590 Days until election day. MRP Welcomes TWO New Members! Congratulations to Sarah and Todd Anderson for the birth of Emma Grace Anderson, on March 23. & Congratulations to Henri and Jim Tow for the birth of Amy Lynn Tow, on March 24. MORNING SUMMARY: Real change means real change. A willingness to act, not just provide lip service and political rhetoric. The Democrats continue to try and “scare” the people of Michigan into believing we need more taxes?? They are NOT buying it. Michigan gives local schools $7,054.00 per pupil, that’s $800 above the national average…that’s after the current proposed cuts of $34 per pupil. Here is a great discussion of the numbers…when folks talk about cuts to school districts etc., it’s important to have the facts. Check these out: http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2007/3/23/115855/363 Now it’s up to Speaker Dillon to give the Senates plan an up or down vote…or is he going to just try and jam through a tax hike?? THE REST OF THE STORY: When the Democrats try and charge the Republicans are “gutting” education and cutting our “investment” in the future…let’s look at the facts. Michigan gives local schools $7,054.00 per pupil, that’s $800 above the national average…that’s after the current proposed cuts of $34 per pupil. If we would move just and additional “two cents” out of the “administrators” pockets into the classrooms, that would add another $141.01 per pupil. Isn’t it time we come clean with the taxpayers of Michigan and let them know what the “administration and teachers unions” are costing the citizens of Michigan. We need REAL reform, real change. Here is a great discussion of the numbers…when folks talk about cuts to school districts etc., it’s important to have the facts. Check these out: http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2007/3/23/115855/363 Democrat Speaker Dillon is playing games. No solutions, no votes and no support for the Governor’s positions. He also won’t bring the Senate bills up for a vote. His delaying tactics are costing taxpayers valuable time. Drop the Comerica thing…this isn’t the “People Republic”…it’s America. Democrats won’t vote for budget cuts…they don’t want to balance the budget…but they won’t support the Governor’s tax plan. I love these Michigan style “blue dog” Democrats…conservative rhetoric…with no leadership, no action, no results??? Newt Gingrich has a great saying…real change take real change. Almost too simple of a concept to sound profound, unless your talking about government. We need to work together, support our Republican legislators as the push for real change and force the kinds of reforms that will change the way we do business in Michigan. Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/OPINION01/703250301/1008
Editorial
GOP budget gets real about erasing deficit
The Detroit News
Senate Republicans moved Michigan in the right direction by starting the painful work of cutting skyrocketing state spending to balance the budget. Now both political parties must undertake real reforms to solve the state's long-term budget crisis.
The Senate plan is a reasonable step to erasing the state's immediate $942 million budget deficit. It will mean painful cuts in state programs, including public schools, but it is a more humane and responsible approach than raising taxes in a state where businesses and residents are already suffering.
The Senate put a stop to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposal for a 2 percent service tax -- a tax increase that lacked support even among Democratic lawmakers.
The Republican plan does everything it can to protect education. School districts had been facing a state spending cut of $220 per pupil. That has been shrunk to $34 per pupil.
Even a small cut in school funding is regrettable. Education is Michigan's ticket to greater employment growth and a full economic recovery.
http://www.mlive.com/business/aanews/index.ssf?/base/business-5/1174806855248760.xml&coll=2
State jobs fund under fire
Unclear when - or even whether - funding will be appropriated
Sunday, March 25, 2007
BY RICK HAGLUND
Ann Arbor News Bureau
The centerpiece of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's $1 billion economic revitalization plan is threatened by questions about how the money is being spent and whether the financially strapped state can afford the program.
The 21st Century Jobs Fund annually awards millions of dollars to universities, independent researchers and entrepreneurs attempting to grow jobs in high-tech businesses. Granholm wants to spend the $1 billion over 10 years in an attempt to redirect Michigan's sputtering manufacturing economy into new areas.
Last year 85 companies and organizations shared $137 million in loans and grants, about half of which went to Washtenaw County groups, to help them create new technologies in advanced manufacturing, life sciences, alternative energies and homeland security.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/OPINION01/703250626/1086/opinion
Budget: Republicans finally show hand; now broker a compromise
A Lansing State Journal editorial
It took some time, but Senate Republicans finally made their 2007 budget cuts public. That's good news, since now the people of Michigan can join the debate about the best course for resolving first the 2007 budget crisis - and then the looming one for the 2008 budget year.
In votes taken last Thursday, the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate did three things:
• Its Appropriations Committee adopted Gov. Jennifer Granholm's revised Executive Order to trim or defer $344 million in state spending in the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30. (The House Appropriations Committee still must act on the order.)
Defeated Granholm's plan to impose a 2 percent sales tax on services to raise money for the current budget.
• Adopted a Republican proposal to trim or defer another $600 million in state spending.
An LSJ editorial last week opposed Granholm's 2-cent sales tax. It would have been too big a burden for Michigan's struggling taxpayers and economy right now. The Senate was right to reject that tax.
As budget work continues, the Michigan House and Granholm herself are well-advised to set aside the sales tax idea.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/OPINION03/703250304
Nolan Finley
Cox upholds for the 2nd Amendment
A rare victory for those of us who love and respect guns was scored when a federal appeals court tossed out Washington, D.C.'s police-state gun law in a ruling that opens the door for the Supreme Court to settle once and for all whether the right to keep and bear arms belongs to the individual or the state.
And right there on the side of the good guys is Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox.
While prosecutors aren't often the best friends of the Second Amendment, Cox joined the challenge to the D.C. gun ban along with a dozen other states for two reasons: It's unconstitutional, and it doesn't work.
Washington's gun law might have been written by the Taliban. It forbids any private handguns within the city limits. No exceptions.
A Feisty Karl Rove rallies Republican faithful in Michigan
JACKSON, Mich. (AP) -- Presidential adviser Karl Rove acknowledged Saturday that the Bush administration and Republicans face tough challenges with the war in Iraq and Democrats controlling Congress, but he expressed confidence the GOP could draw on past successes to turn things around.
"It's tougher when the wind is in your face," he told Michigan Republicans. "But we're up to the task as a party and as a country. ... Republicans are getting up off the mat and getting back in the game."
Rove asked Republicans to persevere at a time when Democrats, having regained control of Congress, are challenging the administration on several fronts. Rove made no mention of his possible involvement in a Justice Department scandal in Washington.
Instead, President Bush's deputy chief of staff went on the offensive and stayed there, attacking Democrats' fiscal policies and defending the administration's war on terror in remarks at Lincoln Day dinners in Jackson and Oakland counties.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/POLITICS/703250316
Karl Rove calls on Oakland County Republicans for support
Charles E. Ramirez / The Detroit News
WEST BLOOMFIELD -- Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove called on Oakland County Republicans for their support in the next presidential election and criticized Democrats for wanting to pull out of Iraq during a speech Saturday night at Shenandoah Country Club.
"You did a great job in 2004, but you need to do more in 2008," Rove said to about 400 people at the fundraiser for the Oakland County Republican Party. "You can make a difference."
The crowd at the $65-a-ticket event gave him a standing ovation at 6:50 p.m. as he approached a podium. He spoke for less than an hour.
"Sit down and we may get to the NCAA quicker," he said, joking to the crowd about the ongoing basketball tournament.
Rove spent part of his speech drilling the importance of the war on terrorism. He criticized Democrats for wanting to pull out of Iraq early and not wanting to continue the war's funding.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1173458161320460.xml&coll=3
Rove offers a GOP pep talk
Sunday, March 25, 2007
By Keith Roberts
kroberts@citpat.com -- 768-4922
The birthplace of the Republican Party became an ideological battleground for the war in Iraq on Saturday.
Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, preached to the Republican Party faithful at a Lincoln Day Dinner on the need to increase funding for the troops and not handcuff the generals.
"The Democrats in Congress are more interested in mandating failure than giving this new strategy a chance to work," Rove told about 200 Republicans who paid $65 to hear him on the third floor of Daryl's Downtown.
Meanwhile on the streets below, a loose congregation of protesters held signs calling Rove and Bush liars, accusing them of treason and calling for Rove to be jailed and Bush to be impeached.
"Karl Rove is the person at the heart of it," said Sally McNamara, who drove from Cambridge Township in Lenawee County to be part of the protest. "He's their little fundraising monkey."
Picketers also said they were concerned about the Bush administration's firing of eight U.S. attorneys in December and were convinced Rove played a role in it.
http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18122392&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6
Stamas: 'Hard decisions ahead'
By Stuart Frohm
03/24/2007
"There are going to be a lot of hard decisions ahead of us" because of the state's economic and budget picture, state Sen. Tony Stamas said Friday.
On Thursday, he and other Senate Republicans :
* rejected Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposed 2 percent tax on services,
* approved a $34-per-student midyear cut for K-12 schools, which Granholm is unlikely to approve, and
* voted for hundreds of millions of dollars in reductions to local governments, health care and other programs after deciding Granholm's proposed spending rollbacks didn't go far enough.
"I would have done things differently" if crafting the Republican budget-cutting proposal himself, but he had a chance to comment on proposed cuts, Stamas said.
If enacted, the Republican plan would restore money to avoid state police layoffs. The plan takes aim at an investment fund intended to encourage the growth of high-tech and biotech businesses, the Healthy Michigan Fund intended to improve residents' health, and state subsidies for adult home care workers.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/NEWS06/703250616
Michigan may tax wealthy estates
Affecting few, idea could be easier to sell
March 25, 2007
BY KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Gov. Jennifer Granholm's idea for a 2% tax on most services might be dead, but her proposal to impose a stiff tax on the estates of wealthy Michiganders is alive.
The tax between 8% and 16% on estates worth more than $2 million -- estimated at about 350 each year in Michigan -- is among Granholm's proposals to balance the state budget. It would generate $119 million in revenues for the 2007-08 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 and more than $130 million in subsequent years.
Michigan hasn't had a state estate tax since the 1970s. But the state has benefited from the federal estate tax because it gets some of the money the IRS collects. That changed in 2001, when Congress voted to increase the value of estates subject to the tax and phase out the estate tax by 2010. The state share was phased out in 2005.
As a result, Michigan has gone from getting $198 million in 1999 to nothing.
"We did a brief summary of the proposal at the time the phaseout began, and we figured the general fund should be able to absorb those revenues hits," said Craig Thiel of the Livonia-based Citizens Research Council. "But that was before they began cutting the Single Business Tax and the income tax and before the beginning of a considerable downturn in the economy.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/COL06/703250601/1002/BUSINESS
TOM WALSH
UAW is becoming part of the solution
Union, carmakers are industry allies
March 25, 2007
BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Some people say the UAW is to blame for Detroit's problems, that the greedy labor union bullied General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler into paying outsized wages, pensions and health care benefits to hourly workers and retirees.
Others say the shrunken union is irrelevant in a 21st-Century global economy.
Neither is correct.
Indeed, as UAW representatives converge on Detroit this week for the first ritual gathering of nationwide contract bargaining, the union and its president, Ron Gettelfinger, face a unique make-or-break opportunity in the coming months:
• They can save what's left of the traditional Big Three (and save their own union in the process).
