All Michigan workplaces, including bars, restaurants and clubs, are a big step closer to becoming smoke-free.

"I can now say Michigan will be a smoke-free state," said a jubilant Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor, following the state Senate's surprise vote Thursday to enact a widespread smoking ban.

"This is a huge victory for the people of Michigan who don't want to be subjected to second-hand smoke, which the U.S. surgeon general has said is unsafe in any amount," added Basham, who has been waging an often lonely 10-year crusade against public smoking.

Source: Detroit News Lansing Bureau

A constitutional amendment has been introduced to let 16- and 17-year-olds vote in Michigan school board elections.

State Sen. Michael Switalski, D-Roseville, said Wednesday his goal is encouraging young people to participate in important elections that affect the student body and usually attract "embarrassingly low" turnout. He hopes students can learn about democracy by voting.

The current legal voting age is 18.

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Whatever finally happens in the presidential race, most of us will still have to live here and scratch out a living a year from now. And you might be interested to know that the state Legislature is close to quietly sticking it to you on electric and gas rates.

Unless you do something to stop a package of bills in the state Senate — and soon — residential customers will pay more for light and heat. Big business will pay less. The bills will also make life cozier for the big utilities — Consumers Energy and DTE Energy, which will find it far easier to raise their rates. And they won't have to worry as much about competition, or some pesky little company making a breakthrough and selling us energy for less.

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Will the city that became the first in the world to fluoridate its drinking water decide to discontinue use of the chemical?

Grand Rapids has been fluoridating its tap water since 1945, but now some city officials say they're studying the question because of increased concerns over the potential long-term effects of exposure to what some consider a toxic chemical.

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For 14 weeks, Cheryl Chidester was a road warrior, looking to unearth points of interest along an 86-year-old West Michigan route from South Haven to Muskegon and Pentwater.

She stayed for a week or two at bed-and-breakfasts, visiting art galleries and museums and checking out locales and history.

Her guide was the West Michigan Pike, a meandering 400-mile route hugging Lake Michigan's shoreline from the Indiana border near New Buffalo to Mackinaw City. The hope is to have the route redesignated a historic highway.

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A local sportfishing group that raises newly hatched Chinook salmon fingerlings through a critical early stage of development is investigating the unplanned release of 30,000 of the young fish from a holding pen along the Muskegon Channel.

Chris Matteson, president of the Muskegon-based Michigan Anglers Association, said today that vandalism did not appear to have been the cause of the release.

He said it could have been the result of a passing vessel.

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Where do you go for an authentic Cinco de Mayo celebration? In Detroit, your answer is to head to the Southwest side – home to the largest population of Mexicans and other Latinos in the state of Michigan, and where there is a long and rich history of celebrating the holiday.

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