GRAND RAPIDS RANKS AS MICHIGAN'S MOST GENEROUS CITY, BUT CAN'T COMPETE WITH UTAH

Story First Appeared in  Crain's Detroit Business.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- When it comes to giving, Grand Rapids ranks as one of the country's most generous cities.

When compared to cities across the country, Grand Rapids comes in at 13th out of the top 20 determined by nerdwallet.com, a consumer finance site.

It's the only Michigan city to make the list that evaluates communities on volunteerism and philanthropy.

But Grand Rapids falls short of a trio of Utah cities that top the list: Provo, Ogden and Salt Lake which rank first, second and third, respectively.

Grand Rapids' volunteer rate is 36.7 percent, compared to Provo's to 58.5 percent. There was even a wide span between annual volunteer hours, with Grand Rapids' averaging just under 34 hours compared to 147 hours in Provo.

When it comes to donating money to causes, Grand Rapids residents give less than half than their counterparts in Provo: 13.9 percent compared to 5.3 percent.

Grand Rapids had an overall score of 30.5 percent compared to Provo's 100 percent.

The three top communities on the list are at ground zero of the Mormon faith, whose members belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which is headquartered in Salt Lake City.

Religion plays a role in levels of philanthropy, whether that is volunteer or donating money, says Divya Raghazan, a nerdwallet senior analyst.

She noted that while Grand Rapids is known for having generous deep-pocket philanthropists, the list also looks at community's population to see if residents, in general, tend to donate time as well as money.

"Most Christian religions request 10 percent tithing but Mormons are more likely to do it," said Raghazan. "There is a strong culture of charity and volunteerism in the Mormon Church, and I think in several other religions as well."

COMPUWARE TERMINATES PETER KARMANOS JR.'S CONSULTING CONTRACT

Story First Appeared in  Crain's Detroit Business.

Detroit-based Compuware Corp. has terminated a six-year, $600,000-a-year consulting contract for Peter Karmanos Jr., the company's co-founder and former chairman and CEO, according to a report filed Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The termination is effective Tuesday, according to the report, filed by Joseph Angileri, treasurer and CFO of Compuware (Nasdaq: CPWR).

TIGERS SET FOX SPORTS DETROIT VIEWER RECORD

Story First Appeared in  Crain's Detroit Business.



Fox Sports Detroit set another viewership record for Detroit Tigers games this season.

The cable network said today that its 152 Tigers telecasts averaged a 9.59 household rating, topping last year's record 9.21 average.

Numbers for the rest of Major League Baseball's markets were not available this afternoon, but it's believed the Tigers led all teams in local ratings average, as they did in 2012.

The ratings are based on data from New York City-based audience tracker The Nielsen Co.

Each local ratings point represents 18,459 households in the Detroit market.

The games that didn't air on FSD were televised on national channels.

The Tigers, who wrapped up their third consecutive American League Central Division championship last week, open the AL Division series on the road Friday against the Oakland Athletics.

Because of the team's popularity among viewers, FSD charges up to 25 percent more for a 30-second advertising spot during Tigers telecasts than it did a year ago, according to a person familiar with the rates who spoke to Crain's in February on the condition of anonymity.

Airing Tigers games is both lucrative and expensive for the network. Fox Sports Detroit was predicted by SNL Kagan to have $152.2 million in operating revenue against $112.5 million in expenses in 2013.

Fox Sports Detroit has aired Tigers games since 1998, when it won the broadcast rights from the now-defunct Pro-Am Sports System, owned at the time by the Washington Post Co.'s Post-Newsweek Stations Inc.

FSD inked 10-year deals, believed to be extensions of contracts already in place, in March 2008 with the Tigers and the Detroit Red Wings, both of which are owned by Little Caesars pizza chain co-founder Mike Ilitch.

The baseball team is believed to get $50 million annually from FSD under the contract. A portion of that rights fee is pooled under baseball's revenue-sharing system.

Detroit also gets another $50 million to $60 million from MLB's shared national TV rights deals; broadcast rights account for the majority of each team's annual revenue.

