Articles of Interest 1-16-07
658 Days until election day.
Peter & Joan Secchia were in a car accident on the way home from a Spartan basketball game. They were coming home Sunday with Joe and Martha Crawford when they slowed down for traffic on west bound 69 and someone ran into them from the back at full speed.
Peter, Joan and Martha have been hospitalized at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing. Peter should be released within a day or two. Joan will be hospitalized for about a week with a broken hand, fracture ribs, collapsed lung and some other injuries. Martha Crawford should also be released within a week after suffering some internal bleeding and various fractures.
Please keep the Secchia and Crawford family in your prayers.
U.S. Senator John McCain’s Presidential exploratory committee today announced that Michigan Republican National Committeeman Chuck Yob and Republican National Committeewoman Holly Hughes will serve as Co-Chairs of the Michigan Steering Committee and take lead roles recruiting Republican National Committee (RNC) Members across the country. John Yob is the only known paid staffer in Michigan.
We cancelled our Jackson “Listen & Learn” session due to bad weather yesterday. The building we were using had lost electricity and the driving conditions remained treacherous. We plan on re-scheduling this event.
The PEW Research Center conducted an interesting survey entitled “A Portrait of “Generation Next””. They discuss the views held by today’s young people. I found it very interesting and worth reading for us political hacks. Here is the link:
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=300
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/AUTO01/701160339
Chrysler to cut 250 Detroit jobs
Expected work force reduction at Mack I plant reflects softening sales of trucks and SUVs.
Josee Valcourt / The Detroit News
With sales of light trucks and SUVs flagging, the Chrysler Group plans to cut 250 jobs next week at its Detroit plant that builds standard eight-cylinder engines for the Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee and other vehicles, local UAW officials said.
The job cuts -- which will trim the work force at the Mack I engine plant to 530 employees -- come amid challenging times for the Auburn Hills automaker.
The Chrysler Group is expected to unveil a restructuring plan in mid-February that's likely to include cost-cutting measures including layoffs, plant closings and shift eliminations.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1168773328311060.xml&coll=4
It's time to start tough talk on new taxes, Guv
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Gov. Jennifer Granholm is dancing around the dreaded ''T'' word as Michigan faces yet another $300 to $600 million budget deficit.
Hint: It rhymes with budget ''axes.''
Reporters in a year-end press conference with the governor tried to pin her down, but Granholm wouldn't flat-out say that Michigan needs a tax increase to erase the state's chronically red ink.
But she won't rule it out.
Go ahead, Guv, make Michigan's day.
Let's talk taxes.
In this prolonged economic depression, tax revenue can't even keep pace with the rising costs of providing the services we expect from state government.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/OPINION01/701160327/1068/OPINION
IN OUR OPINION
Oakland's bond plan deserved better
January 16, 2007
Gov. Jennifer Granholm did wrong by Oakland County, and possibly other local governments, with her veto that torpedoed the county's innovative plan to finance retiree health care costs. By issuing bonds to pay for its unfunded liabilities, Oakland County was trying to save its taxpayers money and get out in front of an issue that portends fiscal problems for governmental units across Michigan.
Granholm's veto and the bombastic response of Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson also created a political rift that serves neither well. The governor of a financially troubled state and the influential leader of its most prosperous county need one another, whether or not they like each other. A political feud will be counterproductive to efforts both must make to bring new employers to Michigan and Oakland's "Automation Alley."
http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17717786&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6
Republicans 'became part of the bums,' chairman says
By Stuart Frohm
01/15/2007
CLARE – Frustrated, upset voters decided last November it was "time to throw the bums out, and we became part of the bums," Michigan Republican state Chairman Saul Anuzis told Republican activists Saturday afternoon.
"We have to start acting like Republicans again," Anuzis said. "It’s a pretty scary thought" that so many people believe Democrats are better than Republicans on government spending, he added.
"We have a lot of work to do" to win elections in 2008, "and we have to start today," he said.
Keys to Republican success in 2008, according to Anuzis, are the Republican presidential nominee and recruitment of high-quality Republican candidates for other offices.
Anuzis gave the final speech of the annual Fourth District Republican Roundup at the Doherty Hotel.
Republicans formerly stood for less government and less taxation and for personal responsibility, Anuzis said. But, he added, "We kind of lost our way." When Republican lawmakers voted for big government, "we became no better than" Democrats, he added.
http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/peter_luke/index.ssf?/base/news-0/11687739206500.xml&coll=9
Budget balancing act hinges on funding for schools
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Five of the six Republicans serving on a budget advisory panel that Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm appointed have one thing in common: They all played critical roles in crafting Proposal A, the 1994 school finance overhaul now creaking under the weight of Michigan's transitioning economy.
Michigan's budget is a mess again, but the biggest change this time is the precarious condition of the School Aid Fund that provides nearly all of the money spent on K-12 education.
A dozen years ago, then-Gov. John Engler and a bipartisan group of lawmakers decided that consolidated state financing of schools was critical to achieving the twin goals of greater equity in education spending and local property tax relief. Then they set out to raise the taxes necessary to get the job done.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/OPINION01/701150334/1086/opinion
Published January 15, 2007
[ From Lansing State Journal ]
Budget: Granholm's panel won't tell state anything it didn't already know
A Lansing State Journal editorial
Empaneling a group of Michigan's wise men - and women - to offer advice on the state's fiscal crisis isn't a bad idea, ordinarily.
Such so-called "good government" initiatives are a standard feature of public life these days.
But Gov. Jennifer Granholm's decision to form such a group now, in what even she deems an "emergency", seems more the stuff of indecision in a time for action. What will this group, led by former governors William Milliken and James Blanchard, tell Granholm that she doesn't already know?
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/BUSINESS04/701160376/1002
Home sales fall fast in state
New construction also down in '06
January 16, 2007
BY JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
The Michigan Association of Realtors reported Monday that 2006 sales of existing single-family homes in the state were down nearly 14% through November from the same period in 2005.
