Articles of Interest 7-23-07
651 Days until election day.
Today we head up to Midland for our latest “Listen and Learn” session and then end the evening with the President’s State of the Union address to the American people.
We were hit with some bad news yesterday as Pfizer announced it was closing it’s research part in Ann Arbor and Michigan would be losing over 2,400 good paying jobs. Clearly there is no one specific issue, cost or policy that caused this to happen, but this Governor has continued to spend beyond our means, call for additional tax increases, support the House Democrats and Trial Lawyers desire to roll back tort reform and promotes permitting and licensing processes that are not “job provider” friendly.
Sorry Governor…you can’t blame this one on the auto industry or China?!?
Follow the rhetoric coming from the Governor’s office…she takes credit for creating any job, but all the job loses Michigan has had are not her fault or the fault of poor public policy. The election is over…the Governor is term limited out…this is not about her re-election…this is all about good public policy that will help turn Michigan around.
The amount of spending in real dollars of state government continues to go up. We spent more this last year than the year before and have continued to spend more every year under Governor Granholm. In fact, this Governor has ignored the constitutional requirement to spend within the state’s budget, secretly creating a deficit and not announcing it until after the election…now that’s pure politics. Michigan has a constitutional requirement to live within a balanced budget.
Pfizer like Google is nothing more than a symbol of what is happening in Michigan. This Governor’s policy is to provide corporate welfare and/or incentives to attract individual businesses while not addressing the core of the problem…creating a job provider business climate that can compete with Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin let alone India, China and Mexico. The Governor likes to remind us that “the world is flat” but apparently thinks Michigan can hide under some rock?
Taxes, big government, excessive spending, special deals for friendly unions, double dipping state employees and an unfriendly regulatory environment continues to leave Michigan in a single state recession and the rest of the United States enjoys some of the lowest unemployment rates ever with over 7 million new jobs created over the last 4 years.
The time has come for real leadership. The Governor was re-elected by the people of Michigan and given a Democratic House. Instead of looking for cover and/or acting surprised, let’s get going.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/BIZ/701230360
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Pfizer stuns Mich. with huge job cuts
Sofia Kosmetatos / The Detroit News
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. announced Monday it will shutter its massive research and development facility in Ann Arbor and cut 2,410 jobs in Michigan by the end of 2008 as it retrenches in the face of fierce competition from generic drug makers.
Michigan took the brunt of Pfizer's decision to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide, which will save up to $2 billion a year. Pfizer also plans to close research facilities in Plymouth Township and Kalamazoo.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/OPINION01/701230328/1069
Pfizer cuts hit state where it hurts
January 23, 2007
Michigan sure didn't need the bad news that Pfizer Corp. will shutter its Ann Arbor research lab and make cutbacks in Kalamazoo, costing the state about 2,400 jobs.
The numbers would cause shudders on their own, but job loss resonates profoundly because the state has focused on building life sciences and leveraging action among universities, corporations and entrepreneurs, and public and private investment. The biomedical field has cast one small ray of hope amid auto industry cuts and the exit of other factory jobs.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/COL06/701230400
Granholm must redouble job efforts
January 23, 2007
At 4:47 p.m. Friday, an ominous entry appeared on Gov. Jennifer Granholm's calendar.
Jeffrey Kindler, chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer Inc., wanted to schedule a phone call with her Monday morning. It was set for 10:30.
Granholm surmised that it would not be good news. She was aware that the pharmaceutical giant had whacked 20% of its U.S. sales force two months ago and was trying to cut costs by $2 billion a year. She assumed that Michigan, with a big research complex in Ann Arbor and a cluster of research and manufacturing workers in Kalamazoo, would feel some pain.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070122/UPDATE/701220407
Monday, January 22, 2007
Granholm: Pfizer downsizing "a punch to the gut"
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
Michigan's governor said she had no advance warning of the Pfizer downsizing that will pull some 2,400 jobs from the state's economy and called today's announcement "a punch to the gut."