The Tigers and FSD are at the opposite end of the spectrum of the Houston Astros and Comcast SportsNet Houston.

On Sept. 22, the Astros road game against the Cleveland Indians drew a 0.0 rating, according to the Houston Chronicle.

That doesn't mean no one watched Cleveland beat Houston, but the numbers were so low — perhaps a few hundred — that it didn't rise to a measurable level. Most TV viewers in the market were watching the Houston Texans that Sunday.

The Astros finished a Major League-worst 51-111.

In recent days, it emerged that that Comcast SportsNet Houston — a regional network owned by the Astros, Houston Rockets and NBC Sports Group — hasn't paid the baseball team its rights fees for the past three months.

An involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition was filed Friday against CSN Houston in federal court by Comcast/NBC Universal, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The Astros, who are protesting the bankruptcy, own about 46 percent of the network, the Rockets own about 31 percent and Comcast/NBC Universal owns 22 percent, the newspaper said.

The network, which launched Oct. 1, 2012, reportedly is available in only 40 percent of the Houston television market and has been unable to reach carriage deals with providers such as DirecTV and Time Warner.

The Tigers have no equity stake in Fox Sports Detroit.

Employment Up, Wages Down In Early 2013 For Southeast Michigan

Story First Appeared in  Crain's Detroit Business.

All of the five-county region of Southeast Michigan saw employment gains earlier this year, but only Washtenaw County had weekly wage growth to go with it, according to new data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The county that includes Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti had an average weekly wage of $989 for first-quarter 2013, up 0.8 percent from the same quarter in 2012, according to a report on county employment and wages from BLS, an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor, late last week.

Meanwhile, average wages contracted over the same period by 1.3 percent in Wayne County (to $1,053 per week), 0.8 percent in Oakland County (to $1,072 per week) and 0.1 percent in Macomb County (to $974 per week).

Livingston County was not included in the report, which covers employment and wage data for 334 U.S. counties, including the 10 largest in Michigan. Wages climbed 0.6 percent to $989 per week in first quarter 2013 across all those counties, making the Washtenaw wage match the nation as a whole.

A separate data report in the BLS' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program shows Livingston's average weekly wage in March 2012 was $753, down 0.3 percent from a year earlier. On that same March-to-March monthly comparison, Washtenaw saw 1.4 percent wage growth, while Wayne was down 1.5 percent, Oakland is off 0.8 percent and Macomb by 0.9 percent.

Every county in the region except Wayne outpaced the nation as a whole in employment growth, however, according to the new report. Macomb led that trend with about 297,200 workers in March 2013, up 3.1 percent from a year earlier.

Oakland followed at 2.7 percent growth to about 668,900 employed, although the county in a separate news release on Monday reports that its total employment was up 3.9 percent, to 666,040 jobs. The county's figures were based on a three-month average employment rate this year, compared with first quarter 2012.

Washtenaw grew 2.3 percent to 196,700 workers, while Wayne County saw 0.9 percent jobs growth, to about 681,600 people according to BLS. Employment as a whole grew 1.6 percent last March to about 132.3 million workers, with jobs growth in 282 of the 334 counties tracked. Wages grew in 242 counties and declined in 93 counties, including four in Southeast Michigan.

Total March employment figures differed for all five counties in data collected separately by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget. But that data also showed employment gains among all five Southeast Michigan counties and a shrinking jobless rate, compared with a year earlier.

Michigan Opens Health Care Marketplace

Story First Appeared in  Crain's Detroit Business.



It's Oct. 1. Do you know where your Michigan Health Insurance Marketplace is?

Today – depending on your political viewpoint – is either the beginning of the government takeover of the health insurance industry or an opportunity for you to shop for (hopefully) lower cost and (possibly) subsidized health insurance.

Without further adieu, click here to begin the online health insurance application process that federal officials say will only take about 30 minutes to complete.

There are a lot of details for people to remember about the health insurance exchange. There also has been a lot of debate about whether the U.S., individuals or small businesses can afford it or not afford it.