• Or they can relegate Detroit to the scrap heap of postindustrial ghost towns.
Forget about those who suggest that some private equity firms or hedge funds from Wall Street can sweep into town and buy the Chrysler Group from DaimlerChrysler -- or take over Ford or GM -- and then arbitrarily discard the baggage of old union contracts and promises to hundreds of thousands of retirees.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/OPINION01/703250537/1068/OPINION
FREE PRESS EDITORIAL
Real estate relief
Sellers, don't give up; some state tax break ideas can help revive market
March 25, 2007
Declining house values. Huge backlogs of unsold homes. Foreclosure auctions.
In this swamp of depressing statistics, is it any wonder that home owners have gotten cranky not only about the inability to sell but the fact that their property taxes are going up at the same time? And is it any wonder that legislators are rushing forward with plans, some more fully baked than others, to offer relief?
Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the Legislature should be particularly wary of enacting permanent fixes for a temporary -- albeit prolonged -- period of real estate distress. Any attempts to give tax relief or stimulate the housing market should be short-term or subject to annual renewal.
But the state can do something.
The disconnect on property taxes has its roots in Proposal A, the 1994 school finance reform that swapped property tax cuts for an increase in the state sales tax. It limited the annual increase in property taxes to the inflation rate as long as a home owner didn't sell. But now, even as market values have declined, most home owners' taxable values have continued to grow at the rate of inflation.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/BUSINESS04/703250578/1002/BUSINESS
Home-sale accelerant
Bill aims to spur housing market with an 18-month moratorium on state's pop-up tax
March 25, 2007
BY MARGARITA BAUZA
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
A proposed change in Michigan's pop-up tax would give home sellers like Anthony Rimanelli a much-needed boost in a sagging real estate market.
House Bill 4440-4441, which awaits state Senate consideration after being passed by the House 77-31 on March 14, would allow the buyer of a home to inherit the tax amount the seller currently pays, eliminating what is known as Michigan's pop-up tax.
Rimanelli pays $3,500 in taxes for his Grosse Pointe Woods bungalow. His tax bill increased an average of 4.7% annually from when he bought his house in 1997 for $127,000. His taxes that year were $2,370. The rate of increase is capped by the state's Proposal A, which limits annual increases in a home's taxable value to the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is less.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/OPINION02/703250534/1068/OPINION
State needs pioneers
To prosper again, Michigan must break a too-settled mind-set
March 25, 2007
BY RON DZWONKOWSKI
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
At a meeting of a half-dozen smart people with a deep concern for Michigan's future, one member of the group said that the state needs, figuratively at least, to go back in time.
"This place was built by pioneers. Then came the settlers," he said. "Now it's all settlers. We need some new pioneers."
What a concept. And a nice capsule, too, of where we came from and where we are, leaving open the big question of where we are going.
From its early days as a rugged wilderness of indescribably thick forests, rich mineral lodes and freshwater lakes, through the industrial revolution that made Michigan the arsenal of democracy, the place that put the world on wheels and the bastion of the American middle class, these peninsulas have attracted pioneers.
The first wave was trappers, lumberjacks and miners. Then came the automotive and industrial innovators, whose factories drew Southerners and foreigners chasing the American dream for $5 a day, followed by the union pioneers and the early leaders of the civil rights movement. There was a spirit of adventure in this place, from the Copper Country to the Rouge. It was a land of possibilities, a place where a good idea and hard work were tickets to a better life than your mother and father had back where they came from.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/NEWS05/703250603
Suburbs are struggling to pay the bills
Service cuts, volunteers help fill funding gaps
March 25, 2007
BY JOHN WISELY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Jerry Hinsperger sits behind bulletproof glass at the Pontiac Police Department, answering phones, directing residents and running errands.
He and nine other members of VFW Post 1370 in Pontiac volunteer a total of 60 hours each week to help a department that has cut about 50 officers in recent years.
"Our main concern is to keep as many officers on the street as possible," said Hinsperger, a 56-year-old Marine veteran. "We do whatever we can to free up the officers."
Last year, Pontiac borrowed more than $21 million to pay its bills, and voters approved four new taxes to raise $3.2 million for police, libraries and programs for seniors and youths. That might not be enough.
The seat of Michigan's wealthiest county is nearly broke, and it's not alone. While budget problems in Detroit and the state are well-known, many suburban communities also find themselves in a financial fight for their lives.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/BUSINESS06/703250589
Families fighting higher insurance rates
March 25, 2007
BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER
Blue Basic is the name of the health insurance policy that covers Ron Abraham, his wife and son. It costs him $458.79 a month.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan plan provides no prescription drug coverage and requires him to pay a 30% co-pay for the first $1,000 of their medical bills. "It mostly covers catastrophic emergencies and little more," said Abraham, 41, of Livonia.
He grew more concerned when he heard late last year that Blue Cross was seeking a 24% rate boost that would bring his monthly payments to $568.63. His premiums were raised 15% in each of the two previous years, he said.
He and his wife, Ghada, filed a petition to try to halt the increase and will get a hearing with the state Office of Financial and Insurance Services. A date for the hearing is expected to be set Thursday in Lansing.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/NEWS06/703250606/1008
Headlee Amendment and Proposal A
Laws set boundaries on tax powers
March 25, 2007
BY JOHN WISELY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Two voter-approved amendments to the Michigan Constitution have saved state taxpayers billions in recent decades but created nightmares for many local governments.
The 1978 Headlee Amendment restricts the growth of revenue to local governments by lowering tax rates when property values rise quickly. If the total value of all existing property in a town rises by more than the inflation rate in a year, the amendment forces the community to cut its tax rate.