"I don't think there is any sugar coating it; it's another blow to a state that's already reeling," said Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who held a press conference at the student union on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor. She was joined by U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje and other community leaders.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/BUSINESS06/701230386/1019
THE POLITICAL EFFECT
Granholm: Nothing could've been done
She hopes to keep those who lost jobs from leaving state
January 23, 2007
Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Monday that Pfizer officials told her there was nothing she or state government could have done to affect the company's decision to bail on Michigan.
Granholm said she believed them and agreed with them.
"This is still a technology state not a rust belt state," Granholm said, promising to try to convince Pfizer's talented workers to remain in Michigan. "This has nothing to do with us being an expensive place to do business."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/BUSINESS06/701230371/1069
Pfizer's 2,410 job cuts shock Michigan
January 23, 2007
Feeling ambushed by the latest blow to Michigan's economy, state and local leaders scrambled Monday to bounce back from Pfizer Inc.'s surprise decision to eliminate 2,410 jobs in Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo and Plymouth Township.
Michigan is no stranger to job loss, but this one stung particularly hard because the high-paying positions are the kind not dependent on the auto industry that the state is trying to attract. Leaders saw no easy fix but believe the pieces are in place for the life-sciences industry to rally in Michigan despite Pfizer's cuts.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/BIZ/701230359
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
BITTER PILL
Move hurts state's effort to broaden its economy
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
ANN ARBOR -- It was the last thing Michigan needed.
The blow came Monday from drug giant Pfizer Inc., supposedly a bright light in the state's staggering economy, proof that the Great Lakes State has a future beyond automobiles.
The high-tech, high-paying jobs Pfizer packed into its sprawling campus near the University of Michigan were sorely needed in a state with one of the nation's worst jobless rates. Now they'll be gone by the end of next year.
Beyond that, the credibility the blue-chip company brought to a Rust Belt state trying to go high-tech had immeasurable value -- quantified by one economist as the state's equivalent of a Macy's or Neiman Marcus anchoring a shopping mall.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/BIZ/701230361
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Pfizer loss is 'big blow' to Ann Arbor
Ripple effect will rock the region, state
Francis X. Donnelly / The Detroit News
For the past few years, Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County has been the oasis of Michigan's parched economy.
On Monday, the oasis got a little drier.
Pfizer Inc.'s announcement that it would close its massive research and development center in Ann Arbor was a rare dose of bad news for an area that had largely avoided the economic malaise afflicting the rest of the state.
The research center, which employs 2,100 people and is the city's biggest taxpayer, is scheduled to be shuttered within two years.
http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1169480440182920.xml&coll=2
Pfizer to close here
Ann Arbor campus to be shut down within 18 months
Monday, January 22, 2007
From News staff and wire reports
Pfizer Inc. today said it plans to close its Ann Arbor facilities by the end of 2008, part of the pharmaceutical company's overall downsizing of its research and development operations.
The world's largest drug company plans to transfer "a substantial'' number of its 2,100 Ann Arbor employees to other Pfizer locations, up to 70 percent, according to David Canter, senior vice president and site director for its Michigan laboratories. Also closing is the Esperion site, which employs 60.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1169482981300670.xml&coll=7
Pfizer closes Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor research sites
Saturday, January 22, 2007
Gazette Staff and Wire Reports
Pfizer Inc. said Monday it will close its research-and-development facilities in Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor, affecting thousands of jobs.
Research facilities in Nagoya, Japan, and Amboise, France also will be shuttered as part of a plan to cut costs by up to $2 billion per year, Jeffrey B. Kindler, Pfizer's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
About 10,000 jobs will be lost.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/business/23react.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Shutting Doors Where a Drug-Making Giant Began
By ANN FARMER and NICK BUNKLEY
Published: January 23, 2007
It was far less of a relief in Michigan, where news that Pfizer will eliminate about 2,400 jobs there stunned a state already suffering through the worst stretch of the job losses since the Depression. Over the last six years, Michigan has lost more than 200,000 factory jobs, mostly in the automotive industry, and Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm has been campaigning to restructure the economy around high-technology fields like life sciences.
Besides hindering that effort, Pfizer’s actions are an unexpected setback for Ann Arbor, which is less than an hour’s drive from Detroit but had managed to avoid much of the turmoil. Google recently opened an office in Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, and eventually plans to employ 1,000 people.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/OPINION03/701230357
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Howes: Diversifying our economy isn't painless
N obody said moving Michigan from its manufacturing roots to the new knowledge economy would be easy.
And if they did, Pfizer Inc.'s announcement Monday that the global pharmaceutical maker would close research facilities in Ann Arbor, Plymouth and Kalamazoo, eliminating 2,410 jobs, exposes the boast as one big, fat lie.
There are no guarantees anymore -- not in the life sciences and high-tech biz targeted by Gov. Jennifer Granholm's 21st-Century Jobs Fund, not in landing the likes of Google, and certainly not in the massive employment machine that was Detroit's automotive stronghold.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070122/OPINION01/701220314/1008
Monday, January 22, 2007
Attack on drug companies will send jobs out of state
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow has long had the pharmaceutical industry in her sights and, with the shift in power in Congress, now has the support she needs to attack.
That doesn't bode well for the more than 12,000 people who work for the pharmaceutical industry in Michigan.
As a member of the Finance Committee, Stabenow can wield influence over Medicare and Medicaid policies and help shape regulations that affect everything from the research and development of new drugs to how companies advertise and sell their products.
http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-8/116949480988800.xml&coll=1
Craftworkers carve growing niche in state's economy
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
By Meegan Holland
Lansing Bureau
Dave Kober carves extraordinary fish decoys. Edmund Whitepigeon passes on his basket-making technique to his daughter-in-law. And Edna Harbison sells her hand-sewn quilts at her Ontonagon store.
What do these people have in common? They are part of the rich heritage of an under-the-radar group of Michiganians: craftworkers.
From the state's 35 weaving guilds to an East Lansing-based store that is the nation's leading seller of a high-end Swedish sewing machine, craft production is big business, according to a study released today by Michigan State University Museum and the state Department of History, Arts and Libraries (HAL). Study authors think there could be tens of thousands of crafters in Michigan.
http://www.sturgisjournal.com/articles/2007/01/21/news/doc45b41d46467e6619676084.txt
Business leaders review SBT replacement
By Maribeth Holtz
Sturgis Journal
Published: Sunday, January 21, 2007 8:07 PM CST
Michigan’s hot economic debate was brought close to home for local business owners and city officials Friday.
The St. Joseph County Economic Development Corporation’s annual meeting featured a panel discussion by local politicians and state-wide economic analysts. The top discussion: replacing Michigan’s single business tax.
“With its elimination set for Dec. 31, we’ve got to come up with some business tax that will improve Michigan’s climate,” said moderator Michael Chevy Castranova, editor of “Business Review.”
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/NEWS06/701230340/1008
House Dems focus on education, health care
January 23, 2007
LANSING -- The new Democratic majority in the Michigan House of Representatives pledged a commitment to educational opportunity, affordable and accessible health care and environmental protection in a 2007 agenda announced Monday at the Capitol.
But members of the 58-member caucus, the first Democratic majority in the House since 1998, offered scant details on how they'd achieve the goals or who would pay for them.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070122/UPDATE/701220409
Monday, January 22, 2007
State Dems seek health care, garbage, campaign reforms
Gary Heinlein / The Detroit News
LANSING -- House Democrats said Monday they plan to push for a catastrophic health care fund, a moratorium on landfill expansions and personal financial disclosure rules for state candidates as part of their new plan for Michigan.
Democrats, who seized control of the state House by a 58-52 majority in November's election, unveiled their legislative agenda in a series of announcements in major cities.
Their priority list is laced with measures Democrats had been unable to pass while both legislative chambers were under Republican control. Prospects for most of the measures still are uncertain, since Republicans hold a 21-17 Senate majority.