Sales of existing homes were down even more sharply in some parts of metro Detroit. The Monroe County Association of Realtors reported that sales there were down nearly 30% through November compared with the same period of 2005. The Realtors association in Livingston County reported that its sales were off nearly 25% through November.
The city of Detroit continued to show modest strength, with sales up 7.6% through November over year-ago levels.
If the slump in the residential market is bad news for sellers and home builders, it provides opportunities for buyers, said Irvin Yackness, executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of Southeastern Michigan.
"All of these things make this a great time to buy," Yackness said Monday. "Interest rates historically are very low. That is a very positive reason for buying."
Home sales fall statewide; Detroit resists downward trend
1/16/2007, 12:39 a.m. ET
DETROIT (AP) — It was tough to sell a home last year in Michigan.
Sales of existing single-family homes were down nearly 14 percent from Jan. 1-Nov. 30, 2006 compared with the same period in 2005, the Michigan Association of Realtors said Monday.
Home sales fell even more sharply in some parts of metropolitan Detroit. In Monroe County, sales for the first 11 months of 2006 were down nearly 30 percent from year-earlier levels; in Livingston County, the year-to-year decline was nearly 25 percent, according to Realtors associations in those counties.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/AUTO01/701160335
UAW: Expect sacrifice
This year, it's not business as usual as union tells members that concessions may be needed to help Big 3 survive.
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- The message coming down from the United Auto Workers' top ranks as they prepare for this year's contract talks is not the hard-line rhetoric of the past.
Labor leaders are talking to rank-and-file workers about sacrifice and the need to help Detroit automakers become competitive again.
They're warning of difficult negotiations ahead and reminding members of the financial problems and intense pressure facing the companies.
Last month, UAW Vice President Cal Rapson told union leaders from General Motors Corp. plants around the country that "the way we conducted business in the past when General Motors was very profitable, would have to change," according to a recent note to workers in Warren, Ohio. "He made some comments that if we didn't make changes, we wouldn't survive in the future."
http://info.detnews.com/weblog/index.cfm?blogid=9030
Mon, Jan 15, 2007 at 6:42 PM
Richard Burr
Michigan's new theocracy
Liberal critics worry about the influence of the religious right and were concerned gubernatorial challenger Dick DeVos' religious inclinations made him too extreme for Michigan. But there has been little comment about the religious analogies heaped on Gov. Jennifer Granholm during one of her prayer inaugurals, where she was called a biblical hero.
It's not accidental that Granholm is a "modern-day Esther ... called to the throne at a time like this," claimed Bishop Nathaniel Wells II, head of the Church of God in Christ denomination in West Michigan.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/AUTO04/701160347/1148
Slow auto show pinches neighbors
Some businesses near Cobo feel attendance downturn; slumping local economy blamed.
Andy Henion / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- With the North American International Auto Show in full swing across the street, business should be hopping at the Six Pack Bar and Grill on Congress.
But Monday afternoon, a wintry Martin Luther King Day, most tables sat empty at the downtown eatery.
"You expect very, very big business this time of year," manager Kola Nikprelaj said. "But it's down probably 20 to 25 percent from previous years."
As attendance at the auto show, where an adult ticket is $12, continues to fall, some downtown shops and restaurants are feeling the pinch. After hitting a record turnout of 810,699 in 2003, show attendance decreased three straight years, to 759,310 in 2006.
Through the first two days of this year's show -- Saturday and Sunday -- attendance was down 21,648 from 245,667, or 9 percent, from the same period last year, organizers said Monday.
"Frankly, I'm sure people are watching their budgets very closely," said Bob Thibodeau Jr., senior co-chairman of the show.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/OPINION01/701160314/1008
Give Detroit parents more school choices
A third of Detroit's schoolchildren have already abandoned the sinking ship that is the Detroit Public Schools, and the priority should be rescuing the rest.
The Detroit News reported Monday that 51,000 children in Detroit attend suburban schools, private schools or charter schools. Parents are voting with their feet, seeking out alternatives to make sure their children aren't trapped in a failing district.
But their options are unnecessarily limited, and that reality is hurting the city's efforts at revitalization. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, speaking at the Detroit Economic Club last week, warned that the dismal condition of the public schools has the potential to derail the city's momentum. One of the top reasons families are moving out of Detroit is to find better public schools.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/AUTO01/701160340/1148
High court needs more trust, not more rules
Good manners, not official rule, should govern private discussions
T he Michigan Supreme Court will hold a hearing tomorrow on whether it should adopt a rule that could carry a punishment for justices who reveal confidential internal court discussions and material.
The proposed rule stems from a spectacularly bitter feud between one of the justices and some of her colleagues.
More rules aren't the answer.
Justice Elizabeth Weaver in recent weeks has issued scathing dissents against the court's majority, Chief Justice Clifford Taylor and Justices Maura Corrigan, Stephen Markman and Robert Young. The four, like Weaver, have Republican backgrounds.
Most recently, she issued a blistering written opinion against the re-election by his colleagues of Taylor as chief justice.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/BIZ/701160341/1001
The winter of our discontent
Cheaper gas and lower heating bills soften the season for Metro Detroiters
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
Find three quarters under the cushion, that's something. Find $90 in energy savings, now we're talking.
Consumers are saving 33 cents per gallon of gasoline and about 13 cents on each cubic foot of natural gas to heat their homes this winter compared to last, and that pocket change is adding up to significant relief on energy costs.
At the pump, a driver who fills his or her 15-gallon tank once a week is saving about $20 a month over last January, and a hefty $60 a month over last July.
At home, Metro Detroiters can expect heating bills this month that are $30 to $70 less than last winter.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/OPINION01/701160332/1008
Save taxpayers' money and coordinate school elections
J.S. Roach
S chool board elections should be coordinated with other municipal, state or federal elections, but they frequently aren't. Instead, these expensive, exclusionary, uncoordinated elections continue in my local district in Bloomfield Hills and elsewhere.
I have voted in a Bloomfield "school-only" election with a single, unopposed, candidate costing taxpayers more than $50,000. In another, turnout was so low a write-in candidate was elected. It was so poorly promoted that no candidate "asked" for my vote via mail, phone or face-to-face.
The funny thing is compromises were crafted into state law to allow school districts to coordinate their elections with state and federal elections. The Uniform Election Dates Act, passed in reaction to "stealth" elections, tried to select dates and locations maximizing voter participation. To get the support of the education establishment, less desirable election dates were added so there are four choices a year. Incentives were included to encourage coordinated elections.
Jan 14, 5:57 PM EST
Some ex-lawmakers stick close to the Capitol
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- A handful of former state lawmakers, squeezed out of elected office less than a month ago, aren't straying far from the Capitol to find new jobs.
Democrats have found work in Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration or in the House, where the party grabbed the majority for the first time since the late 1990s. Republicans have hired on with the Senate, where the GOP kept its majority, or with public interest or special interest firms.
The trend isn't new. For decades, lawmakers leaving elected office have landed other state government jobs, or positions with firms influencing or monitoring government operations.
But some say the pace has picked up in recent years because of term limits. More lawmakers must leave office because they have served the maximum time allowed: six years in the state House, eight years in the Senate. The exodus floods the marketplace with well-connected people who find it possible - and sometimes lucrative - to continue their ties to state government.
http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2007/01/15/news/local_regional/news1.txt
Breakwater funding pushed out of budget
By Ryan Bentley News-Review Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007 12:37 PM EST
A $1 million allocation which Michigan’s U.S. senators sought for repairs to Petoskey’s breakwater likely will not be provided in the 2007 federal budget, staff for Sen. Carl Levin said last week.
But the senator hopes to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in hope of finding money in the agency’s regular budget to cover the fix, as does U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee.
Last year, Levin and fellow Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow sought to have $1 million designated for long-term repairs to the storm-damaged federal breakwater which shields Petoskey’s marina.
A 50-foot section of concrete was knocked away from the rest of the 1,250-foot breakwater during a March 2006 windstorm. Later in the year, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crew piled 3,500 tons of stone in and around the gap as a temporary fix.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/METRO/701150342/1003
Farrakhan plans Detroit visit
Nation of Islam leader, recovering from radiation treatment, will speak at Ford Field on Feb. 25.
Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A recovering Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan will visit Detroit next month as part of the group's annual "Savior's Day" observance.
Farrakhan, who last visited Detroit in November 2005, will speak at Ford Field on Feb. 25.
Farrakhan, 73, who is being treated for the effects of radiation treatment for prostate cancer, and other Nation of Islam officials decided to bring the convention back to "its roots."
"It is the home of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and where his teacher from Saudi Arabia introduced Islam to African-Americans," said Akbar Muhammad, the international representative for Farrakhan.
http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1168870843139630.xml&coll=9
Loons offer 200 jobs
Saturday, January 15, 2007
JEAN SPENNER
THE SAGINAW NEWS
When the doors open at the Great Lakes Loons job fair, Paul Barbeau isn't sure what to expect.
"It's so hard to say how many people will show up. Everything about this project has exceeded my expectations," said Barbeau, who in March became team president and general manager of the new Midland-based minor league baseball team that begins play at the Dow Diamond on Friday, April 13.
The team opens the season Thursday, April 5, at South Bend, Ind., against the Silver Hawks.
The Loons are looking for people who want jobs in the areas of food service, stadium operations, grounds crew, ticket office and as section leaders.
The job fair runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at the Valley Plaza Resort Great Hall, 5221 Bay City Road in Midland.
http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1168870881139630.xml&coll=9
Home, sweet home rebuilt
Monday, January 15, 2007
THERESA ROACH
THE SAGINAW NEWS
While others are leaving Saginaw for its outlying suburbs, Charlie and Georgia Turner decided to rebuild their home in Saginaw's East Side Cathedral District.
The couple lost their two-story house on Owen to fire on Dec. 10, 2005. Inspectors think faulty in-wall electrical wiring caused the blaze.
Although both the Turners are from Mississippi, they consider Saginaw home.
"You spend nearly 30 years in one place and see what happens," said Charlie Turner, 78, a retired General Motors Corp. Central Foundry worker.
Saginaw, they say, is where they raised five children, traded gifts of baked goods with neighbors on holidays and where friends look out for each other during difficult times.
http://www.dailypress.net/stories/articles.asp?articleID=7205
New license plates starting to sell
By Kim Hoyum - khoyum@dailypress.net
ESCANABA — With the start of the new year, Michigan drivers have access to new license plates. Since Jan. 1, the familiar blue license plate has not been sold or renewed due to a state law passed in May.
The new standard plate has a reflective white background with blue lettering, which makes it more easily identifiable to law enforcement officers at night.
“It’s easier to see at night, and to read,” said State Police Sgt. Rose Shiel of the Gladstone Post.
On the “Old Blue” plate, in use since 1982, the white letters were produced by an old-fashioned glass-bead manufacturing technique, giving them limited reflectiveness.
“The letters deteriorate and rust, and then you can’t even read them,” said Shiel.
Ford culls again from Boeing's talent pool
CEO Alan Mulally taps colleague Jerry Calhoun to help reorganize as Ford sheds thousands of workers.
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally has tapped a trusted lieutenant from Boeing Co. to advise the company on human resources issues.
Jerry L. Calhoun, who recently retired from Boeing, joined the company Jan. 1 as a consultant to Joe Laymon, Ford's head of human resources and labor affairs.
"He is specifically going to be working with and reporting to Joe," said Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans.
Calhoun will work with Laymon to help reorganize and streamline Ford as it sheds 10,000 white-collar workers and as many as 38,000 blue-collar workers in the United States.
http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-21/116887569124340.xml&coll=2
United Way launches emergency campaign
Agency trying to make up pledge shortfall of $500,000
Monday, January 15, 2007
BY SUSAN L. OPPAT
The newspaper ads pull no punches. Under a picture of two toddlers, a question: "Which child goes hungry in February?''
With a photo of a curly-headed moppet, a bald statement: "OK, yank her medical care. Why should you care? She isn't your child.''
