Articles of Interest 3-21-07
594 Days until election day.
MORNING SUMMARY:
Budget meetings start…Governor Granholm is learning how to analyze the budget and what it means to “live within one’s means”.
Governor Granholm thinks with the ONLY state Surgeon General in the country, healthy taxpayers are happy taxpayers!
Does it surprise anybody to find that CEOs, who are running global businesses and who are always under enormous pressure to deliver better results, are concluding that they will be better off locating their business outside of this state? Pfizer, Comerica et al.
Here is something that is very depressing…houses are selling cheaper than cars in the city of Detroit! Raising taxes isn’t going to help:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/03/depressinghouse.html
Americans for Prosperity is sponsoring a Michigan Taxpayer Trust Tour Swings Through SE Michigan This Week. For more information goto:
http://www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?id=2830&state=mi
Everybody loves Hillary?: http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/03/everybody_loves.html
Legacy Brick Fund…join and help us build the party: www.migop.org/legacy
THE REST OF THE STORY:
The first round of budget meetings took place yesterday where legislative leaders and the Governor sat down together. Just to set the record straight, Republicans have been asking the Governor to sit down for weeks…she always thought it was better to send surrogates.
Anyways, everyone sat down and discussed options. While the Governor and Democrats have the “tax plan”, Republicans argued that cuts are easily possible when we objectively analyze government. Everyone can and should be able to find efficiencies, waste, fraud and other savings within EVERY department. These meetings appear to be a "how to" course for the Governor.
The “tax and spend” policies of the Democrats and the Governor are NOT going to be the first item on the agenda. Taxpayers, fiscal responsibility and living within our means has to be the starting point.
It’s a $41,500,000,000….that BILLIONS of DOLLARS…budget.
Governor Granholm always touts the fact that Michigan is the only state with a surgeon general. Maybe that's because all of the other states realize it's a waste of money!
MIRS Reports that: Surgeon General Kimberlydawn WISDOM is traveling around the state to tell people that they should eat their fruits and vegetables in order to stay healthy.
She's sharing this expert advice with people in Grand Rapids, Detroit, Lansing and Flint. This is part of the Fruits and Veggies — More Matters campaign, which is a national push to promote fruits and vegetables.
Healthy taxpayers…are happy taxpayers…right?!?
We have a governor who just ran a campaign based on demonizing globalization and demonizing companies who globalize their operations—even if their globalization results in more jobs for Michigan people. Why, then, does it surprise anybody to find that CEOs, who are running global businesses and who are always under enormous pressure to deliver better results, are concluding that they will be better off locating their business outside of this state?
Fast forward a few months into this year, and what do we find? Pfizer, ProQuest, Comerica, and ABN Amro have all announced that they will be leaving the state, and I wonder if it would help if we tried to “connect the dots” for this Governor???
Here is something that is very depressing…houses are selling cheaper than cars in the city of Detroit!
The City of Detroit already has one of highest tax rates, highest unemploymentrates, struggling schools and a Governor who’s spending more time in Europe than in Detroit.
Raising taxes isn’t going to help either:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/03/depressinghouse.html
Americans for Prosperity is sponsoring a Michigan Taxpayer Trust Tour Swings Through SE Michigan This Week. For more information goto:
http://www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?id=2830&state=mi
Everybody loves Hillary: http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/03/everybody_loves.html
The Michigan Republican Party is proud to announce its new Legacy Brick Fund site! In 2006, the Michigan Republican Party moved into a new headquarters and are installing a legacy site this spring to honor those who have served the party and the citizens of Michigan. This site will create a well-deserved tribute to honor Michigan’s Republican’s through personalized bricks. Buy one for yourself or to honor someone else. Be a part of the Michigan Republican Party Legacy – purchase an individualized brick that will last a lifetime! Visit www.migop.org/legacy to order your brick today.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070319/ts_nm/usa_subprime_detroit_dc;_ylt=AvMOps8Ok749ff4nePc_BEDMWM0F
Houses cheaper than cars in Detroit
By Kevin Krolicki Mon Mar 19, 11:48 AM ET
DETROIT (Reuters) - With bidding stalled on some of the least desirable residences in Detroit's collapsing housing market, even the fast-talking auctioneer was feeling the stress.
