562 Days until election day.
MORNING SUMMARY:
John Edwards haircuts costs more than many folk’s mortgage payments in Michigan?!?
Got home early, took my first Harley ride of the summer!
Fun facts about…everything…worth watching.
http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift
A great exercise to start each day…see below.
This morning watch TV program “Michigan Matters”, hosted by Detroit Free Press columnist Carol Cain, which airs Sunday on CW Channel 50 (9:30 a.m.) and also CBS Detroit (11 a.m.).
THE REST OF THE STORY:
We issued the following press release following John Edwards visit to Michigan:
HEY EDWARDS, NICE HAIRCUT!
Presidential Candidate Exposed for Spending $400 on Hair Cut While Michigan Struggles
DETROIT- Hollywood hair styles might be commonplace for Democratic presidential candidates, but they have nothing in common with working Michigan families struggling to make ends meet in our single-state depression. In fact, the $800 presidential candidate John Edwards recently spent to get his hair coiffed is more than many ordinary people spend on their monthly mortgage payment.
Edwards, in town to headline the Michigan Democratic Party’s Annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, has come under fire recently for spending big bucks on a Hollywood hairstylist, the bill for which was unexplainably paid by his presidential exploratory committee.
“This whole situation gives America a good look at the REAL John Edwards,” said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saulius “Saul” Anuzis. “The amount of money that Edwards spends on a haircut is more than an unemployed Michigan citizen can receive for an entire week. Edwards clearly lives in a world apart from average everyday citizens and this is not the type of leadership that Michigan, let alone America, needs.”
Edwards’ campaign has made the plight of America’s working families a keystone during his two runs for the White House in 2004 and 2008. Edwards repeatedly told the American people that “help was on the way” in his 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention.
“Maybe ‘help is on the way’ if you’re a Hollywood hair-stylist, but Edwards’ lack of understanding about the problems facing Michigan leaves little hope for us if he is elected,” Anuzis continued. “At least if Edwards decides to get his haircut in Michigan, he can still do so without having to pay a 2% tax in addition to this obscene amount.”
####
HOW TO START EACH DAY WITH A POSITIVE OUTLOOK
1. Open a new file in your computer.
2. Name it "Hillary Rodham Clinton"
3. Send it to the trash.
4. Empty the trash.
5. Your PC will ask you, "Do you really want to get rid of "Hillary
Rodham Clinton?"
6. Firmly Click "Yes."
7. Feel better?
PS: Next week we'll do Nancy Pelosi.
This morning watch the TV program “Michigan Matters”, hosted by Detroit Free Press columnist Carol Cain, which airs Sunday on CW Channel 50 (9:30 a.m.) and also CBS Detroit (11 a.m.). I joined business leader Denise Ilitch and the Chief Operating Officer of the City of Detroit Derrick Miller as we mix it up on those issues of the day.
Is it possible to come to a quick conclusion on the state's budget crisis? Did Don Imus deserve to get the boot from his radio show? What really is going on with the state of race relations in Detroit, our state and the nation? Watch the show and let me know what you think?!? My debut?
Just a heads-up, at yesterday¢s Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing with Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, Senator Cornyn raised the issue of the imprisoned Border Patrol Agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. You can access an audio file of the Senator¢s exchange with the AG at this link:
http://src.senate.gov/public/_files/radio/cornyn041907m.MP3
As you may recall, Senator Cornyn has requested a Judiciary Committee oversight hearing of this case, but it has thus far been delayed by Senate Democrats.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/OPINION01/704220522/1069/OPINION
Time's up: Michigan leaders must cut spending AND raise revenue
April 22, 2007
Tax increase.
The two words that responsible, intellectually honest people acknowledge have to be part of any solution to the state's immediate budget crisis, even if nobody wants to say so out loud for fear of being tarred by another shrieky Republican press release.
http://www.mlive.com/business/aanews/index.ssf?/base/business-5/1177225528306550.xml&coll=2
No replacement for business tax yet
Deadline for action just weeks away
Sunday, April 22, 2007
BY PETER LUKE
Ann Arbor News Bureau
It's been nine months since lawmakers voted to kill Michigan's Single Business Tax effective Dec. 31, and there isn't a replacement to the $1.9 billion tax in sight.
A July 1 deadline for action is now just weeks away. Alarmed business and economic development officials have no idea what the liability will be when a new tax takes effect Jan.1. Plus, lawmakers are passing budget bills that spend anticipated revenues from a business tax that doesn't even yet exist.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1177236304278730.xml&coll=3
Some real troopers!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Earlier this month, 29 Michigan State Police troopers' jobs were on the line. They were "casualties" of the governor's executive-order budget cuts. However, the jobs were spared by intervention of the Michigan State Police Troopers Association. It pledged $400,000 to continue the salaries at least until June.
Reaction hasn't been uniformly positive. One newspaper observed, "Police protection should never be a political issue, but of course that's impossible in Michigan, where 29 state troopers were slated for layoff until their union stepped in and saved the day."