The ads are part of a Washtenaw United Way 10-day emergency fundraising campaign, which the agency is launching today.
http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1168871000139630.xml&coll=9
Bridgeport schools approve two union pacts; one to go
Monday, January 15, 2007
MIKE ROCHA
THE SAGINAW NEWS
Two down, one to go.
Bridgeport-Spaulding Community School District leaders have inked agreements with two of three unions and are setting their sights on a deal with the teachers.
Last week, Board of Education members approved a two-year contract with the Bridgeport Administrators Professional Association, which represents principals and assistant principals.
The deal, which begins in the 2007-08 school year, calls for no salary increases.
"The principals took some concessions," said Superintendent Desmon R. Daniel. "The contract reflects a great deal of understanding regarding the issues confronting the district, economically and otherwise."
http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1168871006139630.xml&coll=9
Tourney worth millions Saginaw Spirit will bid for Memorial Cup
Monday, January 15, 2007
MARK CONSTANTINE
THE SAGINAW NEWS
Hosting this year's Ontario Hockey League All-Star game is a major coup for Saginaw, but a bigger prize is in the offing.
The league has invited the Saginaw Spirit to bid on the 2008 Memorial Cup, a weeklong extravaganza that could bring $14 million to $20 million to the host city.
While Spirit officials aren't confident of landing the 2008 event, they are viewing the bid invitation as a prelude to hosting the cup three years later.
"The likelihood is that this year, we just will be in the bid process and probably not get it," said Spirit minority owner Craig Goslin.
"But we will be in a good position to receive it in 2011."
http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1168773468310750.xml&coll=8
Corn's new value likely to raise food prices
Sunday, January 14, 2007
By Eric Gaertner
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
In this economy, somebody's gain is somebody else's loss.
While skyrocketing corn prices fueled by the demand for ethanol gasoline additives are helping save cash-crop family farms in West Michigan, they're raising the cost of doing business for livestock farmers.
And eventually, that will put the squeeze on grocery shoppers' wallets.
Area livestock farmers say they are left with three choices:
* Pay the higher feed prices and maintain current operations, which would result in less profit when they sell their products.
* Halt their livestock operations and switch to cash crops exclusively.
- Split the difference, selling some of their corn instead of using it all for animal feed and hoping the higher profits cover greater feed purchase costs.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1168773514310750.xml&coll=8
Free college for local students being studied
Sunday, January 14, 2007
By Eric Gaertner
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER WITH NEWS SERVICE REPORTS
Could a version of the Kalamazoo Promise, a unique plan that guarantees high school graduates money for their college tuition, work in Muskegon County?
A small group of Muskegon County educators, business advocates and other officials are examining that possibility, calling their idea the Muskegon Opportunity. Organizers believe the plan, which is in its early stages, could spark economic development in the county, provide college education opportunities for students who otherwise would not have them and increase enrollment at county schools.
However, the plan is dependent on county voters agreeing to an income tax, which organizers say likely would need to be about 0.7 percent of income. Legislation also would be needed to allow an authority to collect the tax.
http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1168772841288840.xml&coll=3
Cash to clean up pollution runs dry
Sunday, January 14, 2007
By Josh Jarman
For the Citizen Patriot
When cleaning solvents and other pollution seeped into Parma residents' wells in 1995, they had to wait almost seven years -- and drink bottled water -- while state officials built a $1.8 million water system Now the village's water supply could be threatened again by contamination from a machine shop near where the village put in its municipal well head.
This time, however, there may not be enough money to track the pollution and head it off before it taints the village's water.
"There's still a lot more work that needs to be done," said Lori Aronoff, a senior environmental quality analyst with the state's Department of Environmental Quality's Jackson District Office. "I have a request in for more money, but that's in the pending stage."
http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1168772831288840.xml&coll=3
Other sites also compete for state cleanup money
Sunday, January 14, 2007
By Josh Jarman
For the Citizen Patriot
Parma's water is not the only Jackson County site that's competing for state money. The Jackson office of the Department of Environmental Quality has secured funding for five projects officials deem are critical in the county. There are a host of others that do not make the list.
Sites that are getting money:
· Horton Co. building, 2333 E. High St. -- Underneath the building, a toxic sludge almost 4 feet thick was discovered sitting on top of the water table.
The homes with private drinking wells in the area are between the building and the Grand River, which means it is likely the pollution will move toward them.
· Ryerson-Haynes Facility, 2500 Enterprise St. -- The old manufacturing plant is the site of soil and groundwater contamination. It is getting $300,000 to assess the nature and extent of the contamination. An estimated $750,000 would be needed to clean it up.
· West Jackson groundwater contamination -- Groundwater and private drinking wells between W. Michigan and Wildwood avenues have been contaminated from multiple nearby industrial and commercial operations.
http://www.mlive.com/columns/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/116887608846440.xml&coll=6
Kids over buildings
Monday, January 15, 2007
The Grand Rapids Board of Education made a wise and useful decision to close an elementary school. Too few students in too many buildings is an avoidable expense. School-closure debates are about the best use of resources to bolster student achievement. With the closing and program shifts, the board is on the right path to doing that.
The changes were inevitable given the district's repeated years of declining enrollment. Money used to operate buildings with half as many or fewer students as they are designed for can be used to better education. The process that led to the board's action wasn't rushed or hidden behind closed doors. The board deserves credit for seeking comment through its Southeast and Northeast Side study groups and public hearings. That openness likely led to no vocal opposition to the plan but so did a recognition that the district is beyond engaging in stop-gap measures.
http://www.countypress.com/stories/011407/loc_20070114001.shtml
PUBLISHED: Sunday, January 14, 2007
Local residents speak out against additional troops
by JENNIFER J. DECKER
STAFF REPORTER
News of President George W. Bush's plans to add more than 21,500 more troops to the Iraqi conflict is not sitting well with many local residents.
"The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people and me," Bush said in a nationally televised Wednesday address. "There is no magic formula for Iraq. For the safety of America we must succeed in Iraq ...To step back now would cause a collapse of the Iraqi government."
With that, the President called for a change in strategy. In the process he is looking to add 20,000 more troops to ensure survival of what her called the "young democracy" of Iraq.
At Lapeer's American Legion Post Thursday Carol Green and Brian Peasley stated, while supportive of American troops, they don't agree with the Bush's assessment.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/METRO/701150343/1003
Duck hunters TARGETED
Commerce Twp. residents want ban on Twin Sun Lake
Delores Patterson | / The Detroit News
COMMERCE TOWNSHIP
It never occurred to Denise Dillon that her own backyard could be dangerous. That changed when a spray of pellets pummeled Dillon and her house in the Twin Sun subdivision while she was sweeping off her deck last fall. "I didn't know what was happening so I ran into the house," said Dillon, who later learned the gunfire came from duck hunters on nearby Twin Sun Lake. "I yelled for them to stop shooting in the direction of the houses, but they said it was legal. It's dangerous and inconsiderate."
Since then her family has spent limited time enjoying their deck, and Dillon's children are afraid to go in the yard during duck season. Neighbors have echoed similar concerns about early-morning noise, pellets hitting homes, broken windows and the safety of their children after a child was almost hit walking to a bus stop.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/UPDATE/701160396
Secchia, former U.S. ambassador to Italy, injured in car crash
DAVID EGGERT / Associated Press
LANSING -- Peter Secchia, former U.S. ambassador to Italy, and three other people were injured in a car accident after attending a Michigan State basketball game.
The injuries to Secchia; Joseph Crawford, editorial page editor for the Grand Rapids Press; and their wives, Joan Secchia and Martha Crawford, were not life-threatening, officials at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing said at a news conference Monday.
The four left the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Sunday and were on Interstate 69 when the car in which they were riding was rear-ended about 5 p.m. Joseph Crawford was driving.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.postchronicle.com/commentary/article_21257911.shtml
Carl Levin: Al Qaeda's Man in Washington?
By Jim Kouri
Jan 8, 2007
Now that the Democrats are in control of both houses of congress, Americans can look forward to their leadership putting their own interests ahead of the safety and security of citizens during the war on terrorism. In her recent column, Ann Coulter, in her usual hyperbolic style, called the Democrat Party a "sleeper cell." A good example of that is the recent actions of Senator Levin.
In August, 2006, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) arrogantly refused to stop blocking the Senate's confirmation of the head of the Justice Department's new antiterrorism division, a position that's important in a time of war with terrorist groups who wish to attack the United States.
However, it wasn't because of any complaint about the nominee, rather it's an effort to try to force the Justice Department to turn over information Levin can use to bash his own country and the US military.
Levin has been demanding that the Bush administration supply more information from FBI agents who reported witnessing aggressive interrogations of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba military detention center.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501085.html
Burden Set to Shift On Balanced Budget
Bush Likely to Force Democrats' Hand
By Lori Montgomery and Nell Henderson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; Page A01
When he takes the House rostrum next week for the State of the Union address, President Bush will list among his goals a balanced federal budget, a shift for a president who has presided over record deficits while aggressively cutting taxes.
Politically, analysts say, the president is calling the bluff of Democrats, who won control of Congress in part by accusing Bush of reckless fiscal policies. While Bush now shares the Democrats' goal to erase the deficit by 2012, the politically perilous work of making that happen -- cutting spending or raising taxes -- falls to the Democratic-run Congress.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011500970.html
What Congress Can (And Can't) Do on Iraq
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; Page A19
Congressional Democrats (and Republicans) who oppose President Bush's decision to send additional American troops to Iraq may frustrate his plan, but not -- as suggested by Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn -- by imposing 21,500 strings on the 21,500 new troops. Just as there are constraints on the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief, there are limits on Congress's ability to direct presidential action. In particular, Congress cannot use its power of the purse to micromanage the president's execution of his office. Indeed, although the prosecution of the Iraq war looms large in today's political discourse, the consequences of substantive decisions related to the war are dwarfed by the imperatives of protecting the integrity of the core rules governing interactions between the executive and legislative branches, which are rooted in our distinctive constitutional fabric.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011401027.html?nav=hcmodule
Bush: 'We're Going Forward'
More Troops Called The Only Iraq Option
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007; Page A01
Faced with substantial opposition both in Congress and among the American public to their Iraq plans, President Bush and Vice President Cheney vowed yesterday to forge ahead with the deployment of more than 21,000 additional troops.
In an interview broadcast last night on CBS's "60 Minutes," Bush said he has the authority as commander in chief to move ahead with the deployment, regardless of what the Democratic-controlled Congress does in opposition.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0116/p01s01-usfp.html
How US is deferring war costs
As war spending on Iraq and Afghanistan nears the levels for Vietnam and Korea, concern is rising over the 'borrow now, pay later' approach.
By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
NEW YORK - To pay for World War II, Americans bought savings bonds and put extra notches in their belts. President Harry Truman raised taxes and cut nonmilitary spending to pay for the Korean conflict. During Vietnam, the US raised taxes but still watched deficits soar.
But to pay for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US has used its credit card, counting on the Chinese and other foreign buyers of its debt to pay the bills.
Now, as President Bush is promising to boost the number of troops in Iraq, there is increased scrutiny over how the US is going to pay for it all.
The US is spending about $10 billion a month on Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of this year, the total funds appropriated will be nearly $600 billion – approaching the amount spent on the Vietnam or Korean wars, when adjusted for inflation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/13/AR2007011300496.html
New Congress Can Save Lives, or Money
By Desmond Tutu
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, January 15, 2007; 12:00 AM
The new Congress, led in the House by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is about to make its first decision regarding how America's money should be spent - a decision that leaves millions of lives hanging in the balance. Congress's choice to bypass 2007 appropriations legislation and extend fiscal 2006 funding levels into the new year will mean, in effect, cuts of almost $1billion in funding for programs to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. If not reversed, the lack of funds will force hundreds of thousands of people to forgo prevention, treatment, care and support for the three most deadly infectious diseases in the world.