"Folks, the ground underneath the house goes with it. You do know that, right?" he offered.
After selling house after house in the Motor City for less than the $29,000 it costs to buy the average new car, the auctioneer tried a new line: "The lumber in the house is worth more than that!"
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Mar-19-Mon-2007/business/13163390.html
Mar. 19, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
MIGRATION TO NEVADA: What's cooking in Michigan?
State's struggling economy contributes to influx of workers to Nevada
By JENNIFER ROBISON
REVIEW-JOURNAL
When managers at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas started tracking Internet inquiries from potential students after the school opened in 2003, they found the standard contingent of Western and Southwestern states among the top sources for prospects.
But one far-flung state showed up in the numbers as an unusually high generator of queries.
"We started doing some research on where our leads were coming from, and Michigan kept popping up again and again," said John Hayet, the school's vice president of marketing and admissions.
So 2 1/2 years ago, Le Cordon Bleu began advertising in Michigan markets, including Detroit, Flint, Lansing and Kalamazoo. Today, the school's ads run 3 1/2 weeks out of every month, Hayet said. Thanks in part to the marketing initiative, Michigan is No. 3, after California and Utah, in the share of leads and students at Le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas. Fifteen percent of the school's 675 local students hail from Michigan.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/OPINION03/703210401/1322/AUTO04
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Daniel Howes
As more firms bail, Meijer says it's not leaving home
M eijer isn't giving up on Michigan.
The Walker-based retailer with 176 stores in five states has invested $463 million across Michigan since 2005, President Mark Murray said Tuesday, including an $18 million expansion of its Lansing distribution center, the opening of two stores this year in Wayne and Macomb counties, and the remodeling of five others.
"I'm sure we'll be well north of $100 million" in new investment next year -- "and it's all in Michigan," he told The Detroit News. "We are a Michigan-based company. I'm more bullish than the conventional reading of Michigan right now. But I'm also very realistic about the challenges facing the state as well."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/COL06/703210411/1081/COL
Meijer set to grow in its home state
March 21, 2007
Neither cowed by competition from the Wal-Mart Stores juggernaut nor dispirited by Michigan's sluggish economy, Grand Rapids-based retailer Meijer Inc. is pushing forward with a slow, steady expansion in the state.
Meijer will spend more than $123 million this year to build three new Michigan stores, upgrade older stores and expand its Lansing distribution center, President Mark Murray said in an interview Tuesday. And it will spend "north of $100 million" next year on further growth in the state, he added.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Scott Burgess
Can Chrysler hit jackpot again?
Carmaker desperate for next big thing
W hen times get tough, Chrysler has always had a knack for producing a hit vehicle that washes away the red ink and safeguards the company, at least temporarily.
The audacious Chrysler 300 sedan was the last timely stroke of brilliance in Auburn Hills. It could whisk you to the Fisher Theatre while beating every chump off the line along Woodward. Over the years, the quirky PT Cruiser, classic Jeep Grand Cherokee and innovative new minivans saved Chrysler's bacon.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/OPINION01/703210320/1008
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Editorial
United Auto Workers union faces struggle to stay relevant
The Detroit News
When Ron Gettelfinger breezed to victory in his re-election bid last year to lead the United Auto Workers, he knew he had his work cut out for him.
Major contract talks with the Big Three automakers were looming. Membership numbers were thinning rapidly thanks to buyouts and layoffs, and concessions were being demanded from suppliers and manufacturers alike.
