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.