Thus, this well-intended action of the union has had the effect of highlighting apparently absurd funding priorities of a state that can't even keep troopers on the road. But it isn't as simple as that. The department overspent its budget and has a $13.6 million deficit. Something had to be done. The 29 troopers are, in fact, the price being exacted for departmental overspending.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS06/704220615/1008
Strapped governments shop for police service
April 22, 2007
With fewer state dollars filtering down to Livingston County communities, budget cuts have become a priority. Police and fire service seekers and providers have been hit hard, forcing both to look for ways to reduce costs.
When the Howell Area Fire Department recently lost its contract to cover a portion of Genoa Township, it suddenly faced a $340,000 shortfall. The department's fire authority board met last week to decide how to deal with lost revenue.
http://www.mlive.com/news/chronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1177236975301810.xml&coll=8
Public safety a top concern
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Steve Gunn
sgunn@muskegonchronicle.com
Muskegon County commissioners have been studying options for a new jail for over a year. Faced with issues of overcrowding and deteriorating facilities in the nearly 50-year-old building, commissioners are seeking a plan that will be palatable to taxpayers.
While most county officials love the idea of finding a lower-cost plan for a new jail, some raise flags about the possibility of cutting too many corners.
Muskegon County Sheriff George Jurkas, for instance, hopes commissioners aren't sold on the idea of having only a handful of guards, as they do in Jackson County, supervising hundreds of inmates in an open-floor environment.
http://www.mlive.com/news/chronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1177236919301810.xml&coll=8
Officials try to tackle overcrowding, deterioration with tax-weary public
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Steve Gunn
sgunn@muskegonchronicle.com
As Muskegon County officials continue to plan for a new county jail, a fresh concept has crept into their collective thought process: Big and expensive might not be better, particularly when the county will need voter-approved property taxes to build any sort of jail.
Not long ago, county officials were developing a millage ballot proposal based on a conventional plan -- building a large, multiple story, modern jail, costing as much as $60 million.
But then a failed countywide millage election got their attention.
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1177237320325290.xml&coll=9
Restoring trust with each dollar
Sunday, April 22, 2007
LIKENING THE CITY'S
financial health to a hospital patient last week, City Manager Darnell Earley said Saginaw remains on a stretcher but is sitting up.
"We're on our way back," Earley told City Council members. "We're going to get up off that gurney."
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1177236332278730.xml&coll=3
Traffic-ticket zeal: Safety or revenue?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Here's a multiple-choice question: Jackson County commissioners were driven by what motive last week in approving $50,000 for stepped-up traffic enforcement? 1) the urgency of traffic safety, 2) the urgency of generating revenue, 3) both, or 4) none of the above.
Unless you're an idealist, you know the most correct answer is No. 2 -- revenue. But the answer is debatable, so let's discuss the matter.
The $50,000 mid-year appropriation followed a sequence of events: County commissioners noticed a steady decline in the number of traffic tickets being written in Jackson County, plus an increase in accidents. The decline in citations created a $750,000 hole in the county budget. A task force was formed. That panel, made up of local officials, came back with a recommendation to fund an overtime traffic-enforcement program for local law-enforcement agencies.
Arts community's voices heard on funding cuts
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk
The Grand Rapids Press
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
That's what artists and actors, musicians and dancers across Michigan are hoping for.
That's why artist Margie Erlandson, from the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, brandished a sign reading "We Gotta Have Art" and stood together with Mary Postellon, a Grand River Folk Arts Society member, among the crowd of 300 people who gathered Wednesday at the State Capitol for a rally protesting cuts in art funding.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-35/1177223907239370.xml&coll=6
Leaders perk up at talk of cutting benefits
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Jim Harger
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- It was a short-lived debate, conducted only by e-mail.
"I propose we eliminate health care insurance as well as examine the other benefits given to elected officials," 2nd Ward Grand Rapids City Commissioner Rosalynn Bliss wrote March 17 to her fellow commissioners.
Bliss was replying to an earlier e-mail in which 2nd Ward Commissioner Rick Tormala urged them not to buy a new car for Mayor George Heartwell.
http://www.mlive.com/news/annarbornews/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1177226104306550.xml&coll=2
<FEFF>He fixed up condemned house; now he may have to lose it Bad timing in selling home put it in forecl
Sunday, April 22, 2007
BY JO MATHIS
News Staff Reporter
Retiree Dennis Schuldt of South Lyon had renovated and sold two houses for a nice profits when he decided to try it one more time a couple of years ago.
He paid $60,000 cash for an abandoned house near Depot Town in Ypsilanti, took out a $160,000 loan at 9.5 percent, and put $120,000 into the renovation.
