Articles of Interest 3-11-07
604 Days until election day.
Frankfurt: current temperature 58 degrees Fahrenheit.
Munich: current temperature 44 degrees Fahrenheit.
See www.weather.com for more info on how Governor Granholm’s trip is going.
Sorry, folks, it’s $41,500,000,000…that’s $41.5 BILLION General Fund state budget. One of our readers pointed out I left “000” off the actual numbers, which is probably close enough from Granholm’s accounting department.
During Governor Engler’s final year the budget was about $37 BILLION…this year, Governor Granholm is proposing a $43+ BILLION budget…and she is complaining about all the budget cuts, tax cuts and belt tightening she has done.
I know I didn’t go to Harvard…but based on these numbers…the state General Fund budget has increased EVERY year under Governor Granholm.
Here’s how her math works…she adds 3 $250,000 Ferrari’s to the state budget she submits, argues they are “essential” to running the state…and when she “cuts” them out of the budget, she talks about all the sacrificing the state government has made, the hard cuts they have “forced” on the bureaucracy.
Only a Democrat could argue with a straight face that Michigan has cut more, is spending 30% less revenues while the General Fund spending has increased over $4 BILLION DOLLARS since Governor Granholm walked into office.
At the same time, the Governor and legislative Democrats oppose reporting requirements on over spending, they allow double dipping with state pensions and state salaries, they hire political cronies for $80,000 to $150,000 dollar jobs, the allow teacher unions to skim some $400 MILLION in health insurance premiums off the top by not requiring competitive bidding at taxpayer expense, they require “prevailing wages” be paid for all government work – while sending us the bill….I could go on and on.
If you missed this, here’s a Republican proposal that makes sense. The “Other Two Cent Plan”-- Republican style. State Representative Ken Horn has come up with a great idea. To see the “other” plan goto:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/03/great_ideathe_o.html
Here’s another idea…give Governor Granholm your two cents worth, mail her two pennies to protest her tax hike that will hit the pocketbooks of every day people.
My Lansing Catholic High Schooler son walked by while I was updating my “facebook” and said if I really wanted to keep in touch with young people I need an “AIM” account. So off we went, set it up and literally within minutes three different Teen Age Republicans chimed in. We exchanged messages, got a quick update on their activities and found another venue to keep me busy when I’m not on the phone or raising money!!!
Last night I joined Congressman Fred Upton and their new Congressional District Chairman Gerry Hildenbrand at the Cass County Republicans Lincoln Day Dinner. I started the morning off in Southfield and then doubled back to Edwardsburg. A little over 100 Republicans showed up. Our new Youth Vice Chairman Matt Hall came down as well…working the troops. The Cass County GOP gave me a beautiful elephant planter that we will use to decorate our entrance at the new state party headquarters. Thanks again to the Cass County GOP for a great Lincoln Day and they special gift.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/OPINION03/703110303/1008/OPINION01
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Nolan Finley
State can't count on business altruism
W hy stay? Cindy Pasky struggles with that question every time she looks at the books of her Detroit-based company.
Michigan is not the most dynamic market for Strategic Staffing Solutions, her information technology consulting firm. It's not the place where she expects to find her future growth. And it's not the easiest state in which to do business.
"Whenever I get that question, I say we stay because I own the company and I believe in Detroit," Pasky says. "But I never say it's the best business decision."
Pasky understands the financial pressures the directors of Comerica Bank faced when they decided to move their headquarters to Dallas from Detroit.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/COL08/703110631/1081/COL
DREW SHARP
Comerica Park: What's in a name?
Corporate move should not affect park moniker
March 11, 2007
What's in a name, especially when it's the offspring of a corporate marriage?
It's unfortunate that Comerica Bank is moving its corporate headquarters from Detroit to Dallas. It's yet another distressing reminder of a state that's dying economically because it is inextricably tied to an automobile industry that long ago ignored the warning signs of impending global competitiveness.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/117359995356810.xml&coll=6
Signals for Michigan
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Michigan can't afford to miss the message contained in Comerica Inc.'s decision last week to withdraw its banking headquarters from this state and bet instead on Texas and the South. A similar signal came just a week earlier in Toyota Motor Corp.'s announcement that it was building a major assembly plant in Mississippi -- a project for which Michigan never was seriously considered.
Without fundamental change, led by courageous and creative thinkers, Michigan will continue to languish, lose jobs and people and slide to the fringes of national economic life.
Comerica's choice was a shock. Based in Detroit for 158 years, the bank is a leading corporate citizen, part of city's economic and social bedrock. But this wasn't entirely a Detroit issue; the bank also was reacting to investor and public perceptions of Michigan overall.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/NEWS06/703110610/1008
You've had a Faygo pop
March 11, 2007
It's a Detroit original, right? That's right! The sweet, bubbly drink has an almost cultlike following and is popular among rappers. And it is, by the way, turning 100 years old in November.
Faygo is an unusual sounding name. Where does it come from? From Feigenson Brothers Bottling Works.
"It was too much to put on a bottle, and the rumor has it the glass company wanted to charge them by the letter," said Faygo marketing director Matthew Rosenthal.
The name of the company was changed in the 1920s, and in 1935 it moved to the current location on 3579 Gratiot in Detroit.. The Feigensons, Ben and Perry, were bakers from Russia and used cake frosting recipes to make the original flavors.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/NEWS01/703110574/1003
Cool cars the toast of Autorama
Motorcycles, auctions, collectibles also lure thousands of enthusiasts to Cobo Center
March 11, 2007
Michael Erves was sifting through rows of pictures looking for an image of the Suzuki Intruder motorcycle he owns.
"I found one, but I already have that one," said the Detroit resident, as he looked for pictures of his 1997 motorcycle.
Erves was one of thousands of people attending the annual Autorama show at Cobo Center in Detroit on Saturday afternoon, checking out the variety of cars and other vehicles on display. The show runs through today.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/COL06/703110688/1081/COL
GM image upgrade a ray of hope
March 11, 2007
When you're on an economic losing streak as ugly as metro Detroit's -- Pfizer closing its Ann Arbor research complex, Chrysler on the auction block, Comerica headquarters moving to Dallas -- you look for an encouraging sign wherever you can.
So it is with a flutter of hope that I bring two seeds of promise regarding the region's biggest corporate citizen, General Motors Corp.:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/COL02/703110508/1081/COL
What's so good about Michigan
March 11, 2007
Selling Detroit, my hometown, is too tough, or so say recruiters from companies like Comerica Bank, which this week announced it is hauling its headquarters and its 200 top talents to Dallas.
But when I surveyed friends who live here, we came up with hundreds of ways to seduce a bright young recruit whose basic questions are: "How will I feel waking up here on a Saturday morning?"
This is a short, partial list. I encourage you to add to it.
http://www.mlive.com/columns/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1173610167244690.xml&coll=2
Keep the focus on economic progress Sense of urgency must be sustained
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Brit Shell serves breakfast to the homeless at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church.
Rob Leadley coaches girls' junior varsity basketball at Dexter High School. Eric Lund plays trombone in the Dexter Community Band.
Alu Chatterjee and Michelle Beaton met at the Arbor Brewing Company and, now married, enjoy living on the Old West Side, working out at the Y and walking to Washtenaw Dairy for a treat.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-20/117360750381840.xml&coll=3
Filling shortage in nursing field will take time and effort
Sunday, March 11, 2007
By Monetta L. Harr
mharr@citpat.com -- 768-4972
Paula Hopper said she prays on her drive to work every day, and her nursing students are always in her thoughts on the days they are doing clinical work.
"I pray that they have a good experience and that they can make a difference with their patients and help them feel better," said Hopper, a professor in the two-year registered nursing program at Jackson Community College.
"I love seeing the 'light bulb' go on in their heads when they understand what they learned in class and how to apply it in clinical situations," said Hopper, who did full- and part-time nursing for 20 years and has been teaching since 1985.
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1173608510137300.xml&coll=9
Cutting the bait on license boosts
Sunday, March 11, 2007
THE STATE BEGAN SELLING 2007 hunting and fishing licenses this month at 2006 rates -- and more than a few hunters and anglers bagged their licenses early to avoid an expected steep price increases in the coming weeks.
In November, the state Natural Resources Commission recommended nearly $17 million in license fee increases, including a quadrupling of the cost of senior citizen hunting licenses and a doubling of other basic licenses.
Firearm or archery deer hunting licenses would have gone up to $30 from $15. All species fishing permits would increase to $40 from $28. The cost of a senior citizen firearm deer hunting license would jump to $24 from $6 -- a fourfold increase.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/OPINION01/703110331/1014/OPINION
Governor must pay a visit to St. Clair County
Community's challenges demand Granholm's immediate attention
What is it about St. Clair County that seems to keep it off Gov. Jennifer Granholm's travel schedule? Doesn't this community rate? Are our problems too insignificant to rate a visit from the top leader of this state?
This month, Granholm launched a series of televised town hall meetings in Flint, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing. It concludes with a March 26 forum in Traverse City.
Granholm created the sessions as vehicles to promote her proposed 2% tax increase on services. The governor believes the increase is necessary to help resolve the $920 million state budget deficit.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/OPINION01/703110523/1069
SUNSHINE WEEK: Break the secrecy
All Americans need to defend the nation's increasingly threatened freedom of information
March 11, 2007
When the government spends the public's money to gather information, it should be for a public purpose, related to public safety or developing public policies. That information is inherently public property, unless the government can demonstrate -- publicly -- how the public interest is better served by keeping it private.
Some such exceptions are legitimate, but they ought to be rare. Knowledge is power, and in a democracy, ultimate power rests with the people.
If government at all levels hewed to these fundamentals, there would be no need for freedom of information laws. Unfortunately, such statutes are more necessary now than when most of them were enacted decades ago. As technology has made it possible for government to gather more -- and more detailed -- information about people, places and things, the trend has been for government to keep more of it secret. The same goes for records of government activity and spending.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1173608165114960.xml&coll=4
Your Right to Know
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Today marks the start of Sunshine Week, a national initiative sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to discuss the importance of open government and freedom of information.
It sounds simple - after all, we are a government for the people, by the people.
In Michigan, the Open Meetings Act calls for the government's business to be conducted in a public forum. And the Freedom of Information Act requires government agencies to provide citizens with a host of information within a few days of a written request, and at a minimal cost.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-20/117360759781840.xml&coll=3
FOIA keeps government out in open Act serves more than journalists
Sunday, March 11, 2007
By Chad Livengood
clivengood@citpat.com -- 768-4918
When he ran for state House last year, Democrat Martin Griffin was criticized by Republicans for taking pay raises as Jackson's mayor while others in the community lost their jobs.
Political operatives from Lansing didn't pull the information out of thin air. They asked for -- and received -- thousands of copies of documents about Griffin's 11 years as mayor.
Today marks the beginning of Sunshine Week, a nationwide effort by media organizations and others to keep government open.
And, as the Griffin case shows, journalists are not the only ones with an interest in the matter.
Records of many state officials are untouchable under FOIA
3/10/2007, 8:27 a.m. EST
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Suppose you wanted to find out who attended a meeting with Gov. Jennifer Granholm over a new business tax.
Or get the details of the governor's travel schedule during her upcoming trade trip to Germany.
Or a copy of an e-mail in which she shared her thoughts about possible budget cuts with her chief of staff.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1173592493211800.xml&coll=7
Just because federal law says it's a public document doesn't mean you'll get it
Sunday, March 11, 2007
The public should have a right to know what hazardous chemicals are in their community and that its businesses and government are prepared in case there is a spill, a fire or some other emergency involving those chemicals.
That sure sounds like a simple idea. And in recognition of Sunshine Week -- a week starting today when we news types try to remind the public that open government is a good thing -- I went out and tested that simple idea.
What I found was surprising. While I expected to encounter some resistance, I never thought that nearly every official I talked to would flatly and often harshly deny my requests for public documents.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1173592338211800.xml&coll=7
A Kalamazoo Gazette investigation Is your county ready for a chemical spill? -- Officials in six counties either don't know or won't say -- 9/11 attack has changed thinking about what's public -- State and federal laws conflict on your right to know
Sunday, March 11, 2007
By Alex Nixon
anixon@kalamazoogazette.com 388-2783
A state law passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks intended to keep sensitive information out of the hands of terrorists, is in direct conflict with a federal law requiring that information to be made public.
The federal law, written in the 1980s to let the public know that its leaders are prepared in case of an emergency at a chemical plant, should supersede the state law, federal government and legal experts said.
But officials in Southwest Michigan are either unaware of the federal law's public-disclosure requirements, refuse to follow it, or haven't performed the emergency planning as required by law, a Gazette investigation found.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-2/1173593327211800.xml&coll=7
Wayland casino seems a sure bet
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Few things stir the passions like casino gambling, it seems.
And by casino gambling, we mean three new facilities in west Michigan: New Buffalo, Battle Creek and, in all likelihood, a few miles up U.S. 131 in Wayland Township. The first is scheduled to open this spring; the second hopes to break ground this year; and the third is contingent on an appeals court ruling that finally would allow the federal government to take land into trust for the Gun Lake Band of Pottawatomi Indians. Once that case is settled in favor of the tribe -- and we're confident it will be -- it won't be long before a casino begins to take shape on that land.