Many of the people most affected by Congress's decision will be my fellow Africans. Around the world, the most poor and marginalized men, women and children will suffer the consequences of flat-lined funding. AIDS, TB and malaria are diseases of poverty; to truly address them, sufficient aid must be reliably and properly channeled in solidarity with the people who will receive it.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0116/p01s03-usec.html
Congress moves to cut college loan costs
Democrats vote Wednesday on whether to halve interest rates, but with little benefit to students, experts say.
By Amanda Paulson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
It's a proposal that could save college graduates thousands of dollars: reducing the interest rates on some student loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent.
Halving those rates played a big part in congressional campaign promises this fall, and is a part of the high-profile first 100 hours for the new Democratic majority.
But the bill, unveiled by House Democrats on Friday and scheduled for a vote Wednesday, is scaled back from the initial promises – affecting only the subsidized Stafford loans designed for middle- and lower-class students and phasing the cuts in over five years. Already the proposal is under fire, not just from Republicans, but from some student-aid experts as well.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011400888.html
The Other Team's Playbook
A Bush U-Turn On Climate Change?
Monday, January 15, 2007; Page A15
George W. Bush has managed to isolate himself on Iraq: from world opinion, from domestic opinion and now finally from his own party. But just as Democrats have gained the upper hand on foreign policy, so Republicans have gained the upper hand on health policy. The parties are changing clothes faster than my 3-year-old changes princess dresses.
The health-care inversion is not all about Washington. Last week Arnold Schwarzenegger became the third Republican governor (following Jim Douglas of Vermont and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts) to announce a plan for universal health care; only one Democratic governor (John Baldacci of Maine) has matched that. Meanwhile in Congress, the Pelosicrats have voted to make the federal government negotiate Medicare drug prices, asserting that this will save money. This claim has been analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office and judged wrong. So on this issue, unusually, the Democrats are advocating a faith-based delusion while Republicans represent the reality-based community.
Democrats Seek the Middle on Social Issues
By ROBIN TONER
Published: January 16, 2007
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 — The promise may not outlast their political honeymoon, but Democratic Congressional leaders say they are committed to governing from the center, and not just on bread-and-butter issues like raising the minimum wage or increasing aid for education. They also hope to bring that philosophy to bear on some of the most divisive social issues in politics, like abortion.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501022.html
Conservation Group, Unions Joining Forces
Saving Habitat, Ensuring Access Sought
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; Page A04
SEATTLE -- In a first-of-its-kind alliance that could fundamentally reshape the environmental movement, 20 labor unions with nearly 5 million members are joining forces with a Republican-leaning umbrella group of conservationists -- the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership -- to put pressure on Congress and the Bush administration.
The Union Sportsman's Alliance, to be rolled out in Washington on Tuesday after nearly three years of quiet negotiations, is to be a dues-based organization ($25 a year). Its primary goal is to increase federal funding for protecting wildlife habitat while guaranteeing access for hunters and anglers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011400896.html
Testing Reid's Ethical Limits
By Robert D. Novak
Monday, January 15, 2007; Page A15
A beaming Harry Reid basked last week in the adoration of the Democratic Party's leading Senate reformers and its nine freshman senators. They extravagantly praised the new majority leader as an exemplar of ethical reform. But within 48 hours, Reid was opposing full transparency of earmarks. This week, Republican reformers will target Reid with an amendment to the senate ethics package.
Sponsored by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the proposal is called the "Reid amendment" because he inadvertently inspired it. Coburn would tighten loose anti-earmark restrictions in the ethics bill by prohibiting senators from requesting earmarks that financially benefit a senator, an immediate family member of a senator or a family member of a senator's staffer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011500286.html
Rice, Mideast Leaders to Hold Summit
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007; 10:54 AM
LUXOR, Egypt, Jan. 15 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has convinced Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to hold a three-way meeting some time in the next month to discuss the "political horizon necessary to create a Palestinian state," a senior State Department official traveling with Rice told reporters on her plane today.
The meeting could signify progress in the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RICE?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Rice lobbies Arabs for backing in Iraq
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's appeal for Arab allies to help support the fragile government in Iraq drew only a tepid endorsement Tuesday from the administration's strongest ally in the region.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Saudis hope President Bush's plans to turn around the situation in Iraq is a successful, but was plainly skeptical that the Iraqi government is up to the task of doing its part.
"We are hoping these objectives will be implemented, but the means are not in our hands," he said. "They are in the hands of the Iraqis themselves."
Al-Faisal spoke at length about the centuries old civilization in Iraq where Sunni and Shiite Muslims have been living together for years, but are now threatened by sectarian violence that has killed thousands.
"I cannot for the life of me conceive that a country like that would commit suicide," said al-Faisal, adding that he prefers not to speculate about he called the "dire consequences" of a Sunni-Shia civil war.
Democrats Are Unified in Opposition to Troop Increase, but Split Over What to Do About It
By JIM RUTENBERG and PATRICK HEALY
Published: January 15, 2007
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 — The White House sought Sunday to head off building pressure in Congress to cut off or limit financing for sending more troops to Iraq.
But even as President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made it clear that they would proceed with their plan to increase the United States military presence in Iraq in the face of opposition from the House and Senate, Democrats exhibited splits within their ranks over how aggressively to oppose the plan.
Speaking on “This Week” on ABC News, Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, the chairman of the subcommittee on military appropriations in the House, said he expected Congress to move to restrict financing for new troop deployments — or at the very least tie approval to stringent conditions the White House would have to meet first.
“If we have our way, there will be some substantial change and tremendous pressure put on this administration to change direction,” Mr. Murtha said.
But Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the new chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on CNN on Sunday that he did not believe Congress should “use the power of the purse” to halt the president’s plan and that it should go no further than approving nonbinding resolutions opposing it.
AP: Iran gets army gear in Pentagon sale
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries - including Iran and China - who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department's surplus auctions. The sales include fighter jet parts and missile components.
In one case, federal investigators said, the contraband made it to Iran, a country President Bush branded part of an "axis of evil."
