Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/capital-news-service/page/26/)
As vehicles become more efficient, gas tax rates have remained the same and no longer provide enough money to pay for building and upkeeping roads and bridges. Tracking how much a vehicle drives may be an answer — but only way down the road.
Oswald Bear Ranch in Newberry has allowed the public to interact with bear cubs for 15 years, but Michigan law and animal rights activists would end the practice unless a bill passes to make the activity legal.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office is proposing measures to prevent future oil pipeline spills. They include automated valves, spill modeling software, locating response personnel closer to pipelines and collecting better data on response times.
If fourth-graders in Canton, Mich. get their way, the tart cherry will become Michigan’s state fruit. Students from Gallimore Elementary School write persuasive essays to legislators and the governor every year, asking them to make it happen.
Drug traffickers have been conducting business deep within the lush canopy of Michigan’s forests since at least 2008. After five years of eradication efforts, police say the problem shows no signs of going away.
What do you do with urban territory that has fallen out of the literal economy?
A University of Michigan architecture professor suggests community gardens flourishing in empty lots, artists using fire-damaged buildings as palettes and neighborhood fairs in alleys.
Despite drought conditions, low water levels and a rash of disease in the white-tailed deer population, fishing and hunting remained a boon to the Michigan economy in 2012.
Budget constraints and a belief that existing legal solutions to the disputes are sufficient nixed an aquifer protection program, but critics of the decision say the program worked well and is needed.
It may soon be possible to use wasted heat from your vehicle’s tailpipe to power electronics in your car. That’s one of many potential uses of a new material based on tetrahedrites, natural minerals found in abundance.
The grounds surrounding Michigan’s oldest surviving lighthouse, the Fort Gratiot Light Station in Port Huron, could see an archaeological excavation as experts work to learn more about the past while preserving it. It was built just north of the site that formerly held Fort Gratiot, a post built in 1814.