farmland until 1873. It sits at the intersection of two busy roads about three miles from the classic white-dome state Capitol and backs into the floodplain of Sycamore Creek.

Environment

Rain, evaporation make predicting lake levels tricky

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By STEVEN MAIER
Capital News Service
LANSING — Predicting water levels in the Great Lakes isn’t as straightforward as it would seem. A warm winter has led to lower ice coverage — just 5 percent of the Great Lakes was covered with ice as of March 1. The average coverage at this time for the last 40 years has been 43 percent, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor. Less ice means less protection from evaporation and, theoretically, lower water levels, said Jacob Bruxer, a senior water resources engineer with Environment and Climate Change Canada. But it’s not quite that simple.

CNS Budget

March 17, 2017 CNS Budget

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To: CNS Editors
From: Perry Parks and Sheila Schimpf
http://news.jrn.msu.edu/capitalnewsservice/
For technical problems, contact CNS technical manager Pechulano Ali, (517) 940-2313, pechulan@msu.edu. For other issues contact Perry Parks, perryrobertparks@gmail.com, (517) 388-8627. FREE ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM WORKSHOP: Reminder: You and your staff are invited but seats are limited. MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism will host a free all-day workshop in Grand Rapids on Saturday, April 1. The topic is “Covering the Grand River – Covering Any River” and includes presentations by experts from DNR, DEQ, Annis Water Resources Institute, Environmental Health News and the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council.

Energy

Trump’s budget cuts could devastate Great Lakes restoration

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By LAINA STEBBINS
Capital News Service
LANSING — Eliminating the $300 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative could lead to devastating natural and economic effects on coastal Michigan communities, defenders of the program said. President Donald Trump has proposed killing the initiative, along with the Michigan Sea Grant and nearly a third of the funding for the Environmental Protection Agency. The possible elimination of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has compelled Michigan lawmakers, environmentalists, scientists and business owners to make a case for the program. “It has benefited Muskegon greatly, hugely. We’ve received millions in dollars in federal funding to clean up White Lake and Muskegon Lake,” said Bob Lukens, Muskegon County community development director.

Health

Fewer Michigan parents seek vaccination waivers

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By LAURA BOHANNON

Capital News Service
LANSING — The percentage of Michigan parents opting out of vaccinating their children has continued to drop since the state changed its waiver rules, Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon said. “We’ve changed the way the waivers worked for parents to basically ask for an exemption for vaccinations for their children,” he said. “We’ve seen those waiver rates drop from 4.6 percent in November 2014 to 2.9 percent in 2016.”
Now, Michigan parents must speak with a public health provider to obtain a nonmedical waiver. In 2015, the year the changes were implemented, statewide waiver rates dropped to 3.1 percent. The changes were prompted by the large number of Michigan parents waiving vaccines for their children.