Opposition to all three over the years has been fierce, persistent ... and fruitless, unless you believe bitter feelings, years of delays and countless thousands of dollars spent on attorney fees are signs of success. Opponents have included state lawmakers, local business people, Grand Rapids business leaders, including defeated gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, several well-funded political action committees and even disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/NEWS01/703110577/1003
Lawmakers look to cut urban rates for insurance
March 11, 2007
For years, lawmakers from Michigan's urban areas have discussed ways to help lower insurance costs for their constituents. One idea currently being discussed in Lansing is to eliminate the use of ZIP codes when determing rates.
That idea, among others, was discussed Saturday at the first of what the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus says will be a series of community meetings across the state.
Addressing high insurance rates for vehicles and homes in urban areas is a key part of the group's agenda, said caucus members who attended the meeting at the Northwest Activity Center.
Insurance in Detroit often costs twice as much as a comparable policy in a nearby suburb. Insurance companies have been able to charge territorial rates in Michigan since 1979. Under territorial rates, people's hometowns, driving records and homeowners' records are used to determine rates. That leads to higher insurance costs in communities that have more crime and more traffic accidents.
16 or 18?
Will upping the dropout age make a difference?
FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, March 11, 2007
By Bob Wheaton
bwheaton@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6375
Amanda Purdy was 17 and pregnant when she dropped out of Swartz Creek schools, beginning years of unemployment and minimum-wage jobs.
Purdy was within her legal rights to quit school. But she wouldn't have been able to if a law that Gov. Jennifer Granholm is proposing were in place then.
Granholm wants to raise the legal school dropout age from 16 to 18.
Purdy said she has regrets now, but she doesn't think anything would have stopped her from leaving school, no matter what the law said.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-35/117359753256810.xml&coll=6
High school juniors: testing, testing
Sunday, March 11, 2007
By Beth Loechler
The Grand Rapids Press
Tuesday morning, Danny Johns and 145,000 other high school juniors across Michigan will have No. 2 pencil in hand, shading in the first bubbles on the college entrance exam known as the ACT.
They will devote seven hours and 45 minutes this week to the ACT and other standardized tests known collectively as the Michigan Merit Exam (MME). The new battery replaces the former state-mandated high school MEAP.
In addition, most juniors in Kent and Ottawa counties will devote an extra 45 minutes to one more exam that is gaining nationwide attention. The ACT WorkKeys Locating Information Test may not sound exciting, but its introduction could change the way potential employers view West Michigan and its work force, advocates said.
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1173608689137300.xml&coll=9
Educators hope new exam means more opportunity
Sunday, March 11, 2007
COREY MITCHELL
THE SAGINAW NEWS
Morgan Yrlas plans to start Tuesday morning just like she does all the others: With a heaping bowl of Cocoa Puffs.
"I'm a chocolate fiend," joked the 16-year-old Arthur Hill High School junior.
The Saginaw teen hopes her morning chocolate fix will help her shake off the jitters as she prepares to take one of the most important tests of her young life.
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1173608409137300.xml&coll=9
Test results foretell success
Sunday, March 11, 2007
AMY PAYNE
THE SAGINAW NEWS
This year's high school juniors are part of a statewide experiment: Will requiring them to take the ACT standardized test make them more likely to move on to college?
Illinois and Colorado tried similar measures in 2001. Both states saw a roughly 20 percent increase in college-bound students, especially in minority students.
Taking the tests also changed the minds of many students who originally said they didn't intend to pursue education beyond high school, said Jim Dwyer, the assistant vice president of enrollment management and admissions at Saginaw Valley State University.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1173608117114960.xml&coll=4
Yanks, Canucks must crack whip on quality of Great Lakes water
Sunday, March 11, 2007
An international group wants the U.S. and Canada to put a lot more bite behind the bark for better Great Lakes Water Quality.
An ''uncommonly strong'' set of goals, timelines and enforcement is needed, the International Joint Commission says in its 13th biennial report.
Right on.
http://www.mlive.com/news/chronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1173476710104380.xml&coll=8
It looks like wind power is going to be in our future
Sunday, March 11, 2007
It's not going to be pretty, and the sight and sound of spinning turbines is going to grate on some nerves, but wind energy is in West Michigan's future. Next year, the first of 90 planned wind-to-energy machines may start up their propellers in Oceana County.
That much is clear following the announcement of Mackinaw Power President Rich Vanderveen that 35 leases have been secured from area farmers in four Oceana County townships: Weare, Elbridge, Hart and Crystal. The four townships are near the knobby peninsula sticking out along the shoreline of West Michigan due north of the Muskegon County line.
It is here that winds blow with particular energy across the Big Lake and into Oceana County. As the winds blow, they power the turbines, which spin like the windmills of old to generate the power that comes from nature's free energy source. Environmentalists say natural energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal heat from underground are the key to reducing reliance on fossil fuels such as oil and coal.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-2/117360765381840.xml&coll=3
Lethal control: Ella's deer-herd solution
Sunday, March 11, 2007
When last we addressed the matter of the Ella Sharp Park deer herd, there was a question mark looming over the debate: What's the size of the herd?
Now we have an idea. In a Department of Natural Resources helicopter surveillance of the park, 80 deer were spotted. Typically, a visual survey picks up on 40 to 60 percent of the actual deer in an area, so the entire herd could be as large as 200. Moreover, a herd is not a constant number, for deer don't know park boundaries. They're in and out of the park, scampering through residential areas adjacent to the park and even showing up now and then downtown.
What is the next step? We're told there will be hearings, public forums, research ... yada, yada, yada. As one observer of pragmatic bent put it, "What's the problem? This could be solved by two hunters and a pickup."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/OPINION01/703110302/1008
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Kilpatrick's plans move Detroit in right direction
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is moving the city in the right direction in three key areas -- finances, crime and education. One of the most noteworthy things about the mayor's financial plan is that it takes the city in exactly the opposite direction from Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposed tax and fee hikes.
The mayor will detail his plans in his State of the City address Tuesday, but he's already given broad outlines to reporters and editors.
In discussing an economic stimulus plan for the city, the mayor said he would like to cut both income taxes and property taxes. He said he may ask the voters to make the cuts as part of a larger proposal in 2008. He also suggested that he will float a bond to provide money for neighborhood improvements and growth projects. He is working with Goldman Sachs, a New York investment banking firm, to develop the bond issue and promises it would not require a new tax, but would be supported by existing city revenues.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/NEWS01/703110603/1003
DAY 1 | HUBBARD FARMS
Vexed by crime, stirred to revive
March 11, 2007
On a freezing January night, a woman with long red hair, pale skin and a master's degree in English literature stalked purposefully through the deserted, icy streets of southwest Detroit. In the distance, trucks rumbled over cratered streets toward the Ambassador Bridge.
She trudged past a hulking hotel advertising a senior rate of $200 a month, past a block hit by a string of home break-ins, past a house with a crumbling porch, past another with a gleaming, new façade.
Theresa Hurst's every step echoed a message: Hubbard Farms was her neighborhood, Detroit was her city. And despite the last few months of a crime swell that, as she put it, has left this historic neighborhood "under siege," she was not afraid to walk its streets.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/NEWS01/703110605/1003
How Hubbard Farms might get what it wants
March 11, 2007
Residents of Hubbard Farms want safer streets and blight elimination. But they have different ideas about how to improve the Detroit neighborhood. Here are some of the things they hope to do, plus some ideas tried by cities facing similar problems:
• Work with the city and the owner of the Hotel Yorba to revamp it and reduce crime there, while retaining low-income housing options for Yorba residents. In Mechanicsville, a struggling historic neighborhood in Atlanta that has attracted young homebuyers, the city replaced a decrepit public housing building with a mix of housing to accommodate a range of incomes.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-35/117359843856810.xml&coll=6
$1 billion and counting?
Sunday, March 11, 2007
By Pat Shellenbarger
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- From the fifth floor of the Towers Medical Building on Michigan Street NE, Joe Hooker believes he can see the future.
To the east, he watches ironworkers assembling the skeleton of Spectrum Health's new Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion, to the west, the newly poured concrete for the city's largest parking garage, soon to be topped by Michigan State University's medical school and another medical office building.
Throughout the area, the amount of health-related construction under way is unprecedented: Nearly $1 billion.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-2/1173593350211800.xml&coll=7
Kalamazoo showing others how to prosper
Sunday, March 11, 2007
We're struck, but certainly not surprised, by how other cities -- some much larger than Kalamazoo -- are starting to view this community as a prime example of how to blaze a way toward long-term economic development, downtown prosperity and quality of life.
On the economic development front, Kalamazoo is drawing widespread attention.
