Government

Bills could raise speed limits on state roads

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By JOSH THALL
Capitol News Service
LANSING — A new package of bills would result in higher speed limits on state roads across Michigan and fewer “speed traps” set by local police departments, if passed and signed into law. The bills are designed to set optimum speeds on state roadways by relying on driver behavior, road conditions and accident data, according to officials with the Michigan State Police and the Michigan Department of Transportation. The package would also restrict local governments from arbitrarily lowering speed limits on sections of roadway, supporters said. A similar proposal was introduced two years ago by Republican Sen. Rick Jones of Grand Ledge, a former county sheriff who supports the bills. “The Michigan State Police gave a presentation on how, for 40 years, speed limits have been set scientifically and it has been shown to be the safest speed,” Jones said.

Environment

Detroit River cleanup brightens gateway to Michigan

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By JOSH THALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Cleaning up Detroit and its river could be a key in revitalizing and re-creating Michigan as a state, state officials say. People describe Detroit as the front-door city of the state, said Ron Olson, the chief of parks and recreation for the state Department of Natural Resources. “The better Detroit does, the better the state does.”
The industrial complexes that were built up along the Detroit River and other rivers throughout the state years ago were an abusive use of land, Olson said. Now, the challenge is to dismantle these complexes and restore the waterfronts to the way they once were. The main focus for the future is to continue to figure out how to dismantle and remove the remnants of those complexes to turn that space into safe and usable park space, Olson said.

Energy

Detroit Zoo has $1 million manure plan

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By JOSH THALL
Capital News Service
Lansing — The Detroit Zoo plans to build a machine to effectively use one of its more plentiful resources — manure. The zoo’s proposed $1 million anaerobic biodigester would break down animal waste and produce a biogas as a source of electrical energy. It would be the first zoo-based biodigester built in North America. It could save the zoo around $70,000 to $80,000 in electricity per year, said Gerry VanAcker, the chief operating officer for the Detroit Zoo. Another $30,000 to $40,000 could be saved in operational costs, including cleanup, disposal and equipment expenses for the current waste-disposal process.

Business & Economy

New bills aim to close the gender-wage gap

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By JOSH THALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Employers could be required to release gender-based wage information, and the state could be required to report unequal wage data, under a package of bills aiming to close the wage gap between men and women in Michigan. The Progressive Women’s Caucus laid out a plan for a 12-bill package on April 14, saying they aren’t content to wait for the gap to close in 2086 under current trends. The Progressive Women’s Caucus is a group of 17 Democratic women legislators who work to make sure women’s rights and needs are not overlooked in the government. The bills were laid out on “Equal Pay Day,” meant to recognize the wage disparity between men and women workers. April 14 was selected for Equal Pay Day because it signifies how far into 2015 women had to work to match the amount of money their male co-workers made in 2014.

Education

Program turns college grads into high school advisers

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By JOSH THALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — An organization that aims to close the college education gap between rich and poor is introducing a program that puts recent college graduates in Michigan high schools to guide students through the admissions process. Michigan College Access Network plans to hire 40 recent graduates from 13 Michigan colleges to work full time in high schools with high proportions of low-income students and low college enrollment rates. High schools in Manistee, Alpena and Alcona are among those that will participate, said Brandy Johnson, founder and executive director of the access network. Joyce McCoy, director of instruction at Alpena Public Schools, said a college adviser would be able to help students find a good college fit by organizing activities such as job shadows while in high school, so they can see what they enjoy. “We haven’t been able to do much in job shadowing because we are a deficit district,” McCoy said.

Government

Mass transportation could move state beyond “Band-aid” fixes

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By JOSH THALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — The May 5 ballot proposal to raise sales taxes for road improvements might be just a start toward fixing the state’s transportation needs. For many years, officials haven’t been fixing roads but patching them, said Denise Donohue, the director of the County Road Association of Michigan. “Currently we are simply patching potholes, which just puts a Band-aid over the problem,” Donohue said. “If there is a pothole, that means there is a crack in the road bed that is allowing water to get through and freeze and so forth. So really, a bigger repair is what’s needed.”

A legislative report from 2011 says such quick fixes only last up to three years for roads in fair condition, and not even a full year for roads in poor condition.

Government

Bill would take some bang out of Michigan fireworks

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By JOSH THALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Unregulated fireworks are keeping some Michigan residents up at night, and a lawmaker is moving to quiet them down. Rep. Martin Howrylak, a Troy Republican, has introduced a bill that would give local governments more control over when fireworks can be used. Howrylak has received complaints from his constituents. Concerns about fireworks range from their waking children to stressing out combat veterans, said Judy Allen, the director of government relations for the Michigan Townships Association. Howrylak said he was on the Troy City Council in 2011 when the state legalized larger consumer fireworks.

Education

Bill would expel students who threaten teachers

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By JOSH THALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Public school students above the fifth grade who threaten the lives of school employees or volunteers could be permanently expelled under a bill introduced by Sen. Dave Hildenbrand, a Lowell Republican. Hildenbrand said he introduced the bill as a response to a phone call he received from a teacher in his Grand Rapids district. He said she told him a student had threatened her, and every day when that student was in class, she felt unsafe. The teacher reported the problem to school officials, Hildenbrand said, but nothing substantial was done. Grand Rapids schools officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Education

Ottawa’s McPhee could ‘redefine’ education adviser role

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By JOSH THALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Ottawa Area Intermediate School District Superintendent Karen McPhee could “redefine” the role of the governor’s senior education policy adviser when she takes the job in April, coworkers say. McPhee will retire as superintendent, a position she has held for 11 years, at the end of the month to begin working for Gov. Rick Snyder. “Karen is an innovator that likes to challenge the status quo,” said Kyle Mayer, an assistant superintendent for instructional services at the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District in Holland. “She is an extremely intelligent, out-of-the-box thinker, and at the same time, she is passionate about public education for students and she always leads with a student-first mentality.”

In her new job, McPhee will advise the governor on all aspects of K-12 and college education throughout Michigan, according to Dave Murray, Snyder’s deputy press secretary. “She is the policy adviser for all things education,” Murray said.

Education

SAT redesign complicates testing switch

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By JOSH THALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Educators are working to make sure students are prepared to take the SAT when it becomes the new state test for high school juniors, and that colleges are ready to evaluate the results. Early this year, Michigan awarded the College Board a $17.1 million three-year contract for the SAT to be the state-administered college entrance exam starting in 2016, replacing the long-used ACT. The move was in-part a money saving decision, as the bid from the College Board was over $15 million less than the bid from the ACT over the three year period. At the same time the state is making the switch, the SAT is being reinvented to align better with the national Common Core standards Michigan has adopted for its education system. College admissions officials said the switch will not dramatically affect they way applicants are judged; many schools have accepted both ACT and SAT scores for years and rely on other measures as well.