As an added complication, a UAW splinter group that clings to union ideals of the past was pushing a thorn deeper into Gettelfinger's side. Rarely has labor faced such obstacles, most notably increasing dissension within its own ranks.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/METRO05/703210392
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Mich. is in top 10 for unsafe bridges
16% cited as structurally deficient; state says it has improved many spans.
Tom Greenwood and Andy Henion / The Detroit News
WARREN -- Three overpasses have crumbled onto Metro Detroit roadways within four days, damaging vehicles, shocking commuters and drawing renewed scrutiny to what federal reports say is the ninth-worst network of bridges in the country.
An analysis of 2006 federal highway reports shows that 16 percent of Michigan's bridges are structurally deficient, meaning they show significant signs of deterioration and need immediate rehabilitation to stay open, have restricted weight load limits or already are closed, according to TRIP, a Washington, D.C.--based research group.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/NEWS05/703210327/1007
Shattered windshields and shattered nerves
March 21, 2007
The state ordered close inspection of east-side I-696 bridges Tuesday after bowling-ball-sized chunks of concrete fell onto the expressway under Groesbeck, damaging several cars during the height of the Tuesday morning rush hour and scaring drivers.
While no one was injured, the incident highlighted the poor state of Michigan's road bridges, rated among the worst in the country despite what Michigan officials call significant progress in having them fixed.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-3/1174404280244830.xml&coll=7
No pain,no gain
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
We've been asking for this for a long, long time.
So while the complete closure of Oakland Drive over Interstate 94 until late July may be an aggravating experience for some local commuters, in the end, we'll be glad for it.
There will be no desperately needed widening of I-94 until the bridges are replaced.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/NEWS06/703210401
ANALYSIS: THE $940 MILLION PROBLEM
Governor, lawmakers struggle with state's huge budget puzzle
March 21, 2007
LANSING -- The stakes are high and the choices distasteful as Gov. Jennifer Granholm and leaders from the Legislature begin talks this week to resolve budget crises -- both immediate and on the near horizon.
The immediate problem is a $940-million shortfall for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Unless Granholm and lawmakers can plug that hole in the next few weeks, the state would temporarily run out of money to pay bills, state Treasurer Robert Kleine said.
Plugging the hole would require new taxes or deep cuts in services -- or, more likely, a combination of the two.
It doesn't get any better Oct. 1 with the start of the new budget year in which an additional $2.1-billion deficit is projected.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/POLITICS/703210389/1022
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Progress made in budget talks
Granholm, legislators to continue discussing $900M deficit today.
Mark Hornbeck and Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm and legislative leaders will return to the bargaining table for a second day today in an effort to reach agreement on balancing a state budget that is nearly $900 million out of whack.
After meeting for five hours behind closed doors Tuesday, the governor came out briefly about 4 p.m. to say they were making progress and would continue to talk. An hour later, aides to the governor said the session had ended.
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said the governor's calendar has been cleared until 3 p.m. Thursday, when she is scheduled to issue a second executive order to erase this year's deficit.
http://cheboygannews.com/articles/2007/03/20/news/news1.txt
Cuts hit Cheboygan State Police Post
Tribune Staff Writer
CHEBOYGAN - State budget cuts have hit home in Cheboygan.
The Cheboygan Post of the Michigan State Police will lose its commander and a sergeant in the latest series of efforts to trim state spending, officials announced Monday.
It poses a difficult question for 1st Lt. Ken Holmes, who did the job of running both the Petoskey Post and the Cheboygan Post so well recently that he proved it could be done.
To save money, the Michigan Department of State Police is going to have 1st Lt. Dale Selin do exactly that, now that he has taken charge of the Petoskey command.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/OPINION01/703210305/1008
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Opinion: Michigan can protect public safety and cut costs
Michael J. Bouchard
B ack in the 1990s, when I was in the state Senate, we eliminated a substantial budget deficit. So I understand the tough choices that the state now faces.
