Job market improving for Michigan veterans

As the nation pauses this weekend to honor fallen service members, businesses and job organizations are stepping up to help former soldiers and sailors find civilian jobs that will help them merge back into mainstream America. The unemployment rate among America’s veterans of all ages was 6.2 percent in April, compared to 7.5 percent for America as a whole. Among Michigan’s 680,417 veterans — including 27,085 post 9/11 vets — unemployment is 7.9 percent, compared to 8.

Volunteers clean up Detroit’s parks

Detroit — Dozens of city parks scheduled to be closed because of budget cuts will be ready for cookouts and baseball games Memorial Day thanks to the efforts of business sponsors and community volunteers.

Family of vets steady supply source for jobs

U.S. Army engineer John A. James returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam in 1969 with high entrepreneurial aspirations.

Detroit's Compuware Corp. a finalist for DOD award

Detroit — Detroit's Compuware Corp. is a finalist for an award given for employer support of Guard and Reserve employees.

Detroit still fails to keep residents

The exodus from Detroit continues, the Census Bureau says, more feet-on-the-ground evidence that the city's chronic mismanagement is perpetuating a problem years in the making.

Brewers team up with beer to be released on Memorial Day to help military families

Richmond, Va. — Craft breweries from around the country are toasting the troops with a beer aged with a unique ingredient that symbolizes America's pastime — baseball bats.

Netflix looks to hook subscribers with new 'Arrested Development'

Netflix is hoping this weekend's release of the resurrected TV series 'Arrested Development' will draw more subscribers to its Internet video service.

Summer travel forecast: Better, but no blowout

New York — The forecast for summer travel, 2013: Partly sunny.

Big plans are in the works for a tiny Capitol Park in downtown Detroit

Capitol Park, site of Michigan's first Capitol building and more recently where people wait for the bus, is a major front in the block-by-block battle to gentrify downtown.

Rationale behind Beaumont-Henry Ford merger still alive

Metro Detroit's mega-hospital merger may be dead, but the forces that pushed Beaumont Health Systems into the arms of its larger rival, Henry Ford, are very much alive.

U.S. unemployment aid applications fall to 340K

Washington — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 last week, further evidence that the job market is slowly returning to health.

Google to add Galapagos Islands to Street View

— Few have explored the remote volcanic islands of the Galapagos archipelago, an otherworldly landscape inhabited by the world's largest tortoises and other fantastical creatures that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Groundbreaking procedure at U-M hospital saves baby's life

Kaiba Gionfriddo is a healthy toddler, thanks to a groundbreaking procedure at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. Doctors there used 3-D technology to create a bio-absorbable scaffold to hold Kaiba's bronchus open until it grows strong enough to stay open on its own.

Foxx, tapped to replace LaHood, vows to keep fighting against distracted driving

President Barack Obama's pick to head the Transportation Department vowed to keep up the government's fight against distracted driving.

High corn, soybean crop prices spur farming frenzy

Biggsville, Ill. — Clark Kelly plans to spend a lot of time on the links this spring. The Illinois farmer is plowing the Hend-Co-Hills Golf Course near tiny ...

State Senate committee moves to shorten foreclosure redemption period

Lansing — A Senate committee approved legislation Thursday significantly shortening the redemption period for homeowners in foreclosure.

ACO closing 14 hardware stores; 7 in Metro Detroit

ACO Home, Garden & Hardware, Michigan's largest independent hardware retailer, will close 14 stores in the state, half of them in Metro Detroit.

Cheesecake Factory sets opening date at Twelve Oaks

The Cheesecake Factory has set an opening date for its location at the Twelve Oaks Mall.

Different visions doom merger of Henry Ford, Beaumont

Two of the region’s largest health care systems, Henry Ford and Beaumont, have scrapped plans for a merger that would have created a 10-hospital system serving ...

Books-A-Million sees opportunity in Michigan, opens stores in old Borders locations

Books-A-Million, one of the nation's leading book retailers, has opened two stores in southeast Michigan in recent months and plans an aggressive search for ...

Reliance One hiring 400 test drivers in southeast Michigan

Auburn Hills-based Reliance One is hiring 400 test drivers to meet a growing demand from local automotive companies.

AAA: 31.2M drivers to take Memorial Day road trip

It's going to be another busy Memorial Day weekend on the nation's highways.

U.S. home sales tick up to highest in more than 3 years

Washington — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes ticked up last month to the highest level in three and a half years, helped by a jump in the number of ...

Bernanke signals Fed to maintain stimulus efforts

Washington — Chairman Ben Bernanke is telling Congress Wednesday that the U.S. job market remains weak and that it is too soon for the Federal Reserve to end ...

Median CEO pay rises to $9.7M in 2012

CEO pay has been going one direction for the past three years: up.

State loans $6 million to old United Way building for renovations

The historic former United Way building in downtown's Capitol Park district received a $6 million loan Wednesday from the state of Michigan's Strategic Fund.

Dodd-Frank reform giving investors a voice on executive pay

More investors are getting serious about deflating corporate chiefs' ballooning pay.

Danialle Karmanos abruptly cancels white-tie gala for hubby

After vowing the event would go on, Danialle Karmanos has canceled a June 8 white-tie gala honoring her husband, retired Compuware founder Pete Karmanos, in ...