One month of encouraging jobs data is hardly enough to declare a rip-roaring recovery of Michigan's feeble economy -- but it's nothing to sneeze at, either. "There's no guarantee, but evidence is building that Michigan has finally turned the corner.

Brookings Mountain West, a research group, is calling for a 19th century land grants model to launch an ambitious to shift the nation from fossil fuel to cleaner energy. Mark Muro, a co-director of Brookings Mountain West, says the centers would also be in Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona and foster innovation to move clean energy from the drawing board to the marketplace.

Carnegie Mellon University's robotics engineers are known for their ability to create machines to solve problems. But one dilemma lingers at the end of many successful projects: a corporate or government client who wants a dozen or even 100 of the same robot has to find a manufacturer to build and service them. Startup company Carnegie Robotics LLC is meant to fill that niche.

The U.N. climate panel should make predictions only when it has solid evidence and should avoid policy advocacy, scientists said in a report on Monday that called for thorough reform of the body.

Associate finance professor John Paglia is senior researcher for the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Project. Its latest report shows that multiple efforts to shake loose capital over the past 18 months are not working, Paglia says, and Main Street continues to suffer. He spoke recently with Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein; edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

NorTech, a nonprofit charged with boosting the region's tech-based economy, wants consultants to help craft growth strategies in four advanced-energy sectors it thinks have potential here: producing energy with plant- or waste-based fuels, like Phycal; storing energy in batteries and other devices; using energy more efficiently in the nation's power grid; and powering electric vehicles.