The reduction, known as a Headlee rollback, ensures the overall property taxes collected by a community don't increase by a percentage greater than the inflation rate.
New development in a city is exempt from this provision, so growing communities have growing revenues. But cities with no room left to build are limited to inflationary increases only, regardless of what happens to their expenses.
"All of the inner-ring suburbs, if they're not growing, they are capped," said Paul Tait, executive director of the Detroit-based Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. "It's a structural problem."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070324/METRO/703240407
City ordered to repay overcharged water system customers
Ruling may lower water rates across Metro area
Robert Snell / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Water and sewer customers across Southeast Michigan will get a rebate after a federal judge Friday said Detroit charged them $24 million too much for the city's controversial digital radio system.
U.S. District Judge John Feikens' ruling comes three months after he decided Detroit's water customers were charged too much for the $131 million radio system. Suburban residents, who make up the bulk of Detroit's water and sewer customers, could see the biggest benefit if rates are lowered.
"The judge's ruling today is seriously wrong and is a politically motivated judicial decision," city spokesman Matt Allen said. "The city of Detroit built this system and it stands as one of the best in the entire country."
It was unclear Friday whether Detroit, which faces an approximately $100 million deficit, would appeal the order.
Detroit school board members on defeated closure plan: 'We have not given up'
Jennifer Mrozowski / The Detroit News
Several Detroit school board members said the district's massive closure plan is not dead, and they expect it will come back before the board in the next two weeks.
"We're going to bring the plan back," said board vice president Joyce Hayes-Giles. "We talked to some other board members, and we believe they understand the ramifications of this. The bottom line is: We have not given up. We believe we'll be able to get it passed."
Six of 11 school board members on Friday voted down the closure plan, which at last count included shuttering 33 buildings in fall 2007 and 10 more in 2008. The district administration and some board members said the plan is essential to meeting terms of a state-mandated deficit reduction plan to erase a $200 million debt. The latest plan would have saved nearly $17 million annually, officials said.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070324/METRO/703240390
Domestic abuse deaths soar 74%
Shelters turned away 7,000 victims in 2006 as violence overwhelms Michigan agencies.
Kim Kozlowski / The Detroit News
Domestic violence deaths have risen dramatically in Michigan, prompting state advocates to call for more funding and better protection for abuse victims.
The disappearance and death of Tara Grant -- allegedly at the hands of her husband, Stephen Grant -- is the most recent high-profile victim, but just one tragic ending in a troubling trend, advocates say.
"We need to have stricter laws, more services, whatever it takes to stop it," said Alicia Standerfer, Tara Grant's sister. Police say Stephen Grant, charged with first-degree murder, confessed to strangling his wife and dismembering her body Feb. 9.
Domestic violence fatalities in Michigan jumped 74 percent between 2004 and 2005, the most recent data available. Nationally, domestic violence fatalities declined 32 percent between 1993 and 2004, but information for 2005 is not yet available, according to the National Bureau of Justice Statistics.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/OPINION04/703250533/1068/OPINION
Buy more state products, cut Legislature
March 25, 2007
• How about developing a list of all Michigan businesses and employers? This would include the unions and state a Buy Michigan Campaign. If everyone purchased Michigan products and promoted Michigan, our one-state recession can be stopped. And Michigan could stop being the only state trying to tax itself into prosperity.
• Cut down to a part-time Legislature, with part-time pay and benefits.
Aging baby boomers spend the other six months of the year somewhere other than Arizona or Florida. What is Michigan's plan? Do we market ourselves as an attractive option?
• Make Michigan a right-to-work state.
• Expand the deposit to all containers, including such things as wine, booze and juice drinks. But instead of 10 cents, make it seven, with five for the deposit and two going to the state. Plus, instead of the stores having to collect the containers, each town could have its own recycling center. The state also could use low-risk prisoners to work in these places.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/POLITICS01/703250317
Obama's Michigan campaign launch generates buzz
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
NOVI -- Isaac Pickell is backing Sen. Barack Obama in the upcoming presidential election because he feels the Illinois Democrat is a new wave in politics.
"I think he is a rock star," the 20-year-old Eastern Michigan University student said. "He can really get the people out to the polls."
Although Obama did not attend Saturday's kickoff, at least 200 people came to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Novi to organize, show support and applaud him.
With the campaign slogan of "Hope. Action. Change.", the campaign is gearing up for a massive March 31 event in which groups across the country will participate in a community gathering where people can ask questions or make comments via video conferencing.
That sort of touch has helped Obama win over supporters who said they see themselves in the candidate.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/NEWS06/703250699
Lawmaker drove to state Capitol illegally
Johnson's license and plate invalid
March 25, 2007
BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
LANSING -- A freshman state lawmaker from Highland Park is a serial traffic scofflaw who drove to work last week on a suspended license in a vehicle with an invalid plate.
Rep. Bert Johnson, contacted by the Free Press after a reporter watched him drive out of the Capitol parking lot, said Friday that he planned to pay a multitude of fines and seek restoration of his driving privileges Monday.
Johnson, a Democrat and chairman of the Detroit caucus in the House, said he has "no excuse. I understand the seriousness of it. I shouldn't be doing it." He promised to not get behind the wheel again until it is legal for him to do so.
Johnson is a member of the House Insurance Committee, which, among other things, oversees the regulation of auto insurance. The Free Press checked the driving records of the other committee members and found that Rep. Virgil Smith, a third-term Detroit Democrat, also has a suspended driver's license.
If and when Johnson gets his license back, it will be an almost novel experience. At 33, Johnson's license has been suspended for most of the 18 years he's been old enough to drive, according to Secretary of State records.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/NEWS06/703250604/1008
WHEN STATE STEPS IN
Law limits takeovers of debt-ridden cities
March 25, 2007
BY JOHN WISELY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
When the City of Ecorse was mired in debt in 1986, a judge appointed Louis Schimmel receiver and empowered him to sell off city assets, privatize services and renegotiate employee contracts to balance the books.
Schimmel interpreted the court order as giving him the power to void contracts entirely, and he used that leverage to get major concessions from employees.
It was a pretty strong hammer I had," Schimmel said.
His efforts came to define what receivership meant for local governments in Michigan.
Despite a growing number of financially troubled local governments, the receivership solution can't happen now.
A law passed in 1990 allows for the appointment of an emergency financial manager but with far less power than the court gave Schimmel and only after a series of preliminary steps, including appointing a review team.
"While emergency financial managers are authorized to renegotiate labor contracts, they are not authorized to abrogate such contracts," former state Treasurer Jay Rising wrote in a policy memo in 2005.
"I think it's better under a judge. It takes the politics out of it," said Schimmel, who also was emergency financial manager in Hamtramck.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/NEWS04/703250617/1001/NEWS
Macomb County
Getting to an executive
Residents hear 3 ideas for government
March 25, 2007
BY KORIE WILKINS
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Most politicians agree on the need for a Macomb County executive. What they can't agree on is how to get one.
About 25 people turned out Saturday at DeCarlo's Banquet & Convention Center in Warren to listen to three different proposals.
County Commissioners Andrey Duzyj and Susan Doherty, both Warren Democrats, are proposing the county's government be changed from general law to optional unified, which means a county executive would be elected by voters but established without a charter.
In addition, Duzyj and Doherty want the state Legislature to reduce the number of county commissioners mandated by the state -- currently 17 to 35 for a county of Macomb's size -- to 13 to 25. Macomb has 26 commissioners.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/COL10/703250535/1068/OPINION
Who needs memories of Detroit in 1967?
March 25, 2007
BY ROCHELLE RILEY
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
During a "Pancakes and Politics" panel discussion about the media, a radio executive asked for ideas to cover the 40th anniversary in July of Detroit's 1967 riot.
When it was my turn, I said my greatest hope was that there would be no coverage.
Before you lecture me about how we can't know where we're going unless we know where we've been, let me say this: We know where we've been. I don't think it's worth going back.
Detroit's problem isn't that it hasn't learned the lessons. It is that it rejects the lessons. The city has been permanently stuck in July 1967 and permanently defined by the riot.
Detroit's -- and Michigan's -- leaders have to realize that we must let go of the past to embrace the new.
Look where clinging to the past has gotten us: The state is on a solo economic decline. The rescue ladder is Detroit, but the state keeps trying to get out of the hole without the ladder. It won't work.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1174817757148190.xml&coll=4
BURYING GLOBAL WARMING
Gaylord set to test storing greenhouse gas deep underground
Sunday, March 25, 2007
By HELEN LOUNSBURY
TIMES WRITER
It's a typical enough northern Michigan forest, this stand of mixed hardwoods and gently rolling hills near Gaylord.
But the ground far below the state forest floor is proving quite exceptional. Here, along a swath of 6,500 oil and natural gas wells, scientists are hopeful - even exhilarated - about the underground's promise to help curb worldwide climate change.
The Gaylord parcel is part of a national experiment to test the ground's capacity as a storage vault for carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide is the most widespread of greenhouse gases and experts consider it the chief culprit in accelerating global warming.
The Otsego County carbon burial test, scheduled to move into gear this summer, is limited in scope for now. Researchers say they'll inject just a day's worth of power plant emissions.
But the project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, is part of a federal plan to bury CO2 underground and underwater - permanently, commercially and on a global scale, according to the agency.
''The only difference between this work in Gaylord and the Department of Energy's eventual plan is size,'' says Meeraj Gupta, a geologist for Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit group from Ohio that is leading Michigan's test.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-35/1174804186214970.xml&coll=6
Could GR get casino? You bet
Sunday, March 25, 2007
By Nancy Crawley
Press Business Editor
A casino in Wayland Township is seen as so close to reality, some of downtown Grand Rapids' most ardent supporters are talking about building a competing casino.
Is that realistic in a city so identified with an anti-casino stance?
Peter Secchia thinks so. The former ambassador and retired executive has resigned his leadership post in a prominent anti-casino group and is exploring how to locate a gaming house downtown.
Developer Joe Moch also thinks so. He is confirming a casino was part of his plan when he expressed interest (since withdrawn) in the city's "mystery development" property on the Grand River's east side.
And Bob Sullivan thinks so. "Eventually I'm sure we'll have one, and I'm sure it will be successful," the long-time hotel and carpet-store owner said.
Large hurdles would have to be overcome, including a statewide vote. Still, downtown-casino buzz intensified in recent weeks after Gov. Jennifer Granholm acknowledged the near-inevitability of the Wayland casino and struck a deal with the Gun Lake Band of Pottawatomis.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-22/11747964403960.xml&coll=7
Levin's stop here sidetracked by PCBs
Sunday, March 25, 2007
By Jef Rietsma
Special to the Gazette
Credit-card legislation was on U.S. Sen. Carl Levin's agenda during a Saturday morning stop in Kalamazoo, but the focus soon turned to another matter.
Many of the 100 people in attendance at the Washington Square Branch Library were more interested in seeking answers to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to dispose of polychlorinated biphenyls at the former Allied Paper Inc. site northeast of Cork and South Burdick streets.
