Metro/State briefs

Senate panel rejects merger of DNR, DEQ

Lansing -- The Senate appropriations committee Tuesday rejected Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plan to merge the departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality.

Senate Republicans aren't happy that the Democratic governor would appoint the director of the new Department of Natural Resources and Environment, as well as the director of the Department of Agriculture, taking that power away from the Natural Resources Commission and the Commission on Agriculture.

The Senate committee approved a massive package of bills that would merge the DEQ into the DNR, which would still be under the control of the Natural Resources Commission. The bills go to the full Senate for a vote.

City offices to reopen Friday after furlough

Detroit -- Most city offices in the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center are closed today, one of 26 unpaid furlough days that Mayor Dave Bing implemented on non-union workers to help curb a $300 million deficit. Several other municipal offices city-wide also are closed. Operations resume at normal hours Friday.

Ghost hunters' stay in cemetery is denied

Jackson -- A mid-Michigan cemetery has been ruled off-limits to ghost hunters looking into the unsolved murders of four people nearly 126 years ago.

Randy Waltz and Denise Gowen-Krueger failed to get permission from officials in Jackson County's Spring Arbor Township to spend five hours Nov. 21-22 at the Crouch Cemetery, about 75 miles west of Detroit.

The board consulted with police and looked at township ordinances before denying the request. It cited past noise, parking issues and neighbors' complaints about inappropriate behavior.

Buried in the cemetery are Jacob Crouch, his daughter, her husband and a man who was visiting the family when all were shot to death in 1883.

Henry Ford Museum puts images online

Dearborn -- Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn is working to make its photographic collections more widely accessible.

The museum last month put a collection of photo booth portraits on the content-sharing Web site Flickr. The photos give insight into the use of photography in everyday life from the 1930s to the 1970s.

The portraits join other historic photos that the museum has put online, including ads for Ford Motor Co.'s Model T.

Detroit News staff and wire reports