Pleased with the results, he put the house on the market in January of 2006 for $198,000. Then he waited. And waited.
http://www.mlive.com/news/annarbornews/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1177224247306550.xml&coll=2
Would-be buyers at auction, beware
'There have been a lot of tears'
Sunday, April 22, 2007
BY JO MATHIS AND ART AISNER
News Staff Reporters
Buying foreclosed property is not for novices.
"There are horror stories,'' said Special Deputy Jimmy Moore, who auctions off mortgage foreclosures every week at the Washtenaw County Courthouse. "There have been a lot tears.''
He said he knows of a case where a couple bought a house at an auction. Later, it burned to the ground. Because they couldn't insure something they don't yet own - and there's a six- to 12-month redemption period before they take ownership - they lost everything except for the value of the land.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1177236352278730.xml&coll=3
Home sales tumble
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Tarryl Jackson
tjackson@citpat.com --768-4941
It took nine months for Jan Gleason to sell her mother's home -- but she considers herself lucky.
With today's sluggish real estate market, many sellers have waited a year or more to unload a home, and been forced to reduce the listing price.
According to the Jackson Area Association of Realtors, residential sales were at about $21.6 million in March 2006, compared to $14 million in March of this year. The average selling price for the same time period dropped from $130,278 to $113,893.
http://www.mlive.com/columns/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1177224481306550.xml&coll=2
Virginia Tech tragedy hits close to home
Sunday, April 22, 2007
The shocking violence last week at Virginia Tech has yet again pulled our nation into mourning, raising more questions than answers and forcing us to confront the delicate balance between freedom and security.
Schools and universities are places where children and young adults should be sheltered. Of course, in many academic institutions, that's just not the case these days. You need look no further than the metal detectors installed at schools across the country - aiming, not always with success, to prevent students from bringing guns and knives into school - to know that the world we live in can be a perilous place.
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/042207/loc_university001.shtml
PUBLISHED: Sunday, April 22, 2007
New call for county university
By Chad Selweski
Macomb Daily Staff Writer
The creation of a 4-year university in Macomb County to boost the number of Macomb college graduates and lift the local economy are among the recommendations made by a committee appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
The Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth in Macomb County also calls for "urgent" interim steps, such as the establishment of some 4-year degree programs at Macomb Community College and improvements at MCC's University Center in Clinton Township.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS05/704220688/1007
Yiddish gets fresh hearing
April 22, 2007
If you're a maven about classic comic shtick that makes you laugh until you're feeling a little verklempt, then you're already part of the global effort that's bringing some of the world's top Yiddish scholars to the University of Michigan today through Tuesday.
"But if people think that Yiddish is only a funny old language used by comedians, then they're missing the much larger world of Yiddish culture that we're trying to revive," Anita Norich, director of the U-M's Frankel Institute for Judaic Studies, said as she prepared for the three-day, public conference.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS06/704220625/1008
Lawmakers seek help for 2-year community colleges
April 22, 2007
LANSING -- Michigan's community colleges are expected to be a driving force in the state's quest to get workers geared up for a changing economy.
About 450,000 students attend the state's 28, two-year schools. Enrollment is up at least 12% in the last five years.
Many of the students are older than traditional college age and attend class part time, picking up new skills to boost their chances at landing a secure job in Michigan's troubled economy. It's a relatively attractive option because tuition is less expensive than at four-year universities.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/DELTAWAVERLY02/704220318/1006/news05
Published April 22, 2007
[ From Delta-Waverly Community News ]
Money trouble Waverly faces up and down money future
By ALAN MILLER
Lansing Community Newspapers
GRAND LEDGE — It has been an up and down year for school finance officials. Mostly down.
On Dec. 11, the Waverly school board adopted a budget amendment with a deficit of approximately $1 million, assuming that they would receive state aid payments in accordance with state's adopted budget, according to business manager Rob Spagnuolo.
On Jan. 18, state officials recognized there isn't enough revenue for the promised payments from the state's school aid fund.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS06/704220656/1008
Foster care laws examined
Judges: Kids damaged too much
April 22, 2007
Mark Jansen is proud of his votes nearly 10 years ago as a state representative for a package of 10 bills designed to shorten the time Michigan children spend in foster care.
The legislation -- named after then-Lt. Gov. Connie Binsfeld and approved without a single no vote -- made it easier for judges to terminate the rights of abusive or neglectful parents so their kids could have a better chance of being adopted. The bills were signed into law in December 1997.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-43/1177237469325430.xml&coll=5
CAN WE AFFORD ...TO SAVE CATHY HATCHS LIFE?
Dont worry; we already have.
GENESEE COUNTY
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Shantell M. Kirkendoll
skirkendoll@flintjournal.com
GENESEE COUNTY - Can we afford to save Cathy Hatch's life?
Don't worry; we already have.
Hatch, who works as a housekeeper, went eight years without seeing a doctor because she had no health insurance. When she did go in 2005 - for an elbow problem - doctors found an aortic aneurysm, a fragile blood-vessel bulge below her heart that's deadly if it ruptures. A 9 1/2-inch surgery scar down Hatch's chest shows how much work went into repairing it.
