Jobs Connection

Gov. Rick Snyder today proposed a $48.2 billion budget for 2012-13, including increases in funding for public schools, universities, public safety, arts and culture, rainy-day funds and economic development.

Michigan could be finished with general budget cuts for the next few years, according to documents distributed today by Gov. Rick Snyder's office.

(Editor's note: This story was written by Ann Arbor resident Robert H. Holland, chairman and CEO of business group Vistage Michigan.)

We have ample reasons to be optimistic about the Michigan economy. While it may take a while longer for it to play out, as our nation continues its recovery from a deep and prolonged recession, we are making substantial progress in improving Michigan’s overall business climate. In fact, Michigan recently enjoyed the largest improvement in its jobless rate of any other state in the country.

Newsstand sales of magazines plummeted in the second half of 2011, corresponding with the liquidation of Ann Arbor-based Borders Group Inc., formerly the second largest bookstore chain in the U.S.

Single-copy sales of consumer magazines fell 9.96 percent in the last six months of 2011, compared with the same period in 2010, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations figures released Tuesday.

Pittsfield Township play store My Urban Toddler has been attracting families in the Ann Arbor area to “play, shop and learn” since 2006.

The store — located in a strip center east of the city of Saline on Michigan Avenue across from Walmart — offers a drop-in community-themed play space alongside a boutique-style children’s and maternity retail shop, as well as classes geared for toddlers.

MAVDevelopment, an Ann Arbor-based real estate development company, finalized a deal Friday to purchase the 71.5-acre former ProQuest headquarters at the northeast corner of the interchange at I-94 and Zeeb Road in Scio Township.

A 65-year-old Ann Arbor-based certified public accounting firm is channeling its inner startup.

The firm, Weidmayer Schneider & Raham PC, which added two new partners in 2011, is now actively pursuing Ann Arbor area startup clients.

(This story has been revised to correct an error regarding operating income.)

Ann Arbor Township-based transportation giant Con-Way Inc. reported today that its profit soared from $4 million in 2010 to $88.4 million in 2011.

Chances are you've never waited quite this long to pick up your dry cleaning.

A local dry cleaning store owner who opened a new shop at the Colonnade shopping center on Eisenhower Parkway in Ann Arbor said she has secured about 100 items of clothing that were stuck in the shop when the previous dry cleaner abruptly closed last summer.