News

The state House and Senate have not been able to agree on a mid-year budget bill. 

The Michigan Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether more than 350 inmates sent to prison for murder as juveniles for life without parole will get a chance someday at freedom.

The Michigan League of Conservation Voters is criticizing President Barack Obama's decision to cut funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. 

Parents and the Washtenaw County community at large have the chance to learn more about Active Shooter training designed to ensure a uniform response to those types of threats county-wide.

A pair of public forums this month will introduce the public to the ALICE active shooter training model that’s been adopted locally.  ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate.

The intense ALICE training model was adopted in response to a dramatic increase in school violence and school shootings across the nation.

 A poll reports a doubling in the percentage of Michigan drivers who acknowledge they text or use email while behind the wheel since the previous survey two years earlier.

A spike in heroin overdoses including several deaths followed by three teens being charged in the death of a Michigan State University student has turned the spotlight on Saline for drug use.  Washtenaw County officials however say the problem with heroin and other opiates is really a national epidemic. 

Snowy Owls don't make it to Washtenaw County every winter. They made it this winter in greater numbers than usual. Why? Where might you see one?  In this week's installment of WEMU's Issues of the Environment, David Fair seeks out answers to those questions.

The University of Michigan Men's basketball team clinched the outright regular season Big ten title with an 84-53 win at Illinois Tuesday night.  Work is still to be done with the Big Ten Basketball Tournament taking place next week in Indianapolis.  

 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says Great Lakes water levels rebounded sharply last year after a prolonged low period dating from the late 1990s.

 A university economist says children raised by heterosexual couples have a much greater chance of making normal progress through school than kids living with same-sex parents.

       Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has signed a law changing sentencing rules for juvenile defendants convicted of murder and other serious crimes.

There is an effort afoot in Lansing to regulate smokeless electronic cigarettes - and ban their sale to minors. But there is a difference of opinion on how to go about it. 

Legislation to repeal and replace a tax on business equipment has cleared the state Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bills seek to make sure local governments are not hit hard by a repeal of Michigan's Personal Property Tax (PPT). 

Ypsilanti City Council Tuesday night voted 4-3 to approve a purchase agreement for the Water Street Flats affordable housing proposal. 

Thieves stole computers and equipment out of the media centers at a pair of Ann Arbor High Schools Monday night.  

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - Great Lakes advocates are meeting in Washington, D.C., this week to lobby for funding of environmental projects and to discuss strategies for dealing with challenges such as invasive species.  More than 100 people from the eight-state region are attending the Great Lakes Commission's semiannual meeting and other activities.

(Detroit)-A University of Texas professor will face a vigorous cross-examination in the trial over Michigan's gay-marriage ban.  Mark Regnerus is returning to the witness chair this morning in Detroit federal court. He testified Monday for the state of Michigan. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette  is defending a 2004 constitutional amendment that recognizes marriage as only between a man and a woman. 

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan lawmakers are looking to remove the terms "mental retardation" and "mentally retarded" from state law.  The legislation in Lansing incorporates some recent recommendations from a mental health commission appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder. 

One of the longest serving members of the Washtenaw County Board of commissioners will not seek re-election in 2014.

Ann Arbor will use general fund money to help the public art program transition to a new funding model, but over $940,000 in old percent for art funds are being returned to their original sources.  That’s the result of three resolutions passed by city council Monday night to hopefully end the long debate over the program.  

St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor has been ranked among the nation's top 100 hospitals by an organization that provides information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care.

This is the sixth time St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor has made the list from Truven Health Analytics, the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based firm said today.

Students at the Ypsilanti Community Schools' Ford Early Learning Center this week will put what they've learned about the importance of developing good sleep habits to work.

Sweet Dreamzzz, Inc. will be at Ford Early Learning Center Wednesday morning in a visit that coincides with National Sleep Awareness Week ®.

As Ypsilanti City Council prepares to vote on a purchase agreement for the Water Street Flats affordable housing proposal, downtown businesses are sounding off on the project.

Business owners have been portrayed as being united in opposition to it, but an informal survey shows most like the idea or don't really have an opinion.  

Of the 13 businesses WEMU news asked, four said they support Water Street Flats, two are opposed and seven didn't feel strongly either way. 

The state's defense of Michigan's same-sex marriage ban got off to a rocky start Monday.

Federal Judge Bernard Friedman tossed out the state's first witness in the case. He said Yale law student Sherif Girgis did not qualify as an expert witness. The plaintiffs' attorneys pointed to the fact that Girgis is still a student, and said he would only be expressing his opinion on gay marriage - not actual evidence.