The total cost: about $100,000, covered partly by Genesys Regional Medical Center, where she had the surgery - and partly by the taxpayer supported, county-run Genesee Health Plan.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/OPINION01/704220301/1008
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Fuel economy costs
Why hiking fuel mandates won't curb oil consumption
It has never been cheap or easy to go green. And environmental activists are doing all they can to keep it that way, particularly as it relates to cars and trucks.
Proposals before Congress that would require 4 percent increases in the failed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards would increase the price of vehicles by as much as $6,000. And over the long-haul, the standards aren't achievable anyway without great cost.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-43/1177237504325430.xml&coll=5
Change for the worse?
Global warming could further damage Michigan's economy
CLAYTON TOWNSHIP
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Elizabeth Shaw
eshaw@flintjournal.com
CLAYTON TWP. - Jim Koan sees global warming in every damaged bud on his apple trees at Almar Orchards this spring.
More frequent and erratic weather extremes - hallmarks of climate change - are already happening here, Koan said.
"We haven't had any normal years in the last few years, with some of the worst extremes in weather closer together than I can ever remember," said Koan, 58. "It won't take too many catastrophes to wipe us out."
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-43/1177237525325430.xml&coll=5
Weather events could jolt state economy, environment
GENESEE COUNTY
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Elizabeth Shaw
eshaw@flintjournal.com
How much could climate change affect us in Michigan?
Tourism based on winter recreation - skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing - could suffer the most if winters warm up.
Food prices could go up if farmers faced increased costs for irrigation, pest control and crop losses from extreme weather events. Small farms could lose out to large commercial farms better equipped to absorb those costs.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-35/1177225052239370.xml&coll=6
Are legislators as green as they think?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Jim Harger
The Grand Rapids Press
State Rep. Dave Hildenbrand drives a Jeep Cherokee sports utility vehicle and uses herbicides to kill the crabgrass that infests the lawn at his 8-acre homestead.
The Lowell Township Republican doesn't pay his trash hauler extra to collect his recyclables. Instead, he hauls recycled paper, cans and bottles to a Kent County transfer station near Rockford "a few times a year."
Hildenbrand gave himself an "8" when asked to rate himself on a "green" scale of 1-10.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-35/1177223521239370.xml&coll=6
How green is your lawmaker?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
The Press presented 14 West Michigan state legislators with a "How Green Are You?" questionnaire to mark today's observance of Earth Day. What we asked them, why it matters and what they had to say.
THE QUESTIONS
Do you recycle? If so, what items do you recycle?
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS05/704220598/1007
It's cool to be green
Michiganders heat up their efforts to save planet
April 22, 2007
Just in time for today's 37th anniversary of Earth Day, the Earth is back. Green is cool; global warming is hot.
"It's a great time to be an environmentalist," said Lana Pollack, executive director of the Michigan Environmental Council in Lansing. "I really believe the public has reached a tipping point in terms of concern and understanding about global warming. There's been a big change, even in just the last year."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS05/704220600/1007
Tips on living a greener life
April 22, 2007
Lights: Switch from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. If every household in America switched just five bulbs, the energy savings would be equivalent to taking 8 million cars off the road.
At home: Buy energy-efficient appliances and electronics that carry the Energy Star label. Make sure your doors and windows are well sealed. Buy a programmable thermostat that allows you to set your heating and air-conditioning to use less energy when you're not home. Turn off your computer and monitor when they're not in use. Unplug your TV whenever you leave town. TVs suck up energy even when turned off.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS07/704220601/1007
Want to help? Learn to lighten your carbon footprint
April 22, 2007
Want to show you're hip to being green? Control your carbon footprint. As a concept, it is becoming increasingly fashionable. Remember, having a big one is not a good thing.
The phrase refers to the amount each of us contributes to global warming through the carbon dioxide produced to make our individual lifestyles possible.
According to the Web site for Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," the average American's carbon footprint is the equivalent of 7.5 tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year. Other sources put the number higher.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/OPINION03/704220302/1008/OPINION01
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Manny Lopez
Earth Day extremists put platform ahead of progress
In celebration of Earth Day today, I test drove an SUV and pulled my 1966 Mustang out of storage.
I'd have done it earlier, but the frost and snow we've endured since spring started a month ago made it a bit inconvenient to do so -- and that's the truth. Remind me again how imminent the global warming threat is in Michigan.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-3/117721835665170.xml&coll=7
On Earth Day, let's give the planet a break
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Perhaps it's the Al Gore film ``An Inconvenient Truth'' that has more people talking about the environment.
Or more instances of severe weather that are raking the United States.
Or the fact that gasoline prices keep rising.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-23/1177093204218170.xml&coll=7
Original activists worry about future Will today's youths step up and push environmental agenda?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Chris Killian
Special to the Gazette
At the tail-end of the tumultuous 1960s, a decade when so many social movements took root, the seed of Earth Day was planted.
