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The so-called "Great Recession" has left Americans depending on the government dole like never before. Without record levels of welfare, unemployment and other government benefits as well as tax cuts last year, the income of U.S. households would have plunged by an astonishing $723 billion — more than four times the record $167 billion drop reported last month by the Commerce Department. Moreover, for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans took more aid from the government than they paid in taxes.

GRAND RAPIDS -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm told Kent County educators Friday the state's school financing system "clearly is not working" and said lawmakers must agree to both a short-term fix as well as long-term changes by the end of the year. But the gathering of superintendents and school board members also gave Granholm an earful, especially after she said lawmakers are "battle weary." "If elected people are weary, my level of sympathy for them is zilch," Catherine Mueller, Grand Rapids school board president, told Granholm. "They ran for these jobs and put themselves in this situation." Granholm appeared before educators...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A newborn boy abducted by a woman posing as an immigration agent was again taken from his mother after a brief reunion, this time by state officials who said the baby and his three siblings would be safest with foster parents. Rob Johnson, a spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Children's Services, said the children were taken from their mother, Maria Gurrolla, "purely for safety reasons," though he would not detail why they were in danger. Johnson said officials made arrangements for Gurrolla to see her baby Saturday afternoon and hold him, four days after he was...

Granholm signs temporary budget bill Shutdown ends after Granholm signs interim budget Updated: Thursday, 01 Oct 2009, 12:42 PM EDT Published : Wednesday, 30 Sep 2009, 11:50 PM EDT LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) - Michigan lawmakers missed a midnight Wednesday deadline to balance the state's budget by eliminating a projected $2.8 billion deficit, opting instead for an interim one-month budget. The Legislature had been moving toward that goal without tax increases, opting instead for cuts and the use of federal stimulus money. But a full-year plan was out of reach after a standstill on the most contentious cuts. A status report:...

MIDDLEVILLE (WZZM)- A West Michigan woman says the state is threatening her with fines and possibly jail time for babysitting her neighbors' children. Lisa Snyder of Middleville says her neighborhood school bus stop is right in front of her home. It arrives after her neighbors need to be at work, so she watches three of their children for 15-40 minutes until the bus comes. The Department of Human Services received a complaint that Snyder was operating an illegal child care home. DHS contacted Snyder and told her to get licensed, stop watching her neighbors' kids, or face the consequences. "That...

LONDON – Giving contraceptives to people in developing countries could help fight climate change by slowing population growth, experts said Friday. More than 200 million women worldwide want contraceptives, but don't have access to them, according to an editorial published in the British medical journal, Lancet. That results in 76 million unintended pregnancies every year. If those women had access to free condoms or other birth control methods, that could slow rates of population growth, possibly easing the pressure on the environment, the editors say. "There is now an emerging debate and interest about the links between population dynamics, sexual...

WASHINGTON - Six months after President Obama launched a $787 billion plan to right the nation's economy, a majority of Americans think the avalanche of new federal aid has cost too much and done too little to end the recession. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found 57% of adults say the stimulus package is having no impact on the economy or making it worse. Even more - 60% - doubt that the stimulus plan will help the economy in the years ahead, and only 18% say it has done anything to help improve their personal situation. That skepticism underscores the challenge...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Use of antidepressant drugs in the United States doubled between 1996 and 2005, probably because of a mix of factors, researchers reported on Monday. About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 -- 13 million people. This rose to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found. "Significant increases in antidepressant use were evident across all sociodemographic groups examined, except African Americans," Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University in New York and Steven Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry. "Not...

MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) - Daniel Nichols, who accidentally ran over his 5-year-old son while the boy lay sleeping in a tent, says the state is threatening to take away his children. A Muskegon County Department of Human Services worker visited Nichols' wife Thursday at the hospital, where his son is recovering, and told her a campground was no place for children to live, Nichols told 24 Hour News 8. "She went to the hospital and told my wife that she doesn't think it's acceptable for us to be staying in the campground, which we weren't staying in the campground, we...