In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, speaking on condition of anonymity, say those parts made it to Iran.
The surplus sales can operate like a supermarket for arms dealers.
"Right Item, Right Time, Right Place, Right Price, Every Time. Best Value Solutions for America's Warfighters," the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service says on its Web site, calling itself "the place to obtain original U.S. Government surplus property."
Pakistan Army Destroys al-Qaida Hideouts
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's army destroyed suspected al-Qaida hideouts in an airstrike near the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing 10 people, officials said.
The army and a senior local official said the dead were militants, and included some foreigners, but a resident said the slain men were Afghan laborers.
The raid in South Waziristan came days after the U.S. intelligence chief said leaders of both al-Qaida and Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban militia were finding shelter in Pakistan's lawless frontier areas.
An army statement said intelligence sources confirmed the presence of 25 to 30 foreign terrorists and their local facilitators occupying five compounds in the area of Zamzola - a village about two miles from the frontier.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/opinion/16tue1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Editorial
Energy Time
Al Hubbard, the economic adviser who’s coordinating the administration’s energy strategy, recently promised that President Bush would produce “headlines above the fold that will knock your socks off in terms of our commitment to energy independence.” Every president since Richard Nixon has talked this way, while every year the country slides further into dependency. Mr. Bush’s overpromising has included a forecast that we would all be buying hydrogen-fueled cars in 20 years and his pledge a year ago to rid the country of its addiction to oil.
Still, we must hope that Mr. Bush is serious this time, because we simply cannot continue to hold our national security and the health of the planet hostage to our appetite for fossil fuels.
America’s closest allies, and increasingly its governors, know this. Last week, the European Union — shaken by Russia’s threatened shutdown of oil passing through Belarus — announced a menu of initiatives aimed at reducing Europe’s dependence on unreliable suppliers while cutting greenhouse gas emissions with cleaner fuels and new technologies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011400767.html
The Republicans' Gamble
Change Virginia's redistricting system or roll the dice.
Monday, January 15, 2007; Page A14
PARTIES THAT command the majority of state legislatures are loath to yield their right to draw district lines on the state's political map. And no wonder: Why voluntarily cede such a sweeping power? But Virginia Republicans, who control both houses of the state legislature, would do well to break the mold this year -- and not only because they would be exposed as bald-faced hypocrites for refusing.
Virginia remains in most ways a majority-Republican state. But after successive Democratic victories in races for governor and senator, plus Democratic pickups in the state legislature for most of this decade, the GOP majority is starting to look shaky. Hence the party's dilemma: If it insists on leaving redistricting in the hands of the majority, as it has in recent years, it may wake up after the 2010 Census startled to find the Democrats in charge of redrawing the political map. If, on the other hand, the Republicans agree now to create a bipartisan system, they may end up with an electoral map more to their liking than if they were left to the Democrats' mercies. The result will be better government and better politics.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009529
The Poor Get Richer
Incomes in the developing world start to catch up.
BY MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
Tuesday, January 16, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
Here's bad news for those who oppose global free trade: Not only did the world-wide trend toward greater economic liberty hold steady over the past year, but the incomes of poor individuals across the globe are rising as result. The world isn't only growing richer. The gap between the per-capita income of have-not populations and that of the developed world is narrowing.
This good news for human progress is documented in the 2007 Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal 2007 Index of Economic Freedom, released today. Neither another year of Islamic terrorism, nor record high oil prices, nor fear mongering on Capitol Hill about the China peril have been able to reverse a gradual global shift that reflects the basic human longing for individual liberty. While not all of mankind is participating in this advance, in those places where freedom has increased, people are becoming decidedly better off.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009531
Intelligence in the Classroom
Half of all children are below average, and teachers can do only so much for them.
BY CHARLES MURRAY
Tuesday, January 16, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
Education is becoming the preferred method for diagnosing and attacking a wide range problems in American life. The No Child Left Behind Act is one prominent example. Another is the recent volley of articles that blame rising income inequality on the increasing economic premium for advanced education. Crime, drugs, extramarital births, unemployment--you name the problem, and I will show you a stack of claims that education is to blame, or at least implicated.
One word is missing from these discussions: intelligence. Hardly anyone will admit it, but education's role in causing or solving any problem cannot be evaluated without considering the underlying intellectual ability of the people being educated. Today and over the next two days, I will put the case for three simple truths about the mediating role of intelligence that should bear on the way we think about education and the nation's future.
Today's simple truth: Half of all children are below average in intelligence. We do not live in Lake Wobegon.
U.S. lawsuits target frozen Cuban assets
1/15/2007, 7:36 a.m. ET
By CURT ANDERSON
The Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) — The day a judge awarded $400 million in damages to the family of an American who was tortured and executed by a Cuban firing squad, his sister said she felt vindicated. "We have found justice," Jeannette Hausler said last month. But finding the money has been another struggle, one shared by others who have won court rulings and are trying to identify Cuban assets frozen in U.S. bank accounts.
"How much there is is not clear. The banks are very coy about telling you how much is there, because they don't want to get sued by the Cuban government," said Alfonso Perez, an attorney representing relatives of Robert Fuller, a U.S. citizen who owned a plantation in Cuba and was killed on Oct. 16, 1960, in violation of U.S. anti-torture and extra-judicial killing laws.
Fidel Castro's serious illness raises another possibility: After his death, Cuba might seek normalized trade and diplomatic relations with the United States, opening an avenue for those who have won judgments against Cuba to get their money directly from Havana.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/opinion/15mon2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Editorial
Politicizing Prosecutors
The Bush administration has appointed an extreme political partisan as the new United States attorney for Arkansas. Normally, the Senate would have vetted him, and quite possibly blocked his appointment. But the White House took advantage of a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act, which allows it to do an end run around the Senate.
It is particularly dangerous to put United States attorneys’ offices in the hands of political operatives because federal prosecutors have extraordinary power to issue subpoenas and bring criminal charges. The Senate should fix the law and investigate whether such offices in Arkansas and elsewhere are being politicized.
