Articles of Interest 2-28-07
615 Days until election day.
Senator Carl Levin doesn’t get it. He is now bragging about working on a “binding resolution” on Iraq that will either have a “cut and run” strategy or some “bleeding our troops out” strategy…rather than winning the war on terror.
We must continue any and all diplomatic options…the Secretary of State and others are doing so. However, Iran isn’t listening, Iraq didn’t listen and the terrorist could care less.
This is NOT about some “civil war” in Iraq. This is about Islamic facists who are out to destroy western civilization as we know it. Yes, there have been mistakes made in the management of the war. However, the answer isn’t to run away and lose. The question is how do we change the rules of engagement and win.
Support our troops, let our troops do their job…STOP playing politics with the war on terror and provide some leadership, backbone and support to complete our mission.
If we abandon Iraq now, we transfer the war on terror from over there…to over here. We embolden the terrorists, we reward Iran for it’s actions, we turn over billions is oil to the bad guys and most importantly we put America at risk.
Senator Levin…stop playing politics with the war on terror and back our troops to get the job done. Congress authorized this war, the Kurds have shown how it can work in Iraq, let’s change the policies of engagement and provide the President with the political support and tools to get the job done!
So, a “Lawyer vs Logger” developing in the First Congressional District??? As rumors continue to fly about Congressman Bart Stupak and the possibility of him taking some big paying lobbying job, others are encouraging State Representative Tom Casperson to just “go for it”.
Stupak now pays his wife to run non-existing campaigns and has figured out how to bring the family income up without taking a lobbying job…so maybe he just stays on and continues to milk the system.
The citizens of 31 counties that make up the First Congressional District are going to have a choice…a logger vs a lawyer. I like them odds!
I’ve received several calls from folks in the First asking what they could do to help. Well, if you think Tom Casperson is the right candidate to take on Stupak & Stupak Inc., let him know…encourage him to get into the race. If you know of anyone else who might be interested, encourage them as well. This is a unique opportunity
Second, your new District Chairman Joel Westrom is putting together an aggressive program throughout the district…lend him a hand, get involved, join you local county party and get the “ground game” in place for the upcoming election.
The Michigan Republican Party has created a 2007 Calendar in memoriam of President Gerald R. Ford. Calendars are $12 a piece with proceeds supporting the creation of a permanent display to honor Michigan’s Republican President. The memorial will be located at the new Michigan Republican Headquarters and will include an honorary plaque on the Wall of Honor in addition to a prominent flagpole outside the building. To purchase a calendar, please click here. Thank you for your support!
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/COL04/702280321/1001/NEWS
Trading places with Mississippi
February 28, 2007
BY BRIAN DICKERSON
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Nearly everybody has a theory about why Michigan and Mississippi are headed in opposite directions, and a lot of them will find grist in Tuesday's announcement that Toyota will build a $1.3-billion SUV assembly plant outside Tupelo, Miss.
Never mind that neither Michigan nor any of its Rust Belt neighbors ever were in the hunt for the plant, which Toyota says will employ 2,000 workers and turn out 150,000 Highlanders a year.
The Highlander shares a platform with the Kentucky-built Toyota Camry, and the three states that made serious bids for the new assembly plant -- Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee -- were located near Toyota's existing suppliers and the company's Alabama engine plant.
Even so, some on both sides of the economic development debate are sure to regard Tupelo's coup as confirmation of their own prescriptions for improving Michigan's competitiveness.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/METRO/702280356/1003
Analyst: Detroit's deficit at $62.9M
Shortage due to less money than expected realized through fees, taxes, property sales.
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A City Council analyst estimates the city is on course to end the year in June with a $62.9 million deficit in its general fund -- a number much less rosy than Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's staff has predicted.
Irvin Corley Jr., the director of the council's Fiscal Analysis Division, submitted a report to the council Tuesday saying it's due in part to less money coming in through property taxes, the new garbage fee and property sales.
When this year's deficit is combined with last year's unbudgeted deficit, the city's budget hole climbs to $159 million, according to Corley, who looked at financial data through December 2006.
A city spokesman said Pam Scales, the city's budget director, hasn't seen Corley's report and couldn't comment.
"She is not sure how he determined the numbers," said Matt Allen, a Kilpatrick spokesman.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/POLITICS/702280366/1003/METRO
Granholm to go on the road
Governor plans 5 town hall meetings across state to discuss Michigan's future, her budget fix.
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- With budget negotiations stalled in the state capital, Gov. Jennifer Granholm will do what she does best: Take her show on the road.
Starting Thursday in Traverse City, Granholm will talk with citizens about plans for the future of Michigan -- including her two-penny service tax proposal -- at five televised town hall meetings. The tour will take her to Flint, Southfield, Grand Rapids and Lansing over the next 10 days.
"This is Granholm at her best, her administration's trump card: Jennifer Granholm herself, out front with her charisma and her speaking ability, and her ability to sound the right notes," said Bill Ballenger, editor of the Inside Michigan Politics newsletter.
The governor launched a similar trip four years ago during her first fiscal crisis, asking Michiganians what programs they'd cut to balance the budget. As a result, universities and municipalities took their lumps in the first couple rounds of cutbacks.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/NEWS06/702280403
Schools rolling in cash?
Report finds $1.7 billion in budget surpluses across state
February 28, 2007
BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Michigan public schools, including intermediate school districts and charter schools, had $1.7 billion in surplus cash in mid-2006, a lot of money for a system teetering on the brink of financial ruin, according to a Macomb County lawmaker who asked for the report on school reserves.
State Rep. Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township, said he wants a 15% cap on school fund balances that could make up to $357 million available for use in classrooms instead of bank accounts.
"At a time when we've got the governor running around talking about how cuts to schools are going to cause bankruptcies ... we ought to be looking at these numbers," Brandenburg said, citing a report compiled by the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency.
Brandenburg said he isn't advocating cuts to districts with savings in excess of 15% of operating costs, but there is some obligation for "schools to spend some of that money before we give them more," he said.
Public school administrators said the true picture is more nuanced.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070227/BIZ03/702270375
Can't sell, so owners give bank the homes
Desperate families walk away rather than lose them to foreclosure.
Ron French / The Detroit News
STERLING HEIGHTS -- Alan and Alyson Wirgau live in a cute ranch on a quiet suburban street next to an award-winning school. There's a new roof above their heads, a new deck in back and a For Sale By Owner sign in front.
Instead of weighing offers, the family is weighing an option that seemed unthinkable a year ago: If they don't sell their home soon, they may turn down the heat, load their possessions in a U-Haul and drive away.
With a job in Indianapolis and dim prospects for selling their home, the Wirgaus are considering handing the keys back to the bank and walking away from their home.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/NEWS06/702280312/1008
POLITICALLY SPEAKING
Will tax-break plan float boats?
February 28, 2007
Is the answer to making Detroit's Cobo Center more attractive to various shows a $51,000 tax break for a buyer of a 48-foot, $850,000 Sea Ray Sundancer at the Detroit Boat Show?
Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano called on the state last week to waive the 6% sales tax on purchases made at Cobo Center, where the boat show is held each winter. The show, where many dealers make half of their annual sales, reports most of the vessels purchased at the event are from $11,000 to $30,000. Ficano's idea is to make Cobo more attractive to many conventions, not just to help rich folks buy yachts.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who -- like Ficano -- is a Democrat, has been mum on Ficano's plan, which also would exempt back-to-school supplies for one week in August. For the record, Granholm's press secretary Liz Boyd said Tuesday that the governor still had no comment.
Granholm has resisted Republican calls for a tax cut to spur the economy, saying Michigan already has cut its income and business taxes and the economy remains in a slump.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/OPINION02/702280333/1068/OPINION
LOCAL COMMENT
State can safely cut prison population
February 28, 2007
BY BARBARA LEVINE
Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plan to reduce the prison population by 5,500 and the announced closing of a large Jackson prison by July have led to questions about the impact on public safety. The short answer is that no significant impact is likely.
Except for a few hundred people whose health problems are so severe that they will receive medical commutations, the administration is talking only about releasing people who have completed their minimum sentences and been passed over for parole. By definition, these are not "early" releases.
The Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending (CAPPS) has long maintained that Michigan's prison growth is, in large part, the result of too few paroles. There is no evidence that warehousing thousands of prisoners who have served minimum terms has a measurable impact on overall crime rates.
It is very difficult to predict with certainty whether a particular person released from prison will commit a serious crime. But the majority of former prisoners do not commit new offenses and, with increased assistance when they first return to the community, success rates should increase.
http://www.dailypress.net/stories/articles.asp?articleID=8425
Editorial: Politics ’08 — Trying to read the tea leaves
In politics, it’s never too early to look ahead.
Even though the next big national and state elections aren’t until fall of 2008, political strategists are already trying to mend fences and build some momentum for the next year and a half.
To that end, Michigan Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis was on a self-proclaimed “listen and learn” tour of the Upper Peninsula last week.
The Maytag repairman used to be the loneliest job in town, but that’s until the Michigan GOP needed someone to lead its charge in Michigan.
As was the case in the rest of the country, last fall was a terrible time for the Michigan Republican Party. It tried to run a horse race in the gubernatorial and U.S. senate seats in Michigan, but in the end it was a runaway win for the incumbent democrats.
Fair or unfair, politics on the state and national levels may have as much to do with coattails as anything else. Americans feel miserable about the plight we find ourselves in in Iraq, and they took it out on just about every Republican they found on the ballot this past November.
Anuzis seems to have reconciled himself to that fact, and he’s hoping to build some positive direction for November 2008.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/METRO/702280357/1003
Michigan praised for innovation
An economic analysis ranks the state 19th in moving toward a global, high-tech economy.
Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Michigan is among the top 20 states transitioning toward economies centered on information technologies, innovation and global markets, according to an economic analysis released Tuesday.
Michigan ranked 19th in its overall transition away from a "smokestack chasing" economy, the 2007 State New Economy Index reports.
States like Michigan that topped the report are moving to create and retain high-wage jobs in economies that are "knowledge-based, globalized, entrepreneurial, information technology-driven and innovation-based," the report explains.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, in Washington for a meeting of the National Governors Association, said the report confirms Michigan's progress, despite its continued high jobless rates. "We're putting emphasis on the right things in order to transform Michigan's economy."
But U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, expressed skepticism about the report's positive assessment of Michigan.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/BIZ/702280351/1001
ePrize on track for jobs growth
Growth in profits, offices and work force helps fuel company's creative environment.
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
Promising last July to add 450 jobs in Metro Detroit by 2009, Pleasant Ridge-based ePrize LLC appears to be on track, adding 185 local employees in 2006, the company announced this week.
The 7-year old company, which creates online games and consumer promotions for brands such as The Gap and Disney, also reported that its sales grew about 26 percent to $35.9 million in 2006. That's up from $28.6 million last year. EPrize's worldwide headcount is now 325.
The company will continue to add staff and grow sales in 2007, Josh Linkner, founder and CEO of ePrize said. He projected the company would exceed $55 million in sales.
To accommodate a growing workforce, the company recently completed a 14,000-square-foot expansion of it headquarters, a one-time brewery.
The new, $1 million space will incorporate 125 new desks, 20 offices, a sound studio and a kitchen.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/AUTO01/702280375
Chrysler workers get $100K to go
Early retirement, buyout packages are part of plan to cut 11,000 jobs; some say it's not enough money.
Josee Valcourt / The Detroit News
DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group said Tuesday it will offer union workers up to $100,000 to leave the company as it moves to cut 9,000 hourly jobs in the United States.
Some workers, however, said they were disappointed the offers weren't more generous and didn't include a voucher for the purchase of a new vehicle.
Chrysler announced a deep restructuring two weeks ago and has already detailed buyout and early retirement offers designed to cut 2,000 hourly positions in Canada and 2,000 U.S. salaried jobs.
Chrysler will offer one of two packages to United Auto Workers at U.S. factories and other facilities where jobs are being cut. They include a $70,000 early retirement package for those who meet eligibility requirements and a $100,000 cash buyout for those not eligible to retire, according to a document distributed to union officials and later confirmed by the automaker.
The offers were first reported Tuesday on The Detroit News' Web site, detnews.com.
If Chrysler doesn't reach its goal of cutting 9,000 U.S. hourly jobs, it could extend the offers to all of its 50,000 U.S. hourly workers.
Some UAW workers questioned why car vouchers were not part of the offers but were included in some packages offered to salaried employees and Chrysler hourly employees represented by the Canadian Auto Workers union.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/BUSINESS01/702280344
Mass exodus from Ford today
Thanks to buyouts, thousands of workers call it quits
February 28, 2007
BY SARAH A. WEBSTER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
This is it: The big good-bye. The finish line.
Ford Motor Co. had hoped to convince about 10,000 salaried workers to leave as part of a voluntary buyout program that aims to revive the automaker. Today is the last day for many of them.
Ford won't say exactly how many people have shredded their confidential files, packed their cardboard boxes and signed the legal forms so they could take a buyout and leave today. But Ford executives have acknowledged they had a high take rate on their buyout offers, so thousands and thousands of badges will likely be turned in on this historic day.
Many workers who turn them in, like 36-year Ford engineer Tim Cross, say they are happy to go after decades of service to Ford. Others, like Raymond Wright, a nearly 50-year Ford employee, feel they really have no choice given the threat of layoffs, which will be necessary if Ford doesn't hit its job-reduction targets.
Signs of the difficult, changing times can be seen around Dearborn and inside 103-year-old Ford, which lost a record $12.7 billion last year.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/BIZ/702280402
Stroh's ice cream plant will close
Work at the Detroit facility moves to Illinois in April; 29 people are slated to lose their jobs.
Detroit News staff
DETROIT -- The Stroh's ice cream plant near Brewery Park is closing in April and production is moving to a facility in Belvidere, Ill., company officials told The Detroit News late Tuesday.
Stroh's ice cream has been produced in Detroit since the Prohibition era and is one of the city's last links to the Stroh family's brewing and ice cream dynasty that began in 1850.
The decision means 29 workers will lose their jobs, but another 75 will continue to work in a warehousing and distribution facility in Detroit, said Marguerite Copel, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Dean Foods Company, which owns the Detroit ice cream facility that produces Stroh's, Melody Farms, Mooney's and Nafziger's brand ice cream.
Dean Foods decided to cease operations at the plant as part of a consolidation of its operations, Copel said. Workers will be offered jobs at other Dean Foods operations or will be offered severance and job placement assistance, she said.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/BIZ/702280311/1001
Labor challenges lobbies on union votes
Legislation would end private ballots, allowing unions to form after a majority signs cards.
Joe Mathews / Los Angeles Times
Choose your weapon: cards or ballots?
It has become the central question in union-organizing fights across the U.S.: Will the employer recognize a union after a majority of its workers sign union cards? Or will the employer insist that its workers cast secret ballots in federally supervised elections?
These questions -- of paper and power -- move from the workplace to Congress this week, when the House of Representatives is scheduled to cast the first vote in what is shaping up as a years-long legislative battle between the country's largest labor unions and the most powerful business lobbies. The stakes: deciding the manner in which Americans join unions.
The legislation, called the Employee Free Choice Act, would take from employers the right to decide whether to accept the signing of cards -- generally called "card check" -- or demand an election. Instead, labor, without an election of all employees, could unionize a work site by convincing a majority of employees to sign cards.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/BIZ/702280353/1001
Detroit bus station work set to start
Economic group awards $10.8M construction contract to build 25,000-square-foot facility.
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Construction on a new $14 million public bus station in downtown Detroit, the Rosa Parks Transit Center, could begin as early as next month, city public transportation officials said Tuesday.
The board of directors for the city's Economic Development Corp. awarded a $10.8 million construction contract to DeMaria Building Co. of Detroit to build the 25,000 square-foot facility covering two city blocks, including a corner of Michigan and Cass avenues. Barring any last-minute snags, construction of the bus terminal named for the late civil rights pioneer will start in three weeks and could be completed by the second half of 2008, according to DeMaria officials.
The new terminal is being hailed by both mass transit advocates and developers because it may encourage more people to take the bus to the city's downtown and it replaces a temporary outdoor facility long considered inadequate.
Many developers contend the area surrounding the current bus center in Capitol Park can be revived into upscale lofts and retail.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/OPINION01/702280316/1008
If profit is bad, why choose Michigan?
Restoring lawsuits and casting life sciences firms as pariahs will cost jobs
State Rep. Chuck Moss
E verybody is talking about retooling Michigan, so it can be rebuilt for the 21st century. Lots of impediments are blamed: high taxes, social spending, labor-management enmity and educational performance. But I'm beginning to think the biggest obstacle to attracting and developing new enterprise is populist business-bashing.
I saw this attitude in full display in the Michigan House of Representatives during last week's debate to remove tort immunity for drug makers who develop pharmaceuticals that meet federal testing and safety requirements. The anti-immunity folks attacked the "big drug companies" as devils, "putting profits before people," all but murdering innocent people by marketing "dangerous drugs" in their quest for -- boo! hiss! -- "profits."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/OPINION01/702280309/1008
Reviving Metro Detroit
Workers can't be complacent to survive in global economy
Dave Bing
I was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in 1966 -- a time when the Motor City was hammering out classics like the Ford Mustang and Dodge Charger. I loved the fans at Cobo Arena, many of whom were part of Detroit's great middle class -- auto workers making good wages and benefits.
Children followed their parents into the plants, and those children expected those plum jobs to be there for their kids and grandkids. It had worked for Detroit for a half-century, but the times were about to change.
I retired from basketball in 1978, and it was time to apply my business degree from Syracuse University to the real world. NBA players from my generation did not leave with multimillion-dollar bank accounts. I started my business journey by enrolling in a management trainee program at Paragon Steel in Detroit. In 1980, I started my own company, Bing Steel.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/OPINION01/702280315/1008
Opinion: Give workers a fighting chance to form a union
John Sweeney
E verybody wants their children to do a little better than they've done. A little better education. A little more saved. But today, too many people think that American Dream is a pipe dream. Less than a quarter of Americans feel the next generation will be better off, according to a new survey by Peter D. Hart Research Associates.
America's working families say they are falling behind, even as those at the very top of the economic heap make out like bandits. Wages, health care costs and retirement security are all trouble areas. America's once-powerful middle class is shrinking.
One of the primary reasons working people are getting left behind is they've lost their ability to bargain with their employer for better wages and benefits through unions. Unions are a cornerstone to building and keeping a strong middle class in our nation.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/OPINION01/702280313/1008
Let voters track rising tide of lobbyists' cash
The Detroit News
The flow of lobbyist dollars in Lansing is increasing -- but state regulations haven't kept up. Politicians and those who want to woo them will always find ways to get around restrictions designed to keep money out of politics, but voters and taxpayers deserve a fair chance to keep track of who is giving money and gifts to their representatives.
The Michigan Campaign Finance Network has issued a study noting that lobbyists reported spending $29.9 million on their activities last year -- an increase of 28.2 percent compared with 2002, the last year in which there was an election for governor. The total represents an 8 percent increase compared with 2005.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/OPINION01/702280319/1008
Toughest schools need the best teachers
Merit pay should be used to win most qualified educators
The Detroit News
N othing contributes to student achievement as much as top-notch teachers, a growing research consensus shows. Yet so often, America's neediest, highest-poverty schools have the toughest time recruiting and retaining the best talent.
This socio-economic gap isn't simply a suburban versus urban or rural problem. Often the greatest disparities are within districts themselves. Districts' most prized schools, such as Detroit's Bates Academy, flourish with the best teachers, while others struggle to get them.
Other states are creating solutions. Michigan and Detroit, in particular, should look to them for ideas, inspiration and resources. Chicago and Cleveland, for example, are offering incentives to superior teachers and principals to come and stay in the most challenging schools.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/OPINION01/702280336/1068/OPINION
IN OUR OPINION
School Board fails on trust
February 28, 2007
The Detroit Public Schools do not inspire public confidence, which is why the district continues to hemorrhage students. Yet rather than tackle the trust issue head-on with a commitment to openness and accountability, school officials continue to duck and cover, play the "can't find the records" game, and act as if there is a great deal that is best kept hidden from the taxpayers.
It is a crying shame. It is an invitation to be investigated. It is an attitude that cries out for correction by the elected board that is supposed to be setting DPS policy but prefers its sideshow squabbles.
The board instead should be demanding a full accounting of every nickel of the $1.5 billion from a voter-approved 1994 bond issue for the construction and renovation of school buildings, including the outrageous $1.6 million the Free Press revealed last weekend was spent for artwork.
When overtaxed Detroiters passed that bond measure, they were expressing support and hope for their schools, which are an absolutely essential element of any Detroit recovery. But what a pitiful return on the investment: A district that has gone from bad to worse will not account for the money and is frantically trying to adjust its physical capacity for an endlessly shrink-ing enrollment.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/OPINION01/702280337/1068/OPINION
Spending $1.6 million for artwork buys more waste than inspiration
February 28, 2007
Art, without question, belongs in public schools. But $1.6 million worth? That's what the Detroit Public Schools paid one well-connected gallery owner to commission work to be hung in schools.
Sherry Washington did hire top local artists for some of the work, including internationally known Dominic Pangborn and Gilda Snowden.
But was this the wisest use of money to benefit the district's 119,000 students? Hard to know, since the inventory, invoices and whereabouts of some of the pieces are mysteries.
It's good to have high-class hopes. But it's important to acknowledge bottom-line reality.
DPS students would have been better served by having their work displayed in schools, or by being engaged in legacy projects with local artists for a fraction of the cost and twice the value.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/METRO/702280403
O'Reilly sweeps field in Dearborn
With 94% of the vote, longtime council president defeats 10 rivals to become the city's fourth mayor since World War II.
Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
DEARBORN -- City voters made their first significant change in leadership in more than 20 years Tuesday, electing John Jack O'Reilly mayor in a resounding rout.
O'Reilly, who has run the city since the December death of Mayor Michael Guido, amassed 94 percent of the vote. O'Reilly's closest competitor received 235 votes to his 16,060.
O'Reilly, the City Council president for 17 years, used the blessing of city administrators to defeat a field of 10 lesser-known candidates during a quiet campaign that brought 34 percent of voters to the polls.
Tuesday's mandate means O'Reilly -- the son and namesake of a mayor who served from 1978 to 1986 -- will sit in the same seat he grew up idolizing . City officials wasted no time making the move official, swearing him in about 9:45 p.m., just a few minutes after counting the last votes.
Much like his predecessor, O'Reilly said he will seek to ensure residents understand the complex issues that face the city and decisions city leaders will make.
"Mayor Guido had a strong sense of the average resident in Dearborn," O'Reilly said. "That was a characteristic of his administration that I admired and want to continue He always had that step before acting that said, 'is this going to make sense?' That's what distinguished the mayor."
NATIONAL STORIES
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Democratic Leaders to Finalize Iraq Plan
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democratic leaders are developing an anti-war proposal that wouldn't cut off money for U.S. troops in Iraq while requiring President Bush to acknowledge problems with an overburdened military.
The plan could draw broad bipartisan support but was expected to be a tough sell to members who said they don't think it goes far enough to assuage voters angered by the four-year war.
Bush "hasn't to date done anything we've asked him to do, so why we would think he would do anything in the future is beyond me," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., one of a group of liberal Democrats pushing for an immediate end to the war.
Democratic protests to the war grew louder in January after they took control of Congress and Bush announced that he planned to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. Earlier this month, House Democrats pushed through a nonbinding resolution opposing the troop buildup.
Since then, Democrats have been trying to decide what to do next. Some worried that a plan by Rep. John Murtha to restrict funding for the war would go too far. Murtha, D-Pa., is extending his support to the revised proposal.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/AUTO01/702280373
Big 3 face heat in D.C. over global warming
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Top executives of the world's four biggest automakers and the head of the United Auto Workers union will testify before Congress next month during a high-profile hearing on climate change amid growing calls for automakers to do more to limit global warming.
General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner and Jim Press, president of Toyota Motor Corp.'s North American division, have agreed to testify March 14 before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is chaired by U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn.
Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group have also agreed to participate and are expected to send Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. and Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger will appear at a separate session of the same hearing.
Dingell is calling the automotive heavyweights to Washington as he is working to fashion a compromise to President Bush's call to increase fuel economy by 4 percent annually, which would reduce vehicle emissions that have been linked to global warming. Dingell's goal is a bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions that automakers can support.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/OPINION03/702280374/1001/BIZ
Brian O'Connor
Stocks fall: Hold or fold?
Big plunge: Dow drops 416 points after China sell-off; recession fears grow
M aybe it was the Chinese stock market. Maybe it was Americans not buying washing machines. Maybe it was the real estate market. Or Alan Greenspan tottering out of retirement to portend a recession.
