Environment

Water quality testing limited to few beaches

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By GREG MONAHAN
Capital News Service
Michigan received $152,000 in federal grants for 2014 to monitor the cleanliness of its lakes and beaches. That’s more than $200,000 less than the state was allotted in 2013, according to Department of Environmental Quality toxicologist Shannon Briggs. And state lawmakers have already spoken for nearly two-thirds of this year’s money by allocating $100,000 of it to the Macomb County Health Department in southeast Michigan. “We had a re-direct of $100,000 of that $150,000,” said Brad Wurfel, communications director for the Department of Environmental Quality. “It is done.”

The downside is that there is far less money allocated to testing water safety elsewhere in the state this year.

Elections & Politics

GOP control of the Senate: 30 years and counting

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – Thirty years ago this month, angry voters in Macomb and Oakland counties set the stage for a 30-year Republican lock on the Senate. They recalled two Democratic senators who had voted for Gov. James Blanchard’s 38 percent temporary income tax hike. The Democratic governor had won legislative approval for the increase to balance the state budget amid deep economic problems.
Sen. Phil Mastin of Pontiac lost his job in a Nov. 22, 1983, recall election, and Sen. David Serotkin of Mount Clemens suffered the same fate on Nov. 30.