Dems don't ignore budget, but discuss other priorities
1/22/2007, 6:44 p.m. ET
By TIM MARTIN
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democrats in the state House, while acknowledging the state's budget concerns, swung across the state Monday to try and build momentum for some of their other 2007-08 legislative priorities.
Among them: health care costs, increasing access to education and addressing the state's energy supply.
Democrats have a 58-52 edge over Republicans in the state House, the first time Democrats have been in power in the chamber since the late 1990s. Republicans remain in the majority in the state Senate.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/OPINION01/701230312/1008
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Editorial: Leadership, better teaching lead to impressive results
Michigan's seventh- and eighth-graders' math and reading achievement leapt ahead this year, according to new test scores released over the weekend. It's sunny news in an otherwise gloomy educational outlook. The results show that appropriate teaching can lead to significant improvement.
The percentage of seventh- and eight-graders passing math rose by almost five points from last year, the new Michigan Educational Assessment Program test results show. In reading, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders posted gains of nearly four points.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/NEWS08/701230405/1003/NEWS01
Barbara Wilson: Retired Detroit educator inspired students to excel
January 23, 2007
Barbara Wilson, a longtime educator and administrator with Detroit Public Schools, died last week at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit of complications from a stroke. A lifelong resident of Detroit, she was 78.
During a career that spanned more than three decades, Ms. Wilson was an art instructor at the elementary and high school levels, served as assistant director of educational broadcasting and was instrumental in establishing the media center at the Golightly Education Center. She retired in 1988.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/NEWS05/701230355/1007
Wayne Co. kids gain on MEAP
Math teachers' changes credited for better scores
January 23, 2007
They typically score below their peers around the state, but this year, Wayne County students narrowed the gap on the MEAP math test, thanks to improved teaching methods.
"This is good news for us. We've got some districts that are working really hard," said Libby Trenkle, a math consultant for Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency, the county's intermediate school district.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-34/1169480712204430.xml&coll=6
Area MEAP scores jump
Monday, January 22, 2007
By Dave Murray and Beth Loechler
The Grand Rapids Press
Area educators say they are cheering today's release of MEAP scores, with districts including Grand Rapids, Wyoming and Holland reporting rising scores.
The state Education Department posted results for reading, writing and math tests for third- through eighth-graders.
Statewide, math scores improved at every grade level, ranging from 88 percent of students passing in third grade to 64 percent in seventh grade.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/SCHOOLS/701230356
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
MEAP writing scores lag: Why can't kids do better?
Jennifer Mrozowski, Mike Wilkinson and Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News
The state plans to lengthen the writing portion of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program test this fall to better gauge student performance in an area that seems to give them the most trouble.
Nearly every school district in the state saw elementary writing scores -- already well below math and reading scores -- drop even more on the just-released fall MEAP results.
The poor pass rate in writing in many districts may reveal an education blind spot that has worried some education experts for years. They caution that students who never learn to write well will have limited job opportunities.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/NEWS01/701230417/1003
School closings plan worries parents
January 23, 2007
Nearly 400 parents, teachers and residents turned out at King High School in Detroit on Monday night for the first scheduled community forum about the Detroit Public Schools' plan to close more than 40 schools during the next two years.
DPS officials, including Superintendent William F. Coleman III and school board member Carla Scott, explained the plan they said could save $19 million a year.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/NEWS05/701230380/1007
closer look
No surprise: Mich. roads in bad shape
January 23, 2007
This will come as no surprise to Michigan drivers, but the state doesn't fare well nationally when it comes to the conditions of its freeways and major roads, according to a study released Monday.
While the national average of urban interstates in good condition was 56%, only 41% of Michigan's urban interstates got a good rating in the study by the East Lansing-based consulting firm Anderson Economic Group.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1169480744204270.xml&coll=8
Surprise! Michigan gas prices lowest
Monday, January 22, 2007
Maybe it's a secret plot to boost lagging sales of Detroit's big-engine trucks and SUVs.