Or maybe not.
But put all or some or none of it together, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 546 points, the most since the first trading day after the Sept. 11 attacks.
By the end of the day, the Dow sank 416.02, or 3.3 percent, to 12,216.24. The S&P 500 retreated 3.5 percent to 1399.04. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.9 percent to 2407.86.
"There's obviously a real selling panic going on," said Dana Johnson, chief economist for Comerica Bank in Detroit. "Why the market is vulnerable is not at all in the realm of analysis. It's more in the realm of psychology."
Which is to say, if you're thinking about selling today, call your shrink before you dial your broker.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/28/AR2007022800411.html
Overseas Markets Continue Downward Slide
Yesterday's 3.3% Dow Tumble is Biggest Loss Since '03
By David Cho, Tomoeh Murakami Tse and Howard Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; 7:20 AM
Asian and European stock markets headed down again Wednesday after a broad global sell-off the day before that included a more than 3 percent drop in the Dow Jones industrial average and the loss worldwide of an estimated trillion dollars in equity.
The Chinese indexes that started the rout actually rebounded after Chinese officials disavowed some of the more severe capital market restrictions they were rumored to be considering, such as a tax on capital gains. Shanghai's Composite Index rose nearly 4 percent.
U.S. stock market futures were also pointing higher Wednesday morning, indicating that the flight from global equities was slowing.
But as they anticipated Wall Street's opening bell and a new report on U.S. economic growth, Asian and European markets continued downward.
Japan's Nikkei index fell 515 points -- nearly three percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost around 2.5 percent. Some emerging markets were hit even harder: Phillipine stocks were down nearly 8 percent, their worst lost since the Asian financial crisis in the late 1970s.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmNhM2ZiZmQxYWZkMzY1ODNiZjQwYjhmNjBlZmQwMWU=
Presidential Predicting
The good news for Republicans.
By Bruce Bartlett
Although we are two years away from the first ballot being cast in the 2008 presidential election and don’t even know who the candidates will be, we already know a great deal about how the race will turn out. Historical trends tell us that the Republican candidate will be very tough to beat regardless of who he is.
To see why this is the case, let’s first look at which states voted for George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004, and those that went for both Al Gore and John Kerry. This will give us a good guide to each party’s base.
Starting with Bush, we see that he carried all of these states twice: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. They have 274 electoral votes, with 270 needed to win.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110009721
Giuliani the Conservative
And he's electable too.
BY STEVEN MALANGA
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
Not since Teddy Roosevelt took on Tammany Hall a century ago has a New York politician closely linked to urban reform looked like presidential timber. But today Rudy Giuliani sits at or near the top of virtually every poll of potential 2008 presidential candidates. Already, Mr. Giuliani's popularity has set off a "stop Rudy" movement among cultural conservatives, who object to his three marriages and his support for abortion rights, gay unions and curbs on gun ownership. Some social conservatives even dismiss his achievement in reviving New York before 9/11. An August story on the Web site Right Wing News, for instance, claims that Mr. Giuliani governed Gotham from "left of center." Similarly, conservatives have been feeding the press a misleading collection of quotations by and about Mr. Giuliani, on tax policy and school choice issues, assembled to make him look like a liberal.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2893.html
Libertarian Candidate in '88, Paul Eyes GOP Nomination
CONCORD – U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, brought his anti-war and limited government message to a gathering of largely like-minded activists here yesterday, and condemned the Republican establishment for forsaking principles it claims to uphold.
Paul, who ran as the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate in 1988, is now exploring a run for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. Should he decide to enter the race, he would prove a long shot at best, and run at a considerable disadvantage in terms of fundraising. The Texas congressman said yesterday he believed his message would garner support from those upset about how the nation is now run.
"The message is always the same - government intrusion into our lives is way too much," said Paul prior to his talk. "I think the Republicans have failed to live up to their commitments to smaller government."
Edwards Apologizes for 2002 War Vote
NEW YORK (AP) -- Democrat John Edwards said Tuesday that honesty and openness were essential qualities for a president, and that he was proud to acknowledge his 2002 vote authorizing the invasion of Iraq was a mistake.
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