About half of Levin's 45-minute appearance was devoted to the possible disposal of 132,000 cubic yards of the sediment -- containing 4,400 pounds of PCBs -- that is to be removed from a stretch from the Kalamazoo River near Plainwell. Levin, a Democrat and Michigan's senior senator, admitted he anticipated discussing the situation.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
NATIONAL STORIES
Cheney: House Is Undermining the Troops
MANALAPAN, Fla. (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday accused the Democrat-led House of not supporting troops in Iraq and of sending a message to terrorists that America will retreat in the face danger.
"They're not supporting the troops. They're undermining them," Cheney told a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition at the oceanside Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, Fla., about 60 miles north of Miami.
On Friday, the House voted to clamp a cutoff deadline on the Iraq war, agreeing by a thin margin to pull combat troops out by next year.
The $124 billion House legislation would pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year but would require that combat troops come home from Iraq before September 2008 - or earlier if the Iraqi government does not meet certain requirements.
http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/443halpk.asp
Wrong on Timetables
The Democratic Congress doesn't understand what is going on in Iraq.
by William Kristol & Frederick W. Kagan
04/02/2007, Volume 012, Issue 28
Let's give congressional Democrats the benefit of the doubt: Assume some of them earnestly think they're doing the right thing to insist on adding to the supplemental appropriation for the Iraq war benchmarks and timetables for withdrawal. Still, their own arguments--taken at face value--don't hold up.
Democrats in Congress have made three superficially plausible claims: (1) Benchmarks and timetables will "incentivize" the Maliki government to take necessary steps it would prefer to avoid. (2) We can gradually withdraw over the next year so as to step out of sectarian conflict in Iraq while still remaining to fight al Qaeda. (3) Defeat in Iraq is inevitable, so our primary goal really has to be to get out of there. But the situation in Iraq is moving rapidly away from the assumptions underlying these propositions, and their falseness is easier to show with each passing day.
Democrats Defend Plan for Iraq Pullout
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Democrats' plan to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq next year responds to voters' demand for change, New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes said Saturday.
Hodes and other House Democrats on Friday pushed through a rebuke of President Bush and the war in Iraq. Bush promised a veto of the spending bill, which demands combat operations end before September 2008 - and perhaps earlier.
"With our vote this week, we're helping our troops, protecting our veterans, and fighting to end the waste, fraud and abuse," said Hodes, delivering the Democrats' weekly radio address. "After four years of a failed policy, Democrats are insisting on a new direction in Iraq and a real plan that holds the Iraqi people accountable for their own country."
Hodes, elected in November, was part of the Democratic takeover of both chambers of Congress. He has opposed the war and any efforts to escalate it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032401122.html?nav=hcmodule
Eyebrows Are Raised in Mich. Over Reasons for Prosecutor's Firing
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page A04
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- In the aftermath of the surprise firing of U.S. Attorney Margaret M. Chiara, questions outnumber answers. Was she dismissed for political reasons? For poor performance? To make way for someone else? Western Michigan's legal community does not know what to think.
The Justice Department initially announced that the reasons were "performance-related," an explanation at odds with the current consensus in Grand Rapids. The chief federal judge firmly disputed it, as did Chiara, who said she was told her resignation was needed to clear the way for a political favorite.
Some defense lawyers speculate that Chiara, who once trained to be a nun, fell out of favor with the Bush administration over her personal opposition to the death penalty. The administration has pursued capital punishment in several states, including Michigan, that have no state death penalty or rarely use it.
Amid the competing theories, most everyone seems to agree that Chiara's forced resignation after five years, in the middle of a presidential term, is puzzling and that the administration's handling of the firing and its aftermath did a disservice to the 63-year-old career lawyer.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/POLITICS/703250340/1022
White House, key GOP senator back Gonzales
Democrats cite attorney general's role in firings
Lara Lakes Jordan / Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The White House and a key Republican senator reaffirmed support Saturday for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales even as Democrats questioned his credibility for apparently misrepresenting his role in firing eight federal prosecutors.
Critics said the latest document disclosure -- more than 280 pages of e-mails, calendar notations and other documents sent to Congress late Friday -- bolstered their case for Gonzales' ouster.
Yet one longtime ally who largely has kept quiet about the attorney general's fate issued a statement of support.
"He has always been straightforward and honest with me," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "So, unless there is clear evidence that the attorney general deliberately lied or misled Congress, I see no reason to call for his resignation."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032401196.html?nav=hcmodule
Bush Reaffirms Confidence in Gonzales Amid New Disclosures
By Dan Eggen and Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page A04
President Bush issued a new declaration of confidence in embattled Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales yesterday, affirming his support a day after new disclosures showed that Gonzales was more closely involved in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys than he had previously acknowledged.
Bush used his weekly radio address, taped before the latest documents were released Friday night, to back Gonzales, his loyal aide of a dozen years, and the decision to install "new leadership" in some U.S. attorney offices. He accused Democrats of attempting to "waste time and provoke an unnecessary confrontation" by seeking sworn testimony from White House aides about the dismissals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032400576.html
U.N. Backs Broader Sanctions On Tehran
Security Council Votes to Freeze Some Assets, Ban Arms Exports
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page A01
UNITED NATIONS, March 24 -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to approve a resolution that bans all Iranian arms exports and freezes some of the financial assets of 28 Iranian individuals and entities linked to Iran's military and nuclear agencies.