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - The economy is touching so many areas of our lives. With unemployment in Michigan climbing over 14% more parents are taking care of their young children at home rather than turning to child care. After all, if a parent is not working, they often don't need and can't afford child care for their child. As the economy has dropped and regulations increased in recent years, the number of licensed family home child care providers in Michigan has fallen from 9,999 in 2004 to 6,888 in 2008. Jan Wierenga of the YMCA says, "We've seen a lot...

Top aides to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) called a last-minute, pre-emptive strike on Wednesday with a group of prominent Democratic lobbyists, warning them to advise their clients not to attend a meeting with Senate Republicans set for Thursday. Russell Sullivan, the top staffer on Finance, and Jon Selib, Baucus’ chief of staff, met with a bloc of more than 20 contract lobbyists, including several former Baucus aides. “They said, ‘Republicans are having this meeting and you need to let all of your clients know if they have someone there, that will be viewed as a hostile act,’” said...

Cherry Workgroup on Streamlining Government Identifies Seven Core Functions of State Government Contact: Liz Boyd 517-335-6397 May 26, 2009 Public input also to be sought on what services state government should provide LANSING - Lt. Governor John D. Cherry, Jr. today said that a workgroup under his leadership charged with streamlining government has identified seven core functions of state government (see below). The group also is seeking input from legislators, state employees and the public on what services a streamlined government should provide. "At a time when government cannot afford to be all things to all people, we are refocusing...

LANSING, Mich. - Seventy-one percent of Michigan voters polled say the state is on the wrong track, while they're about evenly split on the nation's direction. Lansing-based EPIC-MRA says it polled 600 people by phone May 18-21 for The Detroit News and TV stations WXYZ, WOOD, WILX and WJRT. The voters cast ballots in 2008 or 2006 or were too young to vote. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points up or down. Forty-five percent say the U.S. is heading in the right direction, while 46 percent say it's on the wrong track. Twenty percent say...

<p>LANSING, Mich. - Michigan's unemployment rate rose to 12.9 percent in April, its highest mark since late 1983.</p> <p>The state said Wednesday that Michigan's seasonally adjusted jobless rate was pushed up by large job losses in manufacturing and construction.</p> <p>Last month's jobless rate was the highest in Michigan since unemployment reached 13 percent in November 1983. Michigan's jobless rate in March, 12.6 percent, already was highest in the nation.</p>

Please FReep this poll: How is Obama doing? http://twtpoll.com/x7fjol

Ionia County's unemployment rate for March skyrocketed to its highest level since modern statistics began in 1990. Figures released Thursday by the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth (DELEG) show the county's jobless rate hit 14.4 percent, which is the highest since the state and federal governments began using their current survey method in 1990 and nearly double the March 2008 rate of 7.6 percent. Ionia County registered an unemployment rate of 18.6 percent in March 1985 but that figure cannot be compared equally to current statistics since it calculated with an outdated formula, according to Tom Krolik,...

How is Barack Obama doing in his first 100 days?

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is planning to host a public forum next week to discuss the how to stem the tide that leads nearly half of the Michigan’s college students to seek professional opportunities outside the state within a year of graduating. Granholm wants to reverse that trend and minimize the effects of Michigan’s brain drain, something The Detroit News recently documented in a two-day series. The number of Michigan State University graduates leaving the state increased from 24 percent in 2001 to 49 percent, according to a school study. Fifty-three percent of graduates of the University of Michigan who are...

<p>Detroit (BY M.L. ELRICK and JOE SWICKARD, Detroit Free Press) - Less than three weeks after he left for Texas, Kwame Kilpatrick has made it clear he's not going quietly.</p> <p>For starters, the newest addition to the former Detroit mayor's stable of lawyers filed legal papers this week telling the Wayne County judge who ordered Kilpatrick to pay $6,000 a month in restitution that Kilpatrick could afford only $6.</p>

HOUSTON (AP) - A Texas death row inmate who removed his only remaining eye and ate it several months ago lost an appeal Wednesday before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals . Attorneys for 26-year-old Andre Thomas raised 44 claims in his petition to the state's highest criminal court, including insanity, in a bid to remove him from death row.