No one wants to be forced to cut critical services, but as history shows us, raising taxes when our state's economy is struggling is not the answer. Some of us have learned the lessons of the past, but as we see from Gov. Jennifer Granholm's tax increase proposals, some of us haven't. That means it falls on the Legislature to help chart a course of fiscal responsibility by setting priorities.
Being open to new solutions to meet our priorities can protect the critical services like our prisons and the correction officers that serve in them deliver. Releasing prisoners or forcing them back into county jails will just increase the early releases they have already caused across the state. Maintain the priority of setting safety priorities first instead of budget first. Then, set about ways to do it within budget.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070320/OPINION01/703200349/1008
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Editorial
Give homeowners a fair shot to appeal property tax hikes
The Detroit News
There's a lot to like in the state House Republican property tax plan -- particularly the portions that make appealing a property tax assessment simpler. In a time of declining home values, homeowners should have a fair chance to make their case against property tax hikes.
The GOP members unveiled their proposal Monday. It's a response to the disconnect in many communities between declining home values in a stagnant real estate market and rising tax assessments.
Part of the GOP plan would make appealing an assessment easier. It would require that an assessment notice specify that it is an increase. It would expand the hours of a local assessment Board of Review and the amount of time a homeowner would have to file an appeal after he or she had received a notice of a tax assessment.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/OPINION01/703210316/1008
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Give voters right to approve special assessments
Community-wide service levies are just another form of taxation
The Detroit News
O ne part of the Michigan House Republicans' property tax relief plan deserves particular mention. It is a requirement that all community-wide special assessments must have the approval of the voters.
Community-wide special assessments shouldn't exist. They are undistinguishable from property taxes. At the very least, they should have voter approval.
The state Constitution's Headlee Amendment, adopted in 1978, requires that all new local taxes be approved by voters. Special assessments that are simply another form of taxation should have the same requirement.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-42/117440040236590.xml&coll=5
County holds off uproar over senior tax
GENESEE COUNTY
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
By Ron Fonger
rfonger@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6317
GENESEE COUNTY - Two dozen township and city officials - some angry with the county's handling of a new senior citizens millage - went into a meeting Monday talking about drastic measures, including repealing the tax.
But they decided to let the process of distributing the money play out after hearing two top county officials acknowledge that the plan for spending the money, an estimated $7.8 million, has been rushed and filled with glitches.
County Corporation Counsel Ward Chapman said officials went into the job "making it up as we went along" after voters approved the tax last August in order to get money to centers in danger of closing.
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1174402243134610.xml&coll=9
Place limits on 'robo-calls'
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
At least we'd know who to blame.
The state House last week approved a measure that would require political campaigns and groups authorizing those infuriating automated "robo-calls" to clearly identify themselves. Political campaigns increasingly use the automated telephone messages to smear an opponent, or to distort or misleading voters about an opponent's position. The recorded messages are cheap and are a growing weapon in the arsenal of political warfare.
All under the cloak of anonymity.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/OPINION01/703210347/1069
School districts need answers
March 21, 2007
Free Soil Community Schools is a feisty little district east of Ludington that hopes to save itself by doing less, closing its high school after 94 years. Even that may not be enough.
But this district and many others around Michigan really don't know, because they are not getting any answers from Lansing. Public schools depend on the state for most of their money. They cannot plan wisely unless they know how much they have to plan with -- and they are feeling more pressure about it than their state leaders appear to be as they spar and dawdle over taxes and spending.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-42/1174402221134650.xml&coll=5
Ed board mulls cuts via layoffs, attrition
Eliminating posts eyed to reduce $5.1M deficit
FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
By Melissa Burden
mburden@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6316
FLINT - School administrators are proposing that the Board of Education lay off five professional and administrative staff and not fill seven vacant positions to reduce its budget shortfall this year and next.
Recommended for layoffs effective March 30 are Naomi Bohannon, social studies coordinator; Cassandra Bronson, specialist in human resources/legal affairs; Donald Kutchey, transportation supervisor; John McGarry, staff assistant, senior citizens services; and John Reynolds, director of maintenance and operations.