On this day in 1970, millions of Americans celebrated the first Earth Day at rallies across the country, advocating for environmental justice with the same vigor they had exhibited to push for the passage of civil rights legislation and an end to the Vietnam War.
Thirty-seven years later, however, the boisterous enthusiasm seems to have wilted.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1177224279239370.xml&coll=6
What's your role in Planet Makeover?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Whatever the role of government in protecting our environment, and arguably it should be substantial, given our common interest in a livable planet, each of us is the best immediate defense against irreversible damage to our natural world.
Most of us know we can make a difference, but as Kermit the Frog discovered years ago, it isn't easy being green.
A majority of people surveyed in a USA Today/Gallup poll are willing to go green on their own terms, depending on their interests and their wallets. The same majority, though, wouldn't want a surcharge added to utility bills if homes overstep energy-use levels; and most of us would oppose laws requiring cars sold in the U.S. to dramatically improve gas mileage.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1177236949301940.xml&coll=4
Are you doing your part?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By JEFF KART
TIMES WRITER
A river of paper flows on a conveyor belt.
Plastic bottles are stacked as high as houses.
''Basically, nothing is garbage,'' says John Wolverton, a site manager at Recycle America in Saginaw.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-23/117721818865170.xml&coll=7
Plainwell residents question wisdom of PCB disposal plan
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Jeff Barr
jbarr@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8581
PLAINWELL -- Folks around town here say they're glad they'll soon be rid of toxic waste lining the bed and banks of the Kalamazoo River that flows through their home.
But they offer sympathies to their neighbors in Kalamazoo who fear they're going to get stuck with it.
Kalamazoo city and county officials, residents and environmental groups have spent the past few weeks expressing outrage at the prospect of having Plainwell's toxic material dumped on the Kalamazoo's south side.
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1177236379278730.xml&coll=3
Human-rights advocate speaks
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Kristin Longley
klongley@citpat.com -- 768-4917
Terrorists are like the neighborhood bully that William Schulz said he faced as a child.
His instinct was to retaliate with a strong left hook. Instead, he surrounded himself with friends and strategically made nice with his enemy's allies.
"If I had taken the military course ! I might have been in a long, nasty battle," the former executive director of Amnesty International USA said Saturday night at Jackson Community College. "This is what the United States has done wrong in Iraq."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS06/704220692/1008
Edwards: I'd invest billions in Michigan
Let carmakers lead energy shift, he says
April 22, 2007
The U.S. government should invest billions to help Michigan become the hub for transforming the nation's energy economy, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday.
Speaking to more than 1,800 Democrats at the annual Jefferson Jackson dinner at Cobo Center in Detroit, Edwards said he'd like to see Michigan evolve.
Republicans chided Edwards for spending $800 from campaign funds for two haircuts. He reimbursed his campaign.
"The amount of money that Edwards spends on a haircut is more than an unemployed Michigan citizen can receive for an entire week," said Saul Anuzis, Michigan GOP chairman.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NATION/704220324/1022/POLITICS
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Edwards speaks to Detroit Democrats, calls for U.S. to leave Iraq
Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
DETROIT -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards told Michigan Democrats Saturday night that the United States must quickly get out of Iraq, which he called a "bleeding sore."
"The amount of money that Edwards spends on a haircut is more than an unemployed Michigan citizen can receive for an entire week," Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis said in a statement Saturday. "Edwards clearly lives in a world apart from average everyday citizens and this is not the type of leadership that Michigan, let alone America, needs."
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.hinzsightreport.com/dave/dave-042107.html
Blockbuster Video – Hillary Tapes Prove FEC Fraud
THESE LATE FEES ARE GOING TO COST HER BIG!
By Dave Hinz - Publisher
04/21/07
Title 2 section 437 of the U.S. federal elections code states:
“Any person who knowingly and willfully commits a violation of any provision of this act which involves the making, receiving, or reporting of any contribution, donation, or expenditure aggregating $25,000 or more during a calendar year shall be fined under Title 18, or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both.”
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070421/D8OL8VO02.html
Clinton Says Husband Would Be Ambassador
Apr 21, 6:26 PM (ET)
By MIKE GLOVER
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday that if she is elected president, she would make her husband a roaming ambassador to the world, using his skills to repair the nation's tattered image abroad.
"I can't think of a better cheerleader for America than Bill Clinton, can you?" the Democratic senator from New York asked a crowd jammed into a junior high school gymnasium. "He has said he would do anything I asked him to do. I would put him to work."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2007-04-21-clinton-iowa_N.htm
Clinton vows new focus on 'invisible' middle class
By Jeff Eckhoff, Des Moines Register
Sen. Hillary Clinton promised Iowans Saturday that if they pick her to be the next U.S. president, she will push "to begin to set the scales, the balances, straight" in an American society that she says has lost sight of its struggling middle class.
