We were all set to love Macy’s.

After all, Macy’s — which replaced Marshall Field’s, which replaced our dear Hudson’s — was sophisticated and up-to-date with its sales associates clad in always-fashionable black, its spacious fitting rooms, its vending machines that dispense iPods.

But almost a year after the green Field’s signs came down and the shiny red Macy’s signs went up, we’re disappointed shoppers, frustrated by the selection and the feel of the stores.

In metro Detroit, we still compare everything to Hudson’s.

When it went away, we accepted Field’s because it understood certain things about us — that we still wanted our tissue paper and holiday shopping bags and a selection that included ready-to-wear and designer. That we’d eat Frango chocolates and would appreciate still being able to get the Hudson’s Maurice salad.

Efforts to allow later-hours drinking at Michigan bars and restaurants are pushing ahead in the state House.

Lawmakers are fine-tuning legislation to permit retailers, including stores, restaurants and bars, to buy licenses to sell alcohol until 4 a.m. Sales are now shut off at 2 a.m.

Supporters say the measure would spur additional business, and that the special licenses would bring in badly needed revenue to state coffers.

All over the country, fried eggs are showing up on menus that never would have featured them not so long ago. And in some places, they’re being served atop foods most of us would never imagine.

But perhaps the most surprising thing — once you stir into the subject — is that the rest of the world has been plopping runny fried eggs on hamburgers, pizzas, steaks, enchiladas, rice and more for eons.

In Royal Oak, the egg sandwich Fiddleheads serves starts with lettuce, tomato, bacon and cheddar cheese and raises the stakes by adding onions and roasted garlic aioli.

There’s a fried egg on the andouille sausage and roasted pepper sandwich at Dylan’s Raw Bar & Grille in Grosse Pointe Park.

And in Detroit, chef Shawn Mac’s fall dinner menu will feature a fried egg appetizer at the stylish Signature Grille & Bar in Riverfront Towers.

“It’s chorizo with eggs, with diced potatoes and peppers and onions, and I’ll put a fried egg top,” he says. “It’s like a little breakfast item as an appetizer.”

Detroit’s Food and Drug Administration lab and six others won’t be shut down after all, two Michigan lawmakers announced Friday.

One of the labs slated to close is the only one that can detect radiological contaminants in food, the lawmakers said in a joint press release.

HOUGHTON - Michigan Tech University broke into the top tier of U.S. News & World Reports 2007 Americas Best College rankings.

The magazine posted its rankings of the nations colleges on its Web site, Friday. The list will be published in the print edition of U.S. News & World Report that hits news stands Monday.