"Yes we've definitely seen an increase, in fact this is the first year we've actually had funding going into our new fiscal year in October where we could actually help people this time of year.  So for us we'd rather get to them now before the cold weather starts."

Sutton says last year they helped 1,600 people with heating while 2,300 did not receive assistance.  She says this year may the same way or worse.

James McCurtis is with the Michigan Department of Community Health.

"We're at about 77 percent of the allocated doses that have been ordered so the state is going to be getting more and vaccinein and that's a good thing.  We want to be sure that we're able to get all the people that fall into the priority groups and those who don't fall into the priority groups later on in the flu season.

McCurtis says more doses of the killed vaccine have been ordered than the live nasal spray vaccine.  They say the live vaccine will be distributed in schools and universities, where better health is usually present.  This would leave the killed inject able vaccine for health centers and hospitals.

Photo by www.travelsd.com  

The Department of Natural Resources says the Walleye population has gone down in Mullet Lake, so they've proposed a ban on walleye fishing.  Mullet lake is the third largest lake in the state and attracts a lot of tourism and revenue to Cheboygan County.

Kim Pappas is the Director of the Cheboygan area chamber of commerce. 

"We have several tournaments throughout the year that bring in thousands of dollars, not to mention the people that come in to visit on an annual basis.  This is what they come up and plan their vacations around walleye seasons off walleye season. They plan their participation in these types of venues and tournaments. This could have a dramatic effect on over a million worth of industry for our area for our tourism.

 A meeting is scheduled in Lansing November 5th to discuss the ban. Pappas says it's a shame that the DNR is considering the ban.

The Midland Public School system stands to take a major hit from the Governor Granholm's proposed k12 budget.

Midland Public Schools stand to lose more than 5 million dollars. 

Carl Ellinger is the Superintendent of Midland Public Schools. 
He says they were prepared for the 165 dollar per pupil cuts.  But he knew their budget could not withstand anything much further than that. 

 "We'd have two choices we'd continue to take it out of our savings account, which would mean we would use 60 percent of our savings account to get through this year budget which I think is unfair of the governor and the legislature to put us in that position.  Because here we are one third of the way through our school year.  Plus I don't like the position financially that leaves the district because we could not weather that kind of hit two years in a row.  It is even less certain how public schools would be funded in the 2010-2011 school year."

 Ellinger says the proposed cuts leave the Midland School District in a dangerous place financially.

 Cherrie Benchley is with the United Way in Saginaw.  She says poverty in the city has many causes, but unemployment is the main factor.

 "Even the plants that contracted with the larger plants the GM powertrains the Delphi and so forth are not employing people, they've laid off, we have so many people who are laid off.  Because these higher income people are not working we're not we're not going out to eat as much, we're not going to the movies as often, we're not spending as much.  So it's left a lot of the service jobs. The lower income service jobs are even cut back too."

 Benchley says Saginaw will be getting just over a million dollars from the state in November.