But here is the bottom line: A 2009 study by Harvard University concluded that lack of health insurance coverage contributes heavily to at least 45,000 preventable deaths per year.

In other words, people without health insurance had a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with private insurance, primarily because they were unable to receive timely medical care.

In Michigan, about half of the state's estimated 1.2 million uninsured people earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, the federal-state program that serves low-income folks and families.

Many of those uninsured also earn too little to purchase health insurance in today's current market. Some, of course, especially the "young and invincible," just choose to roll the dice and hope they don't get seriously sick or injured.

Today and over the next six months of open enrollment, you have a chance to check out the prices, the benefits and the relative ease of shopping for health insurance online.

Or you can continue what you are doing, include being uninsured, and next April pay a $95 fine on your 2013 tax form for not having a health insurance policy.

The fine increases over three years until it caps out at $695 per year, or 2.5 percent of gross household income.

While small businesses under 50 can start the application process on Oct. 1 to cover their employees, the online function of the exchange won't go live until Nov. 1.

Check with your insurance agent or broker for how to sign up with the small business health option program, or SHOP.

Or go online. Many business associations in Michigan have developed informational websites to help small companies learn how to begin offering health insurance.

    Warren-based Michigan Business and Professional Association has created a Small Business Health Care Reform Guide.
    The Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce also offers MI Health Answers to give members and nonmembers access to health care experts in Michigan and nationally on how to implement Obamacare.
    The Small Business Association of Michigan has launched Decision Point. It is free to SBAM members enrolled in an SBAM-sponsored health plan and $50 for members who are not. Nonmembers are charged $250 to join the association and access Decision Point.
    The Michigan Department of Financial and Insurance Services also has created a handy consumer guide for those who wish to learn more on how to pick a health insurance plan.
    The U.S. Small Business Administration also is offering a free Webinar series to teach entrepreneurs what the health care law means for their business.
    On the federal level, the Small Business Majority also has an online resource called the Health Coverage Guide.

"We've been focused on educating small businesses about this law since it went into effect," John Arensmeyer, CEO of the Small Business Majority, said in a statement.

"There's been so much rhetoric and political gamesmanship around the law, but what small businesses really want and need is the facts so they know what to do to comply with, and even benefit from, (the) provisions."

The Shutdown: What's Changing, What's Not

Story First Appeared in  Crain's Detroit Business.

Campers in national parks are to pull up stakes and leave, some veterans waiting to have disability benefits approved will have to cool their heels even longer, many routine food inspections will be suspended and panda-cams will go dark at the shuttered National Zoo.

Those are among the immediate effects when parts of the government shut down Tuesday because of the budget impasse in Congress.

In this time of argument and political gridlock, a blueprint to manage federal dysfunction is one function that appears to have gone smoothly. Throughout government, plans are ready to roll out to keep essential services running and numb the impact for the public. The longer a shutdown goes on, the more it will be felt in day-to-day lives and in the economy as a whole.

A look at what is bound to happen, and what probably won't:



THIS: Washington's paralysis will be felt early on in distant lands as well as in the capital — namely, at national parks. All park services will close. Campers have 48 hours to leave their sites. Many parks, such as Yellowstone, will close to traffic, and some will become completely inaccessible. Smithsonian museums in Washington will close and so will the zoo, where panda cams record every twitch and cuddle of the panda cub born Aug. 23 but are to be turned off in the first day of a shutdown.

The Statue of Liberty in New York, the loop road at Acadia National Park in Maine, Skyline Drive in Virginia, and Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, home of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, will be off limits. At Grand Canyon National Park, people will be turned back from entrance gates and overlooks will be cordoned off along a state road inside the park that will remain open.

"People who waited a year to get a reservation to go to the bottom of the Grand Canyon all of a sudden will find themselves without an opportunity to take that trip," said Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the National Park Service.

BUT NOT THIS: At some parks, where access is not controlled by gates or entrance stations, people can continue to drive, bike and hike. People won't be shooed off the Appalachian Trail, for example, and parks with highways running through them, like the Great Smoky Mountains, also are likely to be accessible. Officials won't scour the entire 1.2 million-acre Grand Canyon park looking for people; those already hiking or camping in the backcountry and on rafting trips on the Colorado River will be able to complete their trips. The care and feeding of the National Zoo's animals will all go on as usual.