Under the Republican administration of President Bush, many ordinary Americans have become invisible to their government, Clinton told a crowd of more than 100 people crowded into a Newton coffee shop. Single mothers who need health care, struggling war veterans and others all have gone unnoticed, she said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042001964.html
At Rutgers, Clinton Ties Flap to Fight For Equality
Women and Blacks Are Vital in Primary
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 21, 2007; Page A02
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., April 20 -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) decried what she called a "culture of degradation" in a speech at Rutgers University on Friday, tying radio host Don Imus's controversial remarks about the university's women's basketball team to a larger struggle for equality for both women and racial minorities, two groups she is aggressively courting as she seeks the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton praised the Rutgers team for its "bravado" after comments Imus made two weeks ago, in which he called the players "nappy-headed hos." Imus was fired last week by CBS Radio, which aired his show, and NBC, which simulcast it on MSNBC, but Clinton said that the networks' actions should not end the episode and that people around the country should uphold the "Rutgers pledge," a commitment to speak out about comments like those Imus made.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/21/AR2007042100998.html
Democrats Recruiting Challengers for Growing Target List
By Chris Cillizza And Shailagh Murray
Sunday, April 22, 2007; Page A02
When Rep. Sam Graves (R) won Missouri's 6th District in 2000 with 51 percent, it was assumed that he would be a regular Democratic target. His subsequent reelection percentages -- 63 percent in 2002, 64 in 2004, 62 in 2006 -- show how quickly Graves fell off Democrats' radar.
No more.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/21/AR2007042100999.html
GOP Troubles May Hurt Bid To Retake Congress in 2008
Two Committee Resignations Put Spotlight Back on Ethics
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 22, 2007; Page A03
The abrupt resignations last week of two Republican House members from their sensitive committee assignments have thrust lingering legal and ethics issues back into the limelight, potentially complicating GOP efforts to retake Congress next year.
On successive days, Wednesday and Thursday, Reps. John T. Doolittle (Calif.) and Rick Renzi (Ariz.) disclosed FBI raids on their wives' businesses. The men proclaimed their innocence, but the raids exposed their legal jeopardy. The announcements were only the most recent in a series of developments that have kept the focus on the old ethical and legal clouds that helped chase the Republican Party from power on Capitol Hill.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/opinion/22sun3.html
Clueless in the Senate
Published: April 22, 2007
For a while last week it looked as if the Senate was finally going to wrestle itself into the digital age (and full public view) and require members to file their campaign fund-raising reports electronically. That is until Senator Unknown, Republican of Nowhere, put a hold on the bipartisan legislation.
For years the Senate has clung to a tedious paper-intensive method of filing worthy of Bartleby. The information, which can show which senators are close to what big-money special interests, is churned twice like a cud, through paper, then separate computer versions, before being available to the public, months after the comparable money reports of House members and lobbyists.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/21/AR2007042100792.html
After Adopting Term Limits, States Lose Female Legislators
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 22, 2007; Page A04
CHICAGO -- Jo Ann Davidson remembers feeling optimistic that term limits would land more women in Ohio's legislature, where 32 of the 132 seats were held by women in the mid-1990s. Yet in the seven years since the law took effect, the figure has fallen to 23.
And now women elected after voters imposed eight-year term limits are surrendering seats because of the rules. Often, the posts are going to men.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/opinion/22sun4.html
Another Young Man Who Was Angry and Lonely, but Unarmed
By NICHOLAS KULISH
Published: April 22, 2007
I will never forget that the Long Island Rail Road massacre happened during my freshman year at Columbia in 1993. Like the recent killings at Virginia Tech, it was an indelibly horrible event, but that’s not why I remember precisely where I was.
A handful of students from my freshman floor were watching the coverage in the tiny, ill-kept common room where we usually played a Sega golf video game or watched bad talk shows between classes. At first, the news that Colin Ferguson had murdered six people on a commuter train elicited the kind of stunned reactions you might expect. One of my classmates got a different message.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/hjenkins/?id=110009974
The Mass Shooting Puzzle
What can we do about psychopathic warning signs?
BY HOLMAN W. JENKINS JR.
Sunday, April 22, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
There are dangerous, vicious people among us, a recognition that ought to be the starting point of any policy aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings.
In the case of Mark Barton, the disgruntled investor who shot up an Atlanta day-trading shop in 1999, he had left a trail of police officers, insurance investigators, in-laws, neighbors and former employers, who knew he was a psychopath and suspected he was a killer, though police had never been able to make a case against him. In the case of Salvador Tapia, who shot up a Chicago warehouse in 2003, he had been the subject of numerous police calls for aggravated assault, domestic battery and threatening family members with a gun.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042002020.html
Bush Rebuffs GOP Pressure For Gonzales to Step Down
After Testimony, Attorney General Loses Lawmakers' Support
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 21, 2007; Page A03
President Bush yesterday stood by his embattled friend, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, defying the broad bipartisan consensus emerging in Washington after this week's Senate hearing that Gonzales has so badly damaged his own credibility that he should resign.
