Business & Economy

State money encourages new high-tech start-ups

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By SILU GUO
Capital News Service
LANSING – With $8.5 million in grans to award, the state is encouraging local programs to support start-up high-tech companies. The Michigan Strategic Fund and Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) offer the funding for outstanding programs around the state, with a focus on Northwestern Michigan, Grand Rapids and suburban Detroit. The money will support three years of services for each project, said Paula Sorrell, managing director of entrepreneurial service at MEDC. These programs, called ‘incubator accelerators,’ are designed to support start-ups through an array of resources and services.

Education

Detroit program builds youth skill, leadership

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By ANJANA SCHROEDER
Capital News Service
LANSING – In the middle of a city whose glory days belong to past generations, YouthVille Detroit promotes hope and pride in the future. YouthVille’s founder, Gerald K. Smith, believed young people needed a safe place, responsible, caring adults engaged in their lives and involvement in their own development, the nonprofit organization says. Rita Clark, the director of programs, was there at its inception in 2005. Clark said YouthVille is a youth development center that services people ages 11-19 and gives them high-performance learning opportunities. YouthVille teaches a wide range of skills from pottery and music production to leadership and service learning.

Education

'Food hubs' spur local produce sales

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By WEI YU
Capital News Service
LANSING – Detroit schoolchildren are eating more fresh Michigan-grown vegetables and fruit. Betti Wiggins, director of operations for food service at the Detroit Public Schools, said she started working with a local food hub about two years ago. Now the school system serves meals to about 45,000 students a day, and they include at least half a cup of fresh fruit and half a cup of vegetables, she said. “Because I have 130 schools, it’s about supply chain management, and that’s how I started to work with Detroit’s Eastern Market,” said Wiggins. “Our school and the Eastern Market have developed a crop plan – planned production by local farmers.

Business & Economy

Mortgage fraud targeted by prosecutors, new law

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By JENNIFER CHEN
Capital News Service
LANSING – The long arm of justice is eventually nailing some of the scam artists whose mortgage frauds contributed to the national recession, according to the U.S. Attorney’s offices in Detroit and Grand Rapid. Federal court convictions and a new state law are part of the effort to attack mortgage fraud. Michigan had the seventh-highest foreclosure rate among the states in 2010, according to a FBI report. “Mortgage fraud is a serious problem in the state. Every day, scam artists take advantage of people desperate to keep their homes,” said Joy Yearout, deputy director of communications for Attorney Gen. Bill Schuette.

Health

Health experts worry about doctor shortage

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By WEI YU
Capital News Service
LANSING –- Michigan could face a more serious shortage of physicians by 2020, according to a report by the Michigan Center for Health Professions. The report predicts that the top three shortages will be cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons and general surgeons. Melanie Brim, deputy director of policy and planning at the Department of Community Health, said the gap of physicians is an overall problem that is compounded by the current distribution of professionals. “The state doesn’t have enough physicians in general, much less getting them evenly distributed into not only rural areas, but also into urban Detroit,” Brim said. For example, the ratio of residents to primary care doctors in Clinton County is 2,494:1, while the ratio in Ingham County is 762:1.

Elections & Politics

Michigan underground newspapers fueled political activism before the Internet and social media

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – The Vietnam War, the drive for civil rights and demands on college campuses for student power all fueled a 1960s media revolution in which Michigan played a major role. Student unrest and dissent were beginning to spread across America, not only in liberal-leaning Detroit but even at politically conservative Michigan State University, according to a new memoir by underground press activist Michael Kindman. For example, that movement sparked East Lansing’s first underground newspaper, The Paper, in 1965. The Paper was born because of a philosophical split within the State News—at the time MSU’s official rather than independent student daily–as Kindman tells it in his posthumously published book, My Odyssey through the Underground Press (MSU Press, $39.95). After Kindman failed to become editor-in-chief of the Michigan State News, he devoted most of his time to working on The Paper.

Meridian Township

The biggest football game of the year

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By Danielle Turcotte
Meridian Times staff writer

Say “cheese!” The Super Bowl is much more than just a football game. It is the ultimate event—a night full of rivalry, get-togethers, munchies, commercials and this year The Black Eyed Peas. It is a time where the NFL crowns the new champions, culminating in tears, victory dances and a lot of confetti. Despite Super Bowl XLV being played in the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the spectacle is enjoyed all over the United States, even right here in Meridian Township.