The shutdown won't affect Ellis Island or the Washington Monument because they are already closed for repairs.


THIS: The Board of Veterans Appeals will stop issuing rulings, meaning decisions about some disability claims by veterans will wait even longer than usual. Interments at national cemeteries will slow. If a shutdown drags on for weeks, disability and pension payments may be interrupted.

BUT NOT THIS: Most Department of Veterans Affairs services will continue; 95 percent of staff are either exempted from a shutdown or have the budget to keep paying them already in place. The department's health programs get their money a year in advance, so veterans can still see their doctor, get prescriptions filled and visit fully operational VA hospitals and outpatient clinics. Claims workers can process benefit payments until late in October, when that money starts to run out.


THIS: New patients won't be accepted into clinical research at the National Institutes of Health, including 255 trials for cancer patients; care will continue for current patients. Federal medical research will be curtailed and the government's ability to detect and investigate disease outbreaks will be harmed. Grant applications will be accepted but not dealt with.

BUT NOT THIS: The show goes on for President Barack Obama's health care law. Tuesday heralds the debut of health insurance markets across the country, which begin accepting customers for coverage that begins in January. Core elements of the law are an entitlement, like Social Security, so their flow of money does not depend on congressional appropriations. That's why Republicans have been trying explicitly to starve the law of money. An impasse in approving a federal budget has little effect on Obamacare. As for NIH operations, reduced hospital staff at the NIH Clinical Center will care for current patients, and research animals will get their usual care.



THIS: Most routine food inspections by the Food and Drug Administration will be suspended.

BUT NOT THIS: Meat inspection, done by the Agriculture Department, continues. The FDA will still handle high-risk recalls.


THIS: Complaints from airline passengers to the government will fall on deaf ears. The government won't be able to do new car safety testing and ratings or handle automobile recall information. Internal Transportation Department investigations of waste and fraud will be put on ice, and progress will be slowed on replacing the country's radar-based air traffic system with GPS-based navigation. Most accident investigators who respond to air crashes, train collisions, pipeline explosions and other accidents will be furloughed but could be called back if needed.

Kristie Greco, speaking for the Federal Aviation Administration, said nearly 2,500 safety office personnel will be furloughed but may be called back incrementally over the next two weeks. The union representing aviation safety inspectors said it was told by FAA Administrator Michael Huerta that nearly 3,000 inspectors will be off work. Greco did not confirm that.

BUT NOT THIS: Air traffic controllers and many of the technicians who keep air traffic equipment working will remain on the job. Amtrak says it can continue normal operations for a while, relying on ticket revenue, but will suffer without federal subsidies over the longer term. FAA employees who make grants to airports, most Federal Highway Administration workers and federal bus and truck safety inspectors will also stay on the job because they are paid with user fees. Railroad and pipeline safety inspectors will also remain at work.


THIS: About half the Defense Department's civilian employees will be furloughed.

BUT NOT THIS: The 1.4 million active-duty military personnel stay on duty and under a last-minute bill, they should keep getting paychecks on time. Most Homeland Security agents and border officers, as well as other law enforcement agents and officers, keep working.



THIS: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, could shut down. It provides supplemental food, health care referrals and nutrition education for pregnant women, mothers and their children.

BUT NOT THIS: School lunches and breakfasts will continue to be served, and food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will still be distributed.


THIS: A shutdown that lasts two weeks or more would probably start to slow an already sluggish economy, analysts say. Closures of national parks would hurt hotels, restaurants and other tourism-related businesses. And federal workers who lost pay would spend less, thereby curbing economic growth. A three-week shutdown would slow the economy's annual growth rate in the October-December quarter by up to 0.9 of a percentage point, Goldman Sachs has estimated. If so, that could mean a growth rate of 1.6 percent, compared with the 2.5 percent that many economists now forecast.

BUT NOT THIS: Little impact on the economy if the shutdown only lasts a few days.