Maybe not.
But Detroit led the nation in something positive over the weekend: Low gas prices. The average price of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.897.
Statewide, the average was $1.95 statewide Sunday, according to AAA Michigan. It's the lowest statewide average since March 2005.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/COL03/701230315/1003/NEWS01
Let's not forget war on poverty
January 23, 2007
Earlier this month, an estimated 5,000 demonstrators marched in New Orleans, calling attention to nine homicides in the first 10 days of the new year. Mayor Ray Nagin has offered a plan to address the crime wave by putting more cops on the streets, but that's too late for Detroiter Thomas Rogan, 28, who was killed there in October.
"We saw Tommy for two weeks at a family reunion in July," said his mother, Helen Hill. "It felt like God was saying to us, 'Enjoy him, he'll be with me soon.' "
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/OPINION01/701230363/1008
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Opinion: Let's forgive Abraham and then stand up to prevent violent crime
Ron Stefanski
T en years have come and gone, and Nathaniel Abraham has grown up. His release from custody last week prompts us to ask questions again.
Is it possible to forgive someone who doesn't express remorse? Are juveniles who are messed up enough to rape or murder ever rehabilitated?
We must remember that forgiveness is the grace we accord the victims left behind. It is a conscious act to preserve our lost loved one's memory and rebuilds our lives. It is not intended for the perpetrator.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/OPINION01/701230310/1008
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Editorial: It's time to reform state sex offender list
People shouldn't be placed on registry through 'catchall' phrase
T here are real questions about whether Michigan's sex offender registry is either fair or effective. But at the very least, being placed on the registry for 25 years ought to require a conviction of a sex crime.
A former Benton Harbor school teacher has had his name placed on the state's sex offender list even though he hasn't been convicted of a sex crime.
Teacher Thomas Golba was charged with unauthorized use of a school computer and receiving child abusive materials. He denied the charges. He was convicted of unauthorized use of a computer, but the jury couldn't reach a verdict on the sex crime, resulting in a mistrial.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/NEWS05/701230376/1007
MICHIGAN CASE
Highest court allows inmates to sue
January 23, 2007
Three prisoners who sued the Michigan Department of Corrections for alleged mistreatment will get another day in court, thanks to a ruling Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a unanimous decision, the court reversed lower court rulings that dismissed the prisoners' suits because they hadn't used all the prison administrative grievance procedures.
Granholm names 2 to Board of State Canvassers
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Monday named a new Republican to the Board of State Canvassers and reappointed a Democrat who has been on the board the past six months.
Shelly Edgerton of Plainwell will represent Republicans on the bipartisan board starting Feb. 1. She replaces Katherine DeGrow, whose term expires at the end of this month. Edgerton is deputy Senate majority counsel for the Michigan Senate Majority Policy Office.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/OPINION03/701230351/1022/POLITICS
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Laura Berman
Power of sister's love helps pass new law
S heryl Silver remembers this week in January, 10 years ago. Her older sister, Johanna Silver Gordon, a Southfield teacher, then 54, had just been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Silver, a freelance editor and writer, was baffled, angry and astonished by the decline of her sister -- playing tennis on Saturday, hospitalized and terminally ill three days later.
Something could have been done, she believed. And then, doing research, she knew.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/NEWS06/701230419/1008
2 from Band of Brothers die in Iraq
January 23, 2007
Two Marines in the 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, profiled by the Free Press as Michigan's Band of Brothers, have died in fighting in Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday.
Lance Cpl. Luis J. Castillo of Lawton in Van Buren County died Saturday from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Anbar province. Lawton is about 25 miles southwest of Kalamazoo.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012200236.html
Bush To Face Skeptical Congress
Iraq Overshadows Domestic Outreach
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 23, 2007; Page A01
President Bush plans to reach out to the opposition in his State of the Union address tonight with new and recycled proposals on health care, energy, immigration and education, but the uproar over his decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq has eclipsed potential consensus on domestic policy.