The 15 to 0 vote came one day after President Mahmoud Admadinejad canceled plans to travel to New York to confront the Security Council, leaving his foreign minister to speak in his place. It unfolded as 15 British sailors and marines seized by Iranian naval forces were transferred to Tehran, escalating diplomatic tensions between the two countries. (See story, A12) The 15-nation panel imposed the latest sanctions in response to Iran's refusal to abide by repeated U.N. demands to stop its most sensitive nuclear activities, including the enrichment of uranium and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
The council also threatened to impose new penalties on Tehran after 60 days if it fails to stop its nuclear activities and provide verifiable assurance that it is not secretly pursuing a nuclear weapon.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032400095.html?nav=hcmodule
15 Britons Taken to Tehran As Iran Dispute Intensifies
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page A12
LONDON, March 24 -- Fifteen British sailors and marines seized by Iranian naval forces have been taken to Tehran for questioning as a diplomatic dispute between Iran and the West intensified Saturday.
The Iranian Fars news agency reported that the British personnel were being asked to explain what Iran calls their "aggressive" trespass into Iranian territorial waters on Friday. The agency quoted a senior Iranian military official, Alireza Afshar, as saying that the British service members had "confessed" and that if the United States and its allies invaded Iran, they would "not be able to control the dimensions and period of the war."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/world/middleeast/25diplo.html
Rice Hints at U.S. Peace Push on Mideast
Published: March 25, 2007
ASWAN, Egypt, Sunday, March 25 — In making her fourth trip to the Middle East in four months to try to breathe life into dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has opened the door to the possibility that the United States might offer its own proposals to bridge the divide on some of the entrenched issues that have bedeviled the region for decades.
“I don’t rule out at some point that might be a useful thing to do,” Ms. Rice told reporters in Washington before departing for Aswan, Egypt, where she met with Sunni Arab allies on Saturday before her journey to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Such an initiative would be proof of a profound policy change for the Bush administration, which has steadfastly refrained from trying to impose any American-made solution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301585.html
An Opening for Democrats
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page B07
Six years of Republican control in Washington have taken a toll on the country -- and the GOP is paying the price politically. Instead of the Bush administration ushering in a new era of GOP dominance, as Karl Rove hoped, it has set the stage for a Democratic resurgence.
That turnabout was implicit in the results of the 2006 midterm election, when Democrats took back narrow majorities in the House and Senate and captured the majority of governorships. And it is reinforced by a massive poll released last week by Andrew Kohut and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
The survey of 2,007 people, conducted in December and January, depicts a dramatic shift in Americans' attitudes, opinions and values between 1994, when Republicans took control of Congress, and now. Most of the change has occurred since George Bush took office in 2001.
The poll, which can be found at http://www.people-press.org, is a treasure trove of information about Americans' views of the parties, government, the world scene, religion, the economy, business, labor and a dozen other topics.
Huckabee: Conservative View Will Prevail
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) -- A blip in most of the early polling, GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Saturday he believes his conservative views will prevail.
"Sometimes when people say, 'When you get traction, I'm going to be with you,' my answer is, 'You are my traction,' " the former Arkansas governor told The Associated Press.
"If people of genuine conservative convictions don't support a conservative with convictions, then quite frankly I'm not sure what the point would be to be in politics," he said in an interview.
Huckabee was on a one-day visit to heavily Republican western Iowa, his second trip to the state since forming an exploratory committee. But in a state whose precinct caucuses will launch the presidential nominating season, Huckabee has spent less time than better known rivals and trails in most early polling.
McCain Tested by War, Economy in N.H.
LITTLETON, N.H. (AP) -- Republican presidential hopeful John McCain trekked to New Hampshire on Saturday, testing his appeal with rural voters and promising help for economically depressed areas while grappling with questions about the Iraq war.
His latest visit began near the central White Mountains and Lakes Region, where voters' concerns hinged more on domestic troubles - including meager snowfall - than the war in Iraq. That was a welcome distraction for the Arizona senator, whose support for the unpopular war is a topic he routinely tries to head off in his opening remarks to voters throughout the region.
"They are frustrated and angry and sad," McCain told reporters traveling with him on his bus. "I understand that. I really do."
At his first town hall-style meeting in Plymouth, he criticized congressional Democrats who on Friday passed a spending bill in the House to end the war in Iraq by September 2008.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032401079.html?nav=hcmodule
At Forum, Democrats Differ on Health Care
Funding Plans Include Raising Taxes, Ending War, Reshaping the Insurance System
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page A05
LAS VEGAS, March 24 -- Democratic presidential candidates were united here Saturday in pledging to provide universal health care to all Americans but differed over how quickly the changes could be achieved and, more important, whether they would have to raise taxes to pay for it.
The candidates addressed what has become perhaps the nation's most intractable domestic issue and all said that, because of rising costs of care and the lack of insurance for about 45 million Americans, incremental steps are no longer adequate.
"What we need is big, bold, dramatic change," former North Carolina senator John Edwards said.
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was part of the last significant effort to overhaul the system during her husband's administration. That attempt failed, but the Democratic candidates said Saturday that the conditions exist to push for dramatic change.
But Clinton warned that getting there would still be difficult. "We don't just need candidates to have a plan," she said. "All of them have plans. We need a movement. We need people to make this the number one voting issue in the '08 election."
Edwards Says He'll Definitely Stay In
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- John Edwards said Saturday he will definitely stay in the presidential race, trying to reassure voters and donors that he can handle the dual pressure of the campaign and his wife's cancer diagnosis.
At a Democratic presidential forum focused on health care, Edwards pressed his rivals to provide a detailed plan to cover the nation's uninsured - estimated at about 47 million - and describe how they will pay for it. His chief competitors, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, did not rule out the possibility that they would follow his lead with a plan requiring a tax increase, but they provided no specifics.