THIS: Economic data will be interrupted as the Bureau of Labor Statistics ceases almost all operations. This will leave the stock market without some of the benchmark economic indicators that drive the market up or down. The key September jobs report, due Friday, could still be released on time if the White House authorizes that, but that's not been determined. Statistical gathering also is being interrupted at the Commerce Department and Census Bureau. This means the government won't come out on time with its monthly report on construction spending Tuesday or a factory orders report Thursday.

BUT NOT THIS: The weekly report on applications for unemployment benefits is still expected Thursday. The Treasury Department's daily report on government finances will be released normally and government debt auctions are to proceed as scheduled. And at Commerce, these functions continue, among others: weather and climate observation, fisheries law enforcement and patent and trademark application processing.



THIS: Some passport services located in federal buildings might be disrupted — only if those buildings are forced to close because of a disruption in building support services.

BUT NOT THIS: Except in those instances, passport and visas will be handled as usual, both at home and abroad. These activities of the Bureau of Consular Affairs are fully supported by user fees instead of appropriated money, so are not affected. As well, the government will keep handling green card applications.


THIS: The Federal Housing Administration, which insures about 15 percent of new loans for home purchases, will approve fewer loans for its client base — borrowers with low to moderate income — because of reduced staff. Only 67 of 349 employees will keep working. The agency will focus on single-family homes during a shutdown, setting aside loan applications for multi-family dwellings. The Housing and Urban Development Department won't make additional payments to the nation's 3,300 public housing authorities, but the agency estimates that most of them have enough money to keep giving people rental assistance until the end of October.

BUT NOT THIS: It will be business as usual for borrowers seeking loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together own or guarantee nearly half of all U.S. mortgages and 90 percent of new ones.


THIS: Possible delays in processing new disability applications.

BUT NOT THIS: Social Security and Medicare benefits still keep coming.

Fixing Problems At Water Plant Can't Wait

Story first appeared in Traverse City Record Eagle.

Traverse City officials who worry about the region’s reputation as a vacation destination when e-coli bacteria counts get too high on area beaches should shudder at the thought of what a few cases of giardiasis might do.

That could have been the case at least twice this year during prime tourism season and, it turns out, “many times” in the past decade.

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials issued a Significant Deficiency Violation Notice for incidents on July 5 and July 31, when the city failed to use enough coagulant to filter out a pathogen that can cause diarrhea from the city’s drinking water.

The more serious incident occurred July 5 — just as the National Cherry Festival was getting into full swing — because of a pump failure at the city’s water treatment plant.

City commissioners and officials from Elmwood, Garfield, and Peninsula townships, which buy water from the city, didn’t learn of the problem until Monday.

“Shouldn’t that have been done two months ago?” asked Commissioner Jim Carruthers.

The short answer, of course, is yes. If the city’s reputation suffered a black eye when the brand-new splash pad at Clinch Park spewed untreated sewage on some children, imagine what a few cases of “travelers diarrhea” (so named because of its prevalence in nations with less developed water systems) might have done.

This is the kind of thing that must be dealt with swiftly and publicly, to ensure it’s being fixed and to guarantee the public isn’t being kept in the dark.

City workers didn’t consider the incident a public health threat because the pathogen is usually not present in the area of East Bay where the city draws its water. But public officials can’t take that kind of gamble. 

DEQ officials said the incidents should have been immediately reported and they would have ordered an increase in chlorine, a partial flush of the system and a public notice.  This public notice would also have been read by those with a Golf Course Irrigation Systems.

The superintendent of the water treatment plant said he thought the level of a chemical that helps filter out the pathogen was a DEQ recommendation, not a required minimum. Incredibly, city records show the amount of coagulant has been below that level many times over the last decade.

That’s not acceptable. This is the major source of drinking water for thousands of people and untold numbers of visitors, and its purity must protected at all costs.

Obviously, the city needs to do some major work at the water plant — to better train personnel and upgrade or replace outdated equipment.

This can’t wait. Few public health issues are as crucial as pure potable water. The region’s health literally depends on it.