As he addresses a Congress controlled entirely by Democrats for the first time since he took office, Bush faces deep skepticism inside the chamber, even within the House Republican leadership, which yesterday made proposals intended "to hold the Bush administration . . . accountable" for the progress of his latest Iraq plan.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/STATE_OF_UNION?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Jan 23, 5:58 AM EST
Bush speech to showcase domestic issues
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Delivering his first State of the Union address to a Democratic-controlled Congress, President Bush hopes to balance a rebuke of his Iraq policy already promised by lawmakers with a high-profile invitation to cooperate on vexing domestic problems.
In Tuesday night's speech before a joint session of Congress, Bush plans to dangle ideas - some new, some recycled - on reducing America's oil dependence and making health care more available, among others. Aware that 2008 presidential contenders and new Democratic leaders present fierce competition for headlines, the president has a much-abbreviated topic list in an attempt to capture the public's attention.
Jan 23, 3:06 AM EST
Democrats frame State of Union response
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Emboldened congressional Democrats are doing their best to drown out President Bush's State of the Union speech with two themes: Sending more troops to Iraq is not a new strategy, and the president and his Republican allies are no longer solely in charge of national policy.
"I don't particularly view this surge program as a change in strategy at all," said freshman Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, the Vietnam veteran chosen to deliver his party's response to Bush's speech Tuesday night.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009564
'Words That Work'
Democrats would love to have Republican pollster Frank Luntz on their side. Now we can see why.
BY CLARK S. JUDGE
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
A few weeks after President Reagan delivered his 1988 State of the Union address, Dick Wirthlin, the president's pollster, met with the White House speechwriting staff, of which I was a member. In the first and only presentation of its kind to Reagan's writers, Dick shared the results of a new polling technique: pulse, or dial, testing.
Forty or 50 randomly selected voters had been assembled to watch the State of the Union address. Each was given an electronic response device. Twisting the dial to zero meant that the listener hated what was being said and 10 that he couldn't get enough of it, with the numbers in between registering gradations of response. Results were averaged and appeared as a temperature chart line over a linear printout of the text.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/16520634.htm
Posted on Mon, Jan. 22, 2007
Brownback finds plenty of supporters at march against abortion
By Matt Stearns
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Thousands of people marched against abortion here Monday. More than a few of them also marched for Sam Brownback.
Brownback, the conservative Kansas Republican senator, announced his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination Saturday in his home state. Monday's march was his first major public appearance since.
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=32082
MITT ROMNEY IN ISRAEL
Monday, January 22, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com
Mitt Romney is attending a conference in Herzliya Israel, the topic of discussion will be Israel’s national security. Also in attendance will be former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former CIA director James Woolsey, and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. -Flame Of Freedom
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/01/22/activist_rains_on_romneys_parade/
Activist rains on Romney's parade
Says the candidate is not conservative
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | January 22, 2007
It was 4 a.m. Brian Camenker , 53, a computer programmer, sat at his kitchen table in Newton, hunched over his Toshiba laptop. Strewn around him were papers detailing former governor Mitt Romney's alleged ties to gay youth conferences, gay judges, and abortion rights activists.
The documents, mostly printouts of news stories, represented weeks of work by Camenker and a few volunteers who had searched the Internet for material to disprove Romney's assertions that he is a conservative. Now, the results glowed on the screen in front of him, compiled into a 10,000-word dossier, "The Mitt Romney Deception."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012201303.html
Clinton Dives in Media Waters
Effort to 'Humanize' Presidential Hopeful Fast Underway
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 23, 2007; Page A02
With a call to "let the conversation begin," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) fielded a handful of pre-selected questions from voters on her presidential campaign's Web site last night, speaking into a video camera as she held forth on movies ("Out of Africa" makes her top three), her football-fanatic brothers and her "nice middle-class upbringing in a suburb of Chicago."
The effort to "humanize" Clinton, as her advisers have put it, was in full swing just two days into her presidential ca