No tickets for distracted drivers until next year
TROY (AP) — Troy officials are putting the brakes on issuing tickets to distracted drivers until 2011.
But motorists still will be cited if their bad driving is caused by activities that include texting, eating, grooming and interacting with pets.
Chief Gary Mayer tells Detroit Free Press that driver complaints and un-posted signs warning motorists about the new ordinance have caused police to defer enforcement in the city just north of Detroit.
Between July 1 and Sept. 30, officers wrote 192 warnings.
A ticket carries no points but includes a $200 fine for texting and a $75 fine for talking on a cell phone.
A statewide law that makes it illegal for a person to read, write or send text messages while operating a moving vehicle went into effect July 1.
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Blue Cross rate hike blocked for now
LANSING (AP) — An Ingham County Circuit judge has stopped Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan from implementing rate increases as high as 66 percent for some seniors.
The preliminary injunction issues recently also requires a public meeting be held.
The Michigan attorney general’s office filed suit in September against Blue Cross and a state regulator, claiming the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation should have held a hearing.
State officials say the decision affects 8,000-9,000 policies out of about 200,000 covered by BCBS Medigap policies.
Blue Cross and the regulator said the rate changes stemmed from elimination of a discount on Medigap policies for people who don’t live in Michigan or do get help from employers in buying coverage.
Blue Cross said it was complying with an order to end to discounts.
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Partnership preserves Michigan Manual
The 2009-10 print edition of the Michigan Manual was on the verge of not being produced due to budget constraints in Lansing, but a chance conversation between Speaker Pro Tem Pam Byrnes and Detroit Legal News Co. CEO Brad Thompson sparked a chain of events that resulted in preservation of the book.
Learning that the print version of the book was unlikely to be produced this year, Thompson asked that Byrnes help facilitate a meeting with the Legislative Service Bureau (LSB) to discuss if there were any options available.
After several meetings, it was agreed that LSB would prepare the 608-page book if the Detroit Legal News and its commercial printing subsidiary, Inland Press, would print and bind it.
The Detroit Legal News and Inland Press are absorbing the cost of producing 1,600 books for distribution to libraries, schools and other public locations across the state.
The Michigan Manual has been produced continuously since Michigan achieved statehood in 1837.
While originally just a manual for legislators, it has become a reference for all to use to find information about all branches of government, Thompson said.
The Detroit Legal News was established in 1895 and now publishes 10 newspapers and one magazine in Michigan.
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