Commission suggests 3% raise for judges
LANSING (AP) — A commission has recommended that Michigan judges get a 3 percent pay increase.
The State Officers Compensation Commission suggested the raise on Tuesday. It also says pay should remain frozen for other top state officials, including the governor and state lawmakers.
Although the commission doesn’t directly set salaries for judges below the Supreme Court level, the judges receive a percentage of what justices on the high court receive.
The Detroit Free Press reports the 3 percent pay raise for judges would take effect Jan. 1, 2015, if the recommendation is approved by majority votes in both chambers of the Legislature.
Circuit and probate judges in Michigan currently are paid $139,919. District judges make $138,272.
The Lansing State Journal says the last pay increase for judges was in 2002.
Appeals court rules in favor of union in child-care dues dispute
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan child-care providers who sued to try to recover union dues have failed to persuade an appeals court to revive their lawsuit.
The court on Wednesday agreed with a Grand Rapids federal judge who said there would be too many conflicts among providers to make it a class-action case.
The case centered on union representation of 40,000 home-based workers. When Jennifer Granholm was governor, the union got 1 percent of public subsidies paid to people who watched kids from poor families. It added up to nearly $4 million in 2009 and 2010.
The lawsuit claimed union representation was forced on self-employed people who weren't state employees and got no benefit from paying dues. The state stopped deducting dues after the election of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.
Japanese auto supplier executives face prison time for price fixing
DETROIT (AP) — Two executives at Japanese auto supplier Denso Corp. are facing more than a year in U.S. federal prison for fixing prices on auto parts.
Yuji Suzuki and Hiroshi Watanabe have pleaded guilty to charges that they fixed prices and allocated bids for electronic control units and heater control panels that were sold to Toyota Motor Corp. in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Suzuki will serve 16 months in a U.S. prison, while Watanabe will serve 15 months. Both men will pay $20,000 fines and cooperate with the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation.
Denso pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to pay a $78 million fine in March 2012.
Denso is one of nine companies and 14 executives involved in the ongoing investigation into price fixing in the auto industry.
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