Bush expressed "full confidence" in Gonzales through a spokeswoman and praised his "fantastic" service, in hopes of quashing speculation that the attorney general would be pushed out. But a wide array of Republicans described Gonzales with phrases such as "dead man walking," and even some White House aides privately voiced hope that he will step down on his own.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/opinion/22sun1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Progress on Immigration
Published: April 22, 2007
Two important words to remember in the immigration debate in Congress are “triggers” and “touchback.” During last year’s ill-fated wrangling, the terms made the supporters of comprehensive reform bristle. The first refers to tough border-security benchmarks that the nation would have to meet before other parts of reform would kick in. The second refers to the requirement that illegal immigrants leave the country — even if only touching down briefly over the border — before re-entering on a legal footing.
Opponents of both concepts saw them as ways to sabotage a good bill. Triggers were seen as a way to start right away on the popular fence-building and other border-sealing measures sought by Republicans while delaying, possibly forever, the more humane elements of reform: a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and temporary visas for new workers. The touchback provision was seen as just another unnecessary hurdle for immigrants, proposed to satisfy hard-liners.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042002284.html
Key Initiative Of 'No Child' Under Federal Investigation
Officials Profited From Reading First Program
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 21, 2007; Page A01
The Justice Department is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism, people familiar with the matter said yesterday.
The disclosure came as a congressional hearing revealed how people implementing the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program made at least $1 million off textbooks and tests toward which the federal government steered states.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042002128.html
Reliance on Coal Sullies 'Green the Capitol' Effort
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 21, 2007; Page A01
When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a pre-Earth Day news conference this week to promote her plans to "Green the Capitol," she promised a number of steps to make the congressional campus a model of environmentalism.
But, surrounded by boxes of energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs she wants to install in 12,000 desk lamps, she became conspicuously vague when asked about the pair of towering smokestacks four blocks away.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_CORRESPONDENTS?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Apr 22, 6:21 AM EDT
Bush passes up comedy at media dinner
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, deferring to the tragedy at Virginia Tech, passed up any attempt to be funny at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday, leaving those efforts to impersonator Rich Little.
Returning to the podium at the annual dinner after 23 years, Little made good on his promise to be gentle.
Little's material was safe if occasionally a little raunchy. He dusted off his impersonations of six presidents, from Nixon to the current occupant of the White House, and avoided any reference to current political issues.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/21/AR2007042101000.html
Congress Skeptical of Warhead Plan
Lawmakers and Experts Question Necessity, Implications of a New Nuclear Weapon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 22, 2007; Page A05
Congressional hearings over the past several weeks have shown that the Bush administration's plan to move ahead with a new generation of nuclear warheads faces strong opposition from House and Senate members concerned that the effort lacks any strategic underpinning and could lead to a new nuclear arms race.
Experts inside and outside the government questioned moving forward with a new warhead as old ones are being refurbished and before developing bipartisan agreement on how many warheads would be needed at the end of what could be a 30-year process. Several, including former senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), suggested linking production of a new warhead with U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a move the Bush administration has opposed.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ_OPTIONS?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Apr 22, 5:07 AM EDT
Dems mull options amid likely Iraq veto
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats are considering their next step after President Bush's inevitable veto of their war spending proposal, including a possible short-term funding bill that would force Congress to revisit the issue this summer.
Another alternative is providing the Pentagon the money it needs for the war but insisting that the Iraqi government live up to certain political promises. Or, sending Bush what he wants for now and setting their sights on 2008 spending legislation.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NEW_TEAM_THUMBNAILS?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Apr 21, 1:28 PM EDT
Key members of new Iraq team
A look at important members of President Bush's new management team for the Iraq war:
DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES:
Took over from Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Pentagon in December. The move followed heavy Republican losses in the 2006 congressional elections and was heavy on symbolism. Rumsfeld had been a key proponent of war and an architect of the 2003 invasion. Gates had been a member of the blue ribbon Iraq Study Group panel and contributed to the group's report that recommended fundamental changes in U.S. strategy for conduct of war and diplomatic strategy in Iraq.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NEW_IRAQ_TEAM?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Apr 21, 1:27 PM EDT
New Iraq team brings a fresh look to war
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House search for a "war czar" caps a lengthy reshuffle that has placed pragmatists and critics of the Bush administration's early moves in Iraq in charge of managing a war that the U.S. feels it can't quit but can't quite win.
Gen. David Petraeus recently took command of U.S. forces in Iraq, Ryan Crocker is the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Adm. William J. Fallon recently became commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East. All are skeptics of the previous strategy. The State Department also has a new chief of reconstruction in Iraq who had been a harsh critic of the war's early policies.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_TROOP_BOOST?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Apr 21, 10:37 PM EDT
Analysis: Iraq surge may be extended
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon is laying the groundwork to extend the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq. At the same time, the administration is warning Iraqi leaders that the boost in forces could be reversed if political reconciliation is not evident by summer.