"I have not foreclosed the possibility that we might need additional revenue in order to achieve my goal, but we shouldn't underestimate the amount of money that can be saved in the existing system," Obama said when asked whether he would raise taxes to reach his goal of universal coverage by the end of his first term.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032401152.html
For Clinton and Obama, a Common Ideological Touchstone
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page A01
CHICAGO -- The job offer to "Miss Hillary Rodham, Wellesley College" was dated Oct. 25, 1968, and signed by Saul D. Alinsky, the charismatic community organizer who believed that the urban poor could become their own best advocates in a world that largely ignored them.
Alinsky thought highly of 21-year-old Rodham, a student government president who grew up in the Chicago suburbs. She was in the midst of a year-long analysis of Alinsky's aggressive mobilizing tactics, and he was searching for "competent political literates" to move to Chicago to build grass-roots organizations.
Seventeen years later, another young honor student was offered a job as an organizer in Chicago. By then, Alinsky had died, but a group of his disciples hired Barack Obama, a 23-year-old Columbia University graduate, to organize black residents on the South Side, while learning and applying Alinsky's philosophy of street-level democracy. The recruiter called the $13,000-a-year job "very romantic, until you do it."
Today, as Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton face off for the Democratic presidential nomination, their common connection to Alinsky is one of the striking aspects of their biographies. Obama embraced many of Alinsky's tactics and recently said his years as an organizer gave him the best education of his life. Clinton's interest was more intellectual -- she turned down the job offer -- and she has said little about Alinsky since their association became a favorite subject of conservative critics during her husband's presidency.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0323/p09s01-coop.html
Teach the Bible in public schools
Biblical illiteracy is a civic problem with political consequences.
By Stephen Prothero
BOSTON - Although the 110th Congress has brought to Capitol Hill 43 Jews, two Buddhists, and a Muslim, Washington remains a disproportionately Christian town. More than 90 percent of federal legislators call themselves Christians, making Congress more Christian than the United States itself. Biblical references permeate political speech, yet US citizens know almost nothing about the Bible. Although most regard it as the word of God, few read it anymore.
In their answers to a religious literacy quiz I have given, undergraduates tell me that Moses was blinded on the road to Damascus and that Paul led the Israelites on their exodus out of Egypt. Surveys that are more scientific have found that only 1 out of 3 US citizens is able to name the four Gospels, and 1 out of 10 think that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.
Biblical illiteracy is not just a religious problem. It is a civic problem with political consequences. How can citizens participate in biblically inflected debates on abortion, capital punishment, or the environment without knowing something about the Bible? Biblically illiterate Americans are easily swayed by demagogues on the left or the right who claim – often incorrectly – that the Bible says this about war or that about homosexuality.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301587.html
Test Time For Europe's Fragile Unity
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page B07
The Romans, Napoleon and Hitler tried brute force to create a durable European superstate. It took a frail French businessman armed only with political theory and a deep understanding of economic self-interest to succeed where the dictators failed.
The Frenchman was Jean Monnet, and his creation -- now called the European Union -- celebrates its 50th anniversary today. So lift a glass of cheer but keep your other hand on your wallet. As usual, Europeans have to celebrate the unlikely unity they have achieved by worrying about how it can be preserved.
It is prudent to keep the partying short and Monnet's prescriptions for unity in mind. The Kremlin's recent return to dealing with Europe through the politics of intimidation creates dangerous strains within the European Union and across the Atlantic. Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to welcome, if not seek, that result.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032400945.html
My Fellow Americans: Pls Post a Comment!
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page D01
On his MySpace page, Joe, 64, says he's a Scorpio from Wilmington, Del., and that he went to the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School. His profile indicates that he's looking for "friends" on MySpace. At the moment, he has 1,199 of them on his page, including "Maya," "Honey" and "Parts Boy."
Bill, 59, from Santa Fe, N.M., says on his MySpace page that he's 6 feet 2, "Latino/Hispanic" and "straight. " He also says he's on the site for "networking [and] friends." And he's a Scorpio, too!
Oh, and one more thing: Both Joe and Bill seem very interested in becoming the next president of the United States. In fact, Joe (a.k.a. Sen. Joe Biden, Democrat from Delaware) and Bill (a.k.a. Bill Richardson, New Mexico's Democratic governor) wouldn't mind if you supported them while you check them out on MySpace.
Social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are among the latest media organizing tools of the political set. Almost all the candidates who've announced they're running for president -- and even a few who haven't officially, like Richardson -- have posted profiles of themselves on the sites. With millions of young people passing through every day, a Facebook or MySpace page is a cheapo way to try for new donors, volunteers and potential votes.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009831
Network Solutions
Facebook's 22-year-old founder gives users a unique combination of community and control.
BY ANDY KESSLER
Sunday, March 25, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
Where are you from? "Dobbs Ferry." What's your major? "Mostly computer science but also psychology." Where did you live? "Kirkland House at Harvard."
I'm meeting with Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, and have already run through the extent of my social networking skills from college. If that didn't start a conversation, I usually headed back to the bar. Fortunately, Mr. Zuckerberg is not only a programmer, but a talker as well.
On the third floor of your average downtown Palo Alto building, I meet Mr. Zuckerberg after walking through a large room filled with tables and lots of large screen monitors manned by mostly young men wearing the only thing that distinguished this workplace from a hedge fund--T-shirts.
Mr. Zuckerberg's creation, an Internet service that allows students to post personal information and photos, is nothing short of a twister sweeping college campuses, keeping millions up to date on their friends' lives and dating status. There was a reputed $1 billion plus offer from Yahoo!, turned down, natch.
Even more remarkable is that Mr. Zuckerberg is all of 22 years old. What is it that made Facebook become so valuable in less than three years? And will 22-year-olds with 200 employees come up with all the good ideas from now on?