H. E. Bud Cummins, the respected United States attorney in Little Rock, recently left office. He has been replaced on an interim basis by J. Timothy Griffin, who has a thin legal record but a résumé that includes working for Karl Rove and heading up opposition research for the Republican National Committee. Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, wanted to raise concerns about Mr. Griffin’s appointment as part of the confirmation process. But he couldn’t because there was no confirmation process.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/opinion/15mon4.html
Editorial
Ethics Fencing in the Senate
The Senate’s promising start in reforming its ethical shortcomings is showing signs of slippage. Senators ducked a worthy amendment that would bar members from putting family members on campaign payrolls, or see kin become lobbyists. The proposal was ruled unrelated to the debate over lobbyist and ethics reforms, which is hardly the case.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, insisted that there’s no such problem in the Senate. Critics instantly noted that her fellow Californian, Senator Barbara Boxer, paid $130,000 from her campaign funds to her son’s political consultant firm. In the House, the campaign kitty of Representative John Doolittle, Republican of California, paid $200,000 to his wife as a designated campaign consultant working at home. Congress’s reputation cannot afford more such embarrassments.
As the Senate debate continues, there are key proposals that will test how real all the talk is about reform. Some lawmakers are already trying to water down the proposal of majority leader Harry Reid, which would stop senators from accepting the nearly free use of corporate jets. Opponents on both sides of the aisle are also intent on blocking a measure from Senators Barack Obama and Russell Feingold, which would force lobbyists to disclose the vast campaign funds they routinely raise from corporate donors eager to grease access to lawmakers. The money would still flow, but special-interest bagmen would have to list the take on public record.
U.S. official optimistic of S.Korea FTA
1/15/2007, 7:35 a.m. ET
AP Business Writer
The Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States and South Korea can still wrap up a free trade agreement, although tough issues remain and time is running short, Washington's chief negotiator said Monday.
"Our challenges are real but they are not insurmountable," Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler told reporters after U.S. and South Korean officials opened a fresh round of talks in Seoul, their sixth since negotiations were formally launched last June.
Outside the venue — a swank, hilltop hotel — thousands of riot police stood guard against street protests that have dogged the previous two rounds held in South Korea.
Europe's new car sales up slightly as economy hits fast lane
1/16/2007, 6:10 a.m. ET
By AOIFE WHITE
The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — European car sales rose only slightly last year despite economic growth speeding up to the fastest rate since 2000, the manufacturers' association ACEA said Tuesday.
Some 15.36 million vehicles left showrooms in 2006, up 0.7 percent from the previous year, it said, as stronger sales from Germany and Italy barely compensated for slowdowns in Britain, France and Spain.
Fiat SpA saw the biggest gain, up 16.9 percent after selling 1.15 million cars during the year, but Germany's Volkswagen AG shifted the most cars overall, sending 3.11 million out on the road — a 5.3 percent increase.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501016.html
Sen. Allard Says He Will Retire in 2008
Democrats See Chance to Take Colorado Seat
By Chris Cillizza
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; Page A04
Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) will not seek a third term in the Senate, a decision that creates a ripe pickup opportunity for Democrats in the 2008 election.
Allard has served in the Senate since 1996. He said at a news conference yesterday in Denver that his pledge to serve just two terms was the overriding factor in his decision.
In an age when promises are cast away as quickly as yesterday's newspaper, I believe a promise made should be a promise kept," he said.
Allard is the first senator to announce he will not seek reelection next year, when Republicans must defend 21 seats and Democrats only 12.
Korean prosecutors demand 6-year term for Hyundai chairman
1/16/2007, 4:50 a.m. ET
By JAE-SOON CHANG
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Prosecutors demanded a six-year prison term against Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo for embezzlement and other charges Tuesday, adding to the woes of the largest South Korean automaker.
Chung, 68, has been on trial since June on charges of illegally raising a slush fund from affiliates from which authorities say he spent $74 million for private and other purposes, including payments to lobbyists for government favors.
He has also been charged with inflicting financial damage on affiliates through questionable deals and arrangements that allegedly protected or boosted the financial interests of him and his son, Eui-sun, who heads Kia Motors Corp., the country's second-largest carmaker. The younger Chung doesn't face trial.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0116/p09s01-coop.html
America's role in Somalia
To help establish order, the US must work with both Somalis and the international community.
By Russ Feingold
WASHINGTON - Recent reports that terrorists and hard-line members of the Islamic Courts in Somalia are on the run are capturing headlines. But that is only a small part of Somalia's story, and it shouldn't take our focus off the bigger challenge: Unless the United States helps create stability in Somalia, that country will remain what it has been since the early 1990s – a haven for terrorists and warlords, and a source of instability in a critical region.
Somalia's weak transitional government is trying to reestablish itself as the representative government for the people of Somalia. By all accounts, however, Somalis have not yet rallied behind that government. In fact, gun prices in Mogadishu are reported to be at an all-time high because of steep demand. And many of the warlords who have long used Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia as their own personal and violent fiefdoms are moving freely around the country. The hard-line Islamic extremists have receded into the sandy landscape, but Somalia's anarchic tendencies still remain.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SPAIN_CUBA_CASTRO?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Castro reportedly in 'grave' condition
MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has had at least three failed operations and complications from an intestinal infection and faces "a very grave prognosis," a Spanish newspaper reported Tuesday.
A Cuban diplomat in Madrid said the reports were lies and declined to comment.
"It's another lie and we are not going to talk about it. If anyone has to talk about Castro's illness it's Havana," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of official policy.
The newspaper El Pais cited two unnamed sources from the Gregorio Maranon hospital in the Spanish capital of Madrid. The facility employs surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, who flew to Cuba in December to treat the 80-year-old Castro.
In a report published on its Web site, El Pais said: "A grave infection in the large intestine, at least three failed operations and various complications have left the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, laid up with a very grave prognosis."
Cuba has released little information on Castro's condition since he temporarily ceded power in July to his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, until he could recover from emergency intestinal surgery, prompting much speculation and rumor in the country and around the world.