This approach underscores the central difficulty facing President Bush. If political progress is not possible in the relatively short term, then the justification for sending thousands more U.S. troops to Baghdad - and accepting the rising U.S. combat death toll that has resulted - will disappear. That in turn would put even more pressure on Bush to yield to the Democratic-led push to wind down the war in coming months.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Apr 21, 7:58 PM EDT
Bush: Sectarian killings drop in Baghdad
EAST GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- President Bush said Friday that sectarian murders have dropped by half in Baghdad since the U.S.-Iraqi military buildup began in February, rejecting a Democratic leader's claim that the war is lost. The president said early signs show the operation to quell violence is meeting expectations.
"There are still horrific attacks in Iraq, such as the bombings in Baghdad on Wednesday, but the direction of the fight is beginning to shift," Bush said in his second speech on terrorism in two days.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/OPINION01/704220529/1069
A side effect of Iraq war may be higher homicide rates
April 22, 2007
Elliot Leyton closed his final lecture before retiring three years ago from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a warning for America. He forecast that as the war in Iraq dragged on, the United States would likely see a rise in violent crime, even catastrophic mass homicides.
Leyton was not just guessing. An anthropologist, he is an internationally regarded expert on such subjects and the author of a definitive 1986 book published in Canada as "Hunting Humans: The Rise of the Modern Multiple Murderer," and in the United States as "Compulsive Killers: The Story of the Modern Multiple Murderer." The book has since been updated and reissued several times, as have other Leyton works, including "Men of Blood: Murder in Modern England" and "Sole Survivor: Children Who Murder Their Families."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/OPINION03/704220303/1008/OPINION01
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Nolan Finley
Let's raise more Yankee Doodle Dandies
Roughly 2.7 million babies were born worldwide last week. Born in modern hospitals and in ancient huts. Born to mothers free to make the ultimate choice and to mothers never allowed to decide anything for themselves.
Born in places where the arrival of a baby sets in motion college funds, Little League dreams and showers of presents, and in places where life is so uncertain that a birth is as much cause for grief as it is joy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/opinion/22sun2.html
Iraq’s Desperate Exodus
Published: April 22, 2007
Four years of war have exacted a terrible toll on Iraqis, with no end in sight. Car bombings and other violence now kill an average of 100 people a day. Two out of three Iraqis have no regular access to clean water. Children are malnourished and too many are dying from preventable diseases and the near collapse of the health care system.
And an incredible total of four million people — one out of every seven Iraqis — have been forced to flee their homes. If Iraq continues this descent, the refugee tide could turn into a regional tsunami, with potentially convulsive political consequences.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009973
What the Cold War Taught Us
Liberal democracies, not activists and international law, protect human rights.
BY ERIC POSNER
Sunday, April 22, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
The international human rights regime has fallen on hard times. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote recently that "since the U.S. can't provide credible leadership on human rights, European countries must pick up the slack." But the Europeans, Mr. Roth notes, are no more enthusiastic about pressuring foreign countries than is the U.S.
The United Nation's Human Rights Council is in no position to pick up the slack, either.
The Human Rights Council has performed even more dismally than its much maligned predecessor, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The latter was disbanded because it had become a platform dominated by human rights abusers who used it mostly for criticizing Israel. The Human Rights Council, by contrast, is a platform dominated by human rights abusers who use it exclusively for criticizing Israel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/opinion/22judt.html
France Looks Ahead, and It Doesn’t Look Good
By TONY JUDT
Published: April 22, 2007
IT is easy to underestimate Jacques Chirac.
Today the French will begin to vote for a new president, and soon Mr. Chirac, the 74-year-old incumbent, will pass from the scene unmourned. Over a political career spanning nearly five decades, during which he was mayor of Paris, prime minister (twice) and president for 12 years, Mr. Chirac appears to have achieved little.
As mayor from 1977 to 1995, he oversaw a steady rise in political corruption and municipal graft (albeit both at insignificant levels by American big-city standards). As president, he abandoned his promises to resolve shortcomings in France’s employment laws and social services in the face of street protests. And he has done little to redress the grievances of France’s minorities or the anxieties of young people. On both sides of the Atlantic, Mr. Chirac’s political obituary is being written in distinctly unflattering terms.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2007/04/french_presidential_election.html
French Style Politics
The Fix spends most of his time focused like a laser on American politics, but occasionally the eye wanders across the ocean to presidential elections in other countries.
The more worldly of Fix readers know that Sunday marks the first round of the French presidential race, which includes a crowded field with four prominent frontrunners: center-right choice Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist Segolene Royal, who is seeking to become the first female president of France, centrist Francois Bayrou and far-right controversy-monger Jean-Marie Le Pen.