A school board subcommittee discussed the proposed layoffs Monday at the Sarvis Center. It took no action, but the full board is expected to discuss and possibly vote on the layoffs and nonrenewal of seven administrators' contracts during committee and regular meetings Wednesday at the Sarvis Center, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/NEWS05/703210349/1007
Creativity thrives as schools cut back
Volunteer-taught classes enrich kids and save money
March 21, 2007
In one classroom at Derby Middle School in Birmingham, students are using colorful paint to make large signs that will hang in the hallways. A few doors down, they're practicing their sign-language skills. And downstairs in the cafeteria, a lively group of kids is trying to keep up with the dance steps on a video screen above them.
This is a snapshot of what you'd see during Derby's Explore classes, a way to offer students a variety of activities at a time when many electives are getting the ax as school districts wrestle to control budgets.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-35/117439350398900.xml&coll=6
Online Mandarin course coming to high schools
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
By Judy Putnam
Press Bureau
LANSING -- Hoping to give Michigan kids a leg up in the business world, a Michigan State University language institute and Michigan Virtual University are offering every high school in the state one free "seat" in an online Chinese language and culture class next year.
Yong Zhao, an education professor and executive director at the Confucius Institute at MSU, said that as China evolves as a leading player in the global economy, learning Chinese could help students find jobs.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/OPINION01/703210318/1008
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Are state's school test gains inflated?
Ensure accommodations aren't crutch to raise English proficiency scores
Don Soifer
W hen Michigan's latest standardized test scores were announced earlier this year, the news was greeted positively across the state. At every grade level, both reading and math scores improved for all students.
"When you see this consistency of progress across the board, that's really good news," observed state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan. Gov. Jennifer Granholm echoed this sentiment in a statement.
Some of the best news came from the state's 63,000 students who learn English as a second language. The scores of these English learners continued their steady improvements. But special accommodations made for some of those students raise questions about whether the testing gains are inflated.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1174404985289310.xml&coll=3
ISD Medicaid issue: How to inflate costs
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
A dispute between the Jackson County Intermediate School District and local school districts over Medicaid reimbursement sheds light on why taxpayers spend so much on education: The delivery of educational services is inflated by layers of bureaucracy.
The dispute involves $600,000 in Medicaid funds for a federal outreach program in which local school staffers help to identify potential health problems in at-risk children. It came to notice in November when the East Jackson School Board asked the ISD for nearly $30,000 in Medicaid funds that the ISD owes the district. Last week the Jackson School Board authorized its own letter to the ISD asking for at least $145,323 in Medicaid funds for the same program.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/OPINION01/703210310/1008
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Nursing shortage demands more teachers, new courses
Linda Thompson Adams
W hile modern medicine has helped more people live longer lives, the health care industry is struggling to maintain services. We now face a critical shortage of medical professionals.
The shortage of nurses is so acute that access to health care has been compromised. While I applaud Gov. Jennifer Granholm's new Michigan Nursing Corps, which aims to train 3,000 new nurses during the next three years, this number will still fall short.
There are about 118,000 vacant registered nurse positions nationwide, which means hospitals are operating with an 8.5 percent staffing deficit. Analysts project that more than 1.2 million new and replacement nurses will be needed in the near future.
http://www.mlive.com/columns/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/117440164389970.xml&coll=2
Health care industry a bright spot locally
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The town manager in Groton, Conn. - where Pfizer operates a large R&D facility - has been talking to employees and their families from Ann Arbor and other sites who are touring the area as a potential place to relocate. According to an article in the local newspaper there, the town manager, Mark Oefinger, said many people asked questions about housing and schools. Those questions he expected.
What he didn't expect was the interest that employees' spouses had in the area's hospitals - as a place of potential employment.