Last week, a panel of Kalamazoo area business people impressed a group of more than 200 people with their presentation on all the economic initiatives in our community. Kalamazoo, in fact, was the focal point for The International Council for Shopping Centers' fifth annual West Michigan Alliance seminar, at DeVos Place Convention Center in downtown Grand Rapids. The seminar addressed issues affecting retail and other commercial development and the advantages of private-public development partnerships.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/OPINION02/703110641/1087/opinion
Published March 11, 2007
[ From Lansing State Journal ]
Triangle: State and city have reasons to avoid office building plan
A Lansing State Journal editorial
Last June, when developer Joel Ferguson officially purchased the so-called "Triangle" property downtown, we wrote: "A routine office building turned away from the river only would repeat the mistakes of the past."
Last week, a legislative panel was presented with a proposal - backed by the Granholm administration - for an office building on the Triangle site to house the Michigan State Police.
Both state and city officials have plenty of reasons to look askance at this idea.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070311/OPINION03/703110301/1008/OPINION01
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Manny Lopez
Defending unfair choice is unwise place for Livonia Republican
L ivonia Congressman Thaddeus McCotter gets bit testy when asked why he voted with the labor movement earlier this month.
Actually, testy doesn't quite do it justice. The Wayne County Republican was slightly hostile, certainly annoyed and mighty defensive when I asked him on Friday why he voted for the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act," which would force employers to accept a union if a majority of workers simply signed a card saying they wanted to join.
The legislation, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives by a 241-185 vote (with 13 Republicans supporting it) is a gift to the labor movement like few offered in recent memory. Secret ballot elections -- the standard that now exists for union elections and everything from student council elections to that of president and other government officials -- would all but disappear.
NATIONAL STORIES
Shattering 3 Myths About Liberals
By John Hawkins
Friday, March 9, 2007
1) Conservatives are more racist than liberals.Although you will find racists on the left and the right, the left is much more racist on the whole. That's why we still have to create majority black districts in order to get significant numbers of black Americans elected to Congress -- because even though blacks vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party, a large percentage of white liberals won't return the favor and vote for black candidates running on the Democratic ticket. According to a study at Yale, "(W)hite Republicans nationally are 25 percentage points more likely on average to vote for the Democratic senatorial candidate when the GOP hopeful is black...In House races, white Democrats are 38 percentage points less likely to vote Democratic if their candidate is black." That 25% of Republicans has nothing to be proud of, but as you can see, the Democrats are far worse.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/070310175645.j206aqcc.html
2008 hopes face rocky road to White House
Mar 10 12:56 PM US/Eastern
Upstart challengers and fierce early combat are giving Hillary Clinton and John McCain, the once-anointed establishment frontrunners, a rough ride in the 2008 White House race.
Senator Clinton, as she tunes up the feared family election machine, faces an unexpected, and increasingly threatening test from Democratic phenom Senator Barack Obama.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/03/10/D8NPES3G0.html
Poll: Character Trumps Policy for Voters
Mar 10 12:41 PM US/Eastern
By RON FOURNIER and TREVOR TOMPSON
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- For all the policy blueprints churned out by presidential campaigns, there is this indisputable fact: People care less about issues than they do about a candidate's character.
A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll says 55 percent of those surveyed consider honesty, integrity and other values of character the most important qualities they look for in a presidential candidate.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19689
A Conservative Who Can Win
by Doug Patton (More by this author)
Posted: 03/07/2007
Three decades ago, two young lawyers worked behind the scenes, on opposite sides of the political aisle, to investigate the corruption and deceit that became known simply as “Watergate.” One, an ideologically liberal Democrat who had recently graduated from Yale Law School, served as a member of the impeachment inquiry staff advising the House Judiciary Committee during the scandal. The other, a wise-beyond-his-years conservative Republican Southerner with a Juris Doctorate from Vanderbilt University, served as co-chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee. Little would anyone suspect in 1974 that these two could face each other for the presidency in 2008.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, these two politicos are, respectively, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Fred Dalton Thompson.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/400jgvla.asp
Scenes from the Gingrich Campaign
Don't rule out Newt in 2008.
by Matthew Continetti
03/19/2007, Volume 012, Issue 26
It's February 28, 2007, in the poorly lit, dank, crowded basement, aka the "Great Hall," of Cooper Union college in Manhattan, and Newt Gingrich is talking to a sophisticated, well-attired, seen-it-all New York audience. As he speaks, the tempo of