State Roundup

Detroit Deloitte partners with schools on career program DETROIT (AP) - Financial services business Deloitte is partnering with the private Cornerstone Schools in Detroit on an education program to prepare students in urban areas for life beyond the classroom. Plans call for the "Deloitte Cornerstone Career Pathways" program to start this fall for the 2015-2016 school year. The program is aimed at becoming a template for similar efforts across the country. Organizers say it will focus on building students' skills in math and accounting, analytical problem solving, general management, business ethics and related areas. Current and prospective students in grades five through nine will be automatically enrolled. Students in grades 10 and above will be able to apply for enrollment. Cornerstone students already are involved with Deloitte through its existing internship program. Detroit Region's global trade potential focus of forum DETROIT (AP) - Mayor Mike Duggan has told business and other leaders in southeastern Michigan that Detroit is ripe for investment. Duggan gave opening remarks Wednesday at the Global Cities Detroit Economic Conference at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit. Duggan said "entrepreneurs - the people who made" Detroit "great at the start of the last century are starting to gravitate" to the city. The public forum opened a discussion of the region's potential for global trade and investment. It is hosted by the Global Cities Initiative, a joint project of the Washington-based Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase. The Global Cities Initiative helps business and civic leaders grow their economies by strengthening international connections and competitiveness. Global Cities Initiative co-director Bruce Katz said the Detroit region is prepared for global competition. Pontiac Woman's estate gets $3 million in overdose death PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) - A judge has awarded a $3 million settlement to the estate of a woman who died of a narcotics overdose while undergoing physical rehabilitation at a facility in suburban Detroit. Margaret Dickerson was recovering from orthopedic surgery at Samaritan Nursing and Rehabilitation in Southfield when she died of an overdose. McKeen & Associates, the law firm representing her estate, says Dickerson suffered an adverse reaction to the medication she was given at the facility, and she didn't receive adequate care to prevent her death. The Oakland Press reports the lawsuit filed more than two years ago argued Dickerson should've been given a long-term reversal agent, instead of a short-acting drug, after she showed signs of a narcotic overdose. Attorney Brian McKeen says she also should have been taken to a hospital. Lansing Bills for stricter state regulation of pipelines proposed LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Minority Democrats in the Michigan House say they're reintroducing a package a bills in an effort to ensure better state oversight of oil and gas pipelines. The four-bill package was announced Wednesday, which is Earth Day. It would require pipelines be operated in a manner that doesn't threaten public health, safety or the environment. The package also would require permits, regulations and response plans for private pipelines and require good-faith efforts to contract with Michigan residents for cleanups of oil or gas pipeline spills. State Reps. Sarah Roberts of St. Clair Shores, Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor, Gretchen Driskell of Saline and Tom Cochran of Mason are announcing the package along with Robert Gordon of the Michigan Sierra Club and Nic Clark of Clean Water Action. Charlotte @ROUND UP Briefs Headline:Company files suit over arsenic levels at plant CHARLOTTE, Mich. (AP) - A company has filed a lawsuit alleging the former Charlotte manufacturing facility it purchased last year contains 5 million pounds of arsenic and cadmium contamination. The lawsuit filed Thursday by AP CH-MI, LLC claims arsenic levels in bricks in the furnace systems at the former Owens-Brockway Glass Container, Inc. plant are six times higher than acceptable. The suit also accuses the seller of neglecting to disclose information about the contamination. State officials said Monday that the contamination won't present a hazard to the community and environment if the company properly disposes of the bricks. The Lansing State Journal reports Owens-Brockway makes glass containers for the food and beverage industry at factories around the country. Owens-Brockway operated the plant in Charlotte for 40 years before closing it in 2010 and selling the 102-acre site last July. Lansing Officials monitor bird flu outbreak in other states LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan agriculture officials are monitoring a bird flu outbreak that's affected other Midwest states and say they're ready to respond if needed. Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development spokeswoman Jennifer Holton says in an email that the state don't have any cases at this time. She says the department is "preparing to respond quickly, effectively and efficiently" if bird flu is found in the state. Holton says the department also is working with poultry producers and others involved in agriculture to step up their biosecurity practices. WILX-TV reports many poultry farms are closing their facilities to anyone who doesn't work there and isolating birds that recently arrive. U.S. Department of Agriculture is working on a potential vaccine in response to the outbreak of the deadly strain of bird flu. Lansing Snyder headed for Republican Jewish meeting LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will travel to Nevada Thursday to attend the Republican Jewish Coalition's spring meeting. It's the first trip the Republican is taking to more aggressively promote Michigan since his allies formed a nonprofit group, Making Government Accountable. The fund's creation raises the prospect that Snyder could transition his national tour touting Michigan's economic comeback into a presidential bid. Spokesman Jarrod Agen said Wednesday Snyder will be in Nevada Thursday and Friday before going to Washington for the White House Correspondents Dinner as a guest of Bloomberg News. Snyder will talk informally to attendees and media in Nevada. Official speakers include GOP presidential contenders Sen. Ted Cruz and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Agen says Michigan has had the country's largest unemployment rate drop since peaking in 2009. Traverse City Son: Ex-US Sen. tried to do right, even in private TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - U.S. Sen. Robert Griffin always "strove to do the right thing," whether in public or private life and whether anyone knew about it, one of his sons said at the Michigan Republican's funeral Tuesday. About 100 people gathered at First Congregational Church to remember Griffin, who died Thursday at age 91, The Traverse City Record-Eagle reported. Griffin spent 10 years in the U.S. House and a dozen years in the U.S. Senate before being defeated by Democrat Carl Levin in 1978. Griffin initially backed fellow Republican Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal before joining other influential senators in calling for the president's resignation in August 1974. Griffin later spent eight years on the Michigan Supreme Court. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has ordered U.S. flags lowered Tuesday at state offices in Griffin's honor. "Throughout his life, he strove to do the right thing," said his son, Judge Richard Griffin, a member of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. "In his private life, in his public life, whether nobody was watching or whether the nation was watching, that was my dad." Jim Griffin, another son, told the mourners that his father "was always willing to listen to all sides of the story and then consider each on its own merits without prejudice. "I think it's this tolerance and his ability to be open-minded that made him such a powerful and well-respected force in Congress," Jim Griffin said. Southfield @ROUND UP Briefs Headline:Son: Shopping mall pioneer had 'no regrets' SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) - Billionaire philanthropist and shopping mall pioneer A. Alfred Taubman "loved what his life had become" and had "absolutely no regrets," his son told about 1,000 mourners at Taubman's funeral Tuesday. Taubman, 91, died on Friday of a heart attack at his home in Bloomfield Hills. He began his first real estate business in 1950 and pioneered the development of enclosed shopping malls in Michigan, California and elsewhere in the 1950s and early 1960s. His fortune established, Taubman donated hundreds of millions of dollars to universities, hospitals and museums. "He touched so many in so many ways and will continue to touch them and help them for years to come," said Robert Taubman, CEO of Taubman Centers, the mall development company his father founded. "He was truly an amazing person who lived an extraordinary life. He was a great American story." "He loved what his life had become" and had "absolutely no regrets," his son said at his father's funeral at Congregation Shaarey Zedek, a synagogue in the Detroit suburb of Southfield. A private burial ceremony followed at Clover Hill Park cemetery in Birmingham. Former University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman says she wonders if there will ever be anyone as generous as Taubman. "No one should leave here today thinking that Alfred simply wrote big checks," she said. "As a donor and adviser, he was totally engaged. He wanted us to be better and he was ready to commit the time to hold us accountable. He was simply a tough taskmaster." Published: Thu, Apr 23, 2015