It shouldn't be surprising. In Wash-tenaw County, health-related services have been one of the few growth sectors of the local economy, according to a recent report commissioned by The News. The report, by University of Michigan economists George Fulton and Don Grimes, forecast that health services could add nearly 3,000 jobs over the next three years.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1174398727291390.xml&coll=5
'Rose's law' needed?
Tragedy's details show state didn't protect as it should
FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The staggering conditions in which 5-year-old Rose Kelley died last June in her filthy Flint home must lead us all to ask: What could have been done to spare this child from the suffering that led to her fate?
Ultimately, in such cases, we have to expect that the state Department of Human Services will make the right decisions. But based on DHS records it's hard to conclude that it did, despite oversight agencies supporting the agency's actions.
After all, the child's peril was no secret - not to her east-side neighbors, nor school authorities, nor medical and family counseling professionals, and certainly not to her family, either immediate parental or the extended relatives.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1174404961289310.xml&coll=3
Can Jackson go high-tech?
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
By Chris Gautz
cgautz@citpat.com -- 768-4926
A new group hoping to transform Jackson's business climate will debut today just as a much-anticipated medical park appears to be moving ahead.
Members of Jackson Citizens for Economic Growth planned to launch awareness of their group and mission
this morning at a downtown news conference.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/NEWS06/703210430/1008
State is sued over withheld film grant
March 21, 2007
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed suit against the state Tuesday for allegedly violating the Ann Arbor Film Festival's First Amendment rights.
The suit, filed in U.S. Eastern District Court in Detroit, says state arts officials and Gov. Jennifer Granholm withheld grant money because they said the film festival screened objectionable movies.
According to the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs guidelines, it "shall not award grants for projects ... that include displays of human waste on religious symbols, displays of sex acts and depictions of flag desecration."
http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1174428605215260.xml&coll=1
Putting a lid on Canadian trash
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
By Sarah Kellogg
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Congress is poised to give Michigan the right to just say no to Canadian trash.
A U.S. House subcommittee approved legislation Tuesday that would direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate trash shipments from Canada. The move would clarifying treaty obligations between the two countries and allow governors -- including Michigan's Jennifer Granholm -- to ban shipments.
Until those new federal rules are in place, the bill would for the first time grant states the constitutional authority to regulate trash shipments from Canada. Michigan has been prohibited from enforcing its own waste limits at the border since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that state laws banning international waste shipments were unconstitutional.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070320/UPDATE/703200443/1022/POLITICS
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Conyers alleges federal snooping
Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan today took center stage today in Democrats' opposition to the Bush administration on multiple fronts, blasting the FBI for misusing so-called national security letters "to invade the privacy of law-abiding Americans outside the law and proper legal process," and threatening to subpoena top White House aides involved in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
The Detroit Democrat, the powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called a hearing today to look closely at an independent report by the Justice Department's Inspector General that found repeated errors in the FBI's use of national security letters. The high-profile hearings were held as pressure mounts on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the separate controversy over whether the firings of eight federal prosecutors were politically motivated.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/032007/opi_2007032039.shtml
Kudos to lawmakers for putting partisanship aside to help state
Web-posted Mar 20, 2007
Michigan's delegation to Congress is a diverse group of Republicans and Democrats whose opinions vary as much as the state's demographics.
But the representatives and senators appear to be finding some common ground - unfortunately it's because of the state's sagging economy and the reeling auto companies.
But it's good see some bipartisanship when the chips are down - and they certainly are at this time. Members of both parties agree that something has to be done to halt the free fall of the auto companies - which translates into massive layoffs and plant closings.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2RiM2E5NTkzZWU3MjNhODIwYzkyM2ViY2NmODA2ZDY=
March 20, 2007 12:00 AM
Washington to Detroit: Drop Dead!
Michigan vs. the Republican Al Gore.
