Environment

Wild swine numbers drop – or do they?

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By LACEE SHEPARD
Capital News Service
LANSING – Wild pigs in Michigan are still pests. The number of feral swine significantly decreased according to Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reports but at least one interest group says the numbers are wrong. The report shows three counties — Mecosta, Midland and Saginaw — had the highest numbers of feral swine in 2012. In 2012, there were five sightings and 16 killings of wild swine in Mecosta County. So far this year, the number dropped to no sightings and only six killings.

Government

Locals could regulate carrier pigeons under new plan

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By LACEE SHEPARD
Capital News Service
LANSING – Local officials could restrict ownership of carrier pigeons on a community–by-community basis under a new legislative proposal. Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood , D-Taylor, introduced a bill that would allow cities and townships to decide their own restrictions on carrier pigeons. The bill began after Hopgood received a constituent complaint about a neighbor owning too many carrier pigeons. “We thought we should give the cities the ability to do what make sense for a given community,” Hopgood said. “Then they can look out for the health and welfare of local residents.”
The proposal wouldn’t allow a local ban on the bird but would allow local governments to impose a limit on ownership if they see fit, Hopgood said.

Environment

Invasive pest hurts state timber sales

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By LACEE SHEPARD
Capital news Service
LANSING – The devastating spread of the emerald ash borer shows no sign of slowing and it is causing the pace of timber sales to quicken. Timber sales are important for their contribution to the timber based industry as well as the welfare Michigan residents, according to the Department of Natural Resources. Michigan started seeing an infestation of emerald ash borer in 2002, said Doug Heym, a DNR timber sales specialist. The insect is a beetle that efficiently eats the layer below bark, causing a lack of nutrients, or girdles a tree, leading to its death. “Eggs are laid on the bark of ash trees, and when the eggs hatch the larva under the bark and they eat the cambium layer of the tree,” said Heym.

Business & Economy

Housing more affordable for Michigan tourism workers than nationally

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By LACEE SHEPARD
Capital News Service
LANSING – Recent reports show many workers in the tourism industry nationally are struggling to live in the cities where they work, but not those in Michigan. A Center for Housing Policy report said employees aren’t able to afford homes or rent in the country’s top metro areas such as Honolulu or Santa Ana. Among them are housekeeper and wait staff, who often couldn’t afford fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment. The report said Michigan wait staff could afford rent and median-priced homes. Janet Viveiros, research associate at the National Housing Conference in Washington D.C. and co-creator of the Paycheck to Paycheck 2013 report, said the statistics are based on a lot of medians that exclude those don’t fall in the average – warning that looks may be deceiving.

Public Safety

Biometrics use raises civil liberties concerns

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BY LACEE SHEPARD
Capital News Service
LANSING – A recent U.S Supreme Court decision on DNA testing has raised concerns among civil liberties advocates about the use of biometrics in police work. In Maryland case, a suspect was arrested and had his cheek swabbed to collect a DNA sample. After the sample connected him to rape case, he was convicted of that crime instead of the unrelated assault charge he was arrested on. “They took the guy’s DNA sample under the impression that they needed to ID and fingerprint him,” said Devin Schindler, a constitutional law professor at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Grand Rapids. “They tested his DNA sample against the database and found he was a suspect in a rape case.”

Education

Community colleges seek ways to better prepare students

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By LACEE SHEPARD
Capital News Service
LANSING – Almost half of students entering community college find themselves unprepared, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, and new strategies are being formed to better equip students for success. Forty-two percent of students were not ready for the regular courses, said GAO, an investigatory arm of Congress. As a result, they were required to take developmental classes. There are multiple ways to test college readiness, said Mike Hansen, president of Michigan Community College Association. Typically the ACT test is used to measure knowledge, and many community colleges are finding a large majority of their students are not “college ready” in most subject areas, he said.

News

Families hope searches continue for missing Michigan people

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By LACEE SHEPARD
Capital News Service
LANSING – It was 1990 when Kellie Greene of Kalamazoo received the call that her then 20-year-old cousin, Richard Hitchcock, had gone missing. Hitchcock was last seen at the Riverfront Lounge in Allegan the night he disappeared. “I remember the day I found out. My mother called me and said, ‘Rich is missing, you need to come down to the Riverfront, we’re going to be doing searches,’” Greene said. “We were looking for him as if we thought he was deceased already, and it was horrifying to think we might find him – but at the same time that is what we wanted.”
Hitchcock was one of countless of Michigan residents who are reported missing every year.

Business & Economy

Entrepreneurs target Detroit for opportunities

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By LACEE SHEPARD
Capital News Service
LANSING – Despite what appears to be a crumbling job market in Detroit and the city’s recent declaration of bankruptcy, local colleges are growing stronger entrepreneurial programs.
Detroit and surrounding areas are becoming home to more start-up businesses, especially on campuses. “The place it’s most obvious is on college campuses,” said Rob Fowler, president of the Small Business Association of Michigan. In a survey of 15 public universities, SBAM found there were more courses geared toward entrepreneurship than originally thought. According to Fowler, the unexpected information found in the survey was the amount of extracurricular student activity. “The big surprise was the student-led entrepreneur clubs or entrepreneurial gatherings, and even to the point of student companies and organizations of student-run companies,” Fowler said, “a lot more of that activity than any of us thought.”
Wayne State University has a strong entrepreneurial program that is made stronger by student organizations like Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization.