Echo

Cottage food producers want income cap raised

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Cottage food producers in Michigan are asking for more leeway in the laws to do business. Proposed legislation would raise the $25,000 cap on gross annual income, allow third-party delivery systems and change the requirement that home addresses be placed on each label. 

Fish

Water test: Rending the Great Lakes food web

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The food web in lakes Michigan and Huron has changed in ways that jeopardize age-old fishing traditions and raise questions about how we’ve managed them. Now negotiators are updating a legal settlement that spells out where and how much lake whitefish and lake trout can be harvested. 

Waste

Proposed hotline aimed at bottle bill fraud

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Some Michigan lawmakers and environmental advocates want to create a hotline to stop retailers from fraudulently cashing in on the state’s beverage container deposit law.

Echo

The drive for bare pavement shaped winter roads public policy

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By Hannah Brock

Author Timothy Kneeland was 14 years old when snow piled 20 to 30 feet high over four days in his small town outside of Buffalo, New York. The Great Lakes’ snow belt brought havoc to the Buffalo area on Jan. 28, 1977. The storm was the first to be declared a federal emergency disaster declaration for snow. More than 40 years later, Kneeland documented the experience and how it impacted public policy with his book “Declaring Disaster: Buffalo’s Blizzard of ‘77 and the Creation of FEMA” (Syracuse University Press, $24.95).

Echo

Nail salon working hazards exposed

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A recent study revealed unsafe working conditions in some Michigan nail salons, the consequence of working with hazardous chemicals and not knowing how to handle them properly.