By Henry Payne
Detroit — Driving south on I-75 through Detroit’s automotive landscape, a new sign stands out in a roadside forest of billboards advertising cars, casinos, and fast food. The scowling face of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger glares down at commuters accompanying bold text that reads: “Arnold to Michigan: Drop Dead.”
The ad, paid for by Michigan Congressman Joe Knollenberg, exposes a split in the Republican fraternity on global warming. “We picked on Schwarzenegger because. . . he has become the Republican Al Gore,” says Knollenberg, who represents Oakland County north of Detroit. As coastal Republicans from Arnold to Dubya flirt with the new Congress’s anti-automobile eco-jihad, midwestern conservatives like Knollenberg want to remind them that politically expedient fuel-economy laws have real consequences to American jobs and industry.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/AUTO01/703210368/1022/POLITICS
President pushes alternative fuels
Bush visits Big 3 plants, urges passage of energy bill
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
CLAYCOMO, Mo. -- President Bush urged Congress on Tuesday to adopt energy legislation by the start of the summer driving season while downplaying his controversial call for expensive fuel economy increases.
Following his first tours of auto plants run by Detroit automakers since he became president in 2001, Bush called on Congress to quickly approve his "20 in 10" proposal, which would reduce the nation's gasoline usage 20 percent annually by 2017.
Five percent of that goal, or 8.5 billion gallons annually, would come from an average 4 percent annual increase in Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. But Bush made no specific mention of raising CAFE mandates, which Detroit automakers oppose.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/AUTO01/703210344/1022/POLITICS
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Auto industry advocates fight S. Korean trade pact
Any deal must include a lifting of nation's entrenched restrictions on sale of U.S. vehicles.
Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Advocates for the U.S. auto industry and its workers Tuesday urged Congress to reject a free trade agreement with South Korea unless it includes safeguards to ensure the Asian economic power opens its historically closed market to U.S. vehicles.
"This is like the old arcade game of Wac-a-Mole -- new regulations pop up each time we whack one down," said Stephen E. Biegun, Ford Motor Co.'s vice president for international government affairs.
"I would hope the United States Trade Representative has had enough of that game, and will insist that the Korean government come up with solutions, remove the obstacles to imports, and allow the Korean consumer the same full range of choices that the American consumer has," he added.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/NEWS06/703210330/1008
Now, a dig at Knollenberg
March 21, 2007
U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Township, is getting his message out in a variety of ways. First, there was the billboard on I-75, blasting California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a fellow Republican, for pushing for higher vehicle fuel standards.
Then came the flyer mailed to some of his constituents in Oakland County, touting his vote to stop lobbyists' practice of paying for congressional meals and junkets.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/COL04/703210340/1081/COL
Duke of disaster still a draw
March 21, 2007
Karl Rove, live and in person? Front and center at the Oakland County GOP's biggest fund-raising dinner of the year? This weekend?
Sufferin' subpoena servers! And I thought Michigan Republicans were out to improve their image.
I've never been very good at divining the logic behind either political party's strategy. But the decision to fete President George W. Bush's top political operative -- in a week when the White House seems to be coming down around the poor man's ears -- is especially inscrutable.
Yet Rove -- who nimbly escaped indictment in the Valerie Plame affair and faces a likely summons to appear before congressional committees investigating the administration's latest political stink bomb -- is the featured speaker at not one, but two of the Michigan GOP's Lincoln Day celebrations Saturday.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070320/UPDATE/703200445/1022
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Rove, Miers to testify about dismissals of federal prosecutors, including one in Mich.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The White House offered Tuesday to make political strategist Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers available for interviews -- but not under oath -- by congressional committees investigating the firing of eight federal prosecutors, including Margaret M. Chiara, the former U.S. attorney for a district that encompasses the western half of the Lower Peninsula and all the Upper Peninsula.
The move was announced by White House counsel Fred Fielding after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies. That had come as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of the prosecutors.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/POLITICS/703210393/1022
Wednesday, March 21, 2007