Articles of Interest 5-14-07
MORNING UPDATE:
Registration opens for the bi-annual Republican Mackinac Conference to be held September 21-23, 2007.
Budget talks in full swing.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day!
THE REST OF THE STORY:
Our bi-annual Republican Mackinac Conference registration is now open. You can click on the link below and register on-line.
www.mackinacconference.com
Senate Republicans continue to push a balanced budget without raising taxes. They are forcing a series of reviews and reforms of state spending. There are areas of waste and abuse that we must address if we are going to solve this budget once and for all.
Structural problems with state employee contracts, MEA contracts and inefficiencies throughout the state have forced us into unsustainable financial obligations that will continue to plague taxpayers. The liabilities are growing, we have to change the way we provide benefits and retirement to many of our government employees.
Government needs to be competitive with the private sector. We also need to consider what other states are doing. This will be controversial but necessary.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1179038352270920.xml&coll=6
Aloha, Grand Rapids
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Don Ho may not croon "Tiny Bubbles" anymore. But in every other respect Honolulu's picturesque Waikiki beach remains a great place to relax and unwind, and the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort and Spa seems an idyllic vacation getaway.
But is it the right spot to send a large number of pension board members from Michigan for an "educational" conference?
Uh, Don No.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1178951958252550.xml&coll=6
Try again for tax hike
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Grand Rapids Community College leaders should heed the old saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again." The college's first tax hike request in 16 years failed by a slim margin in Tuesday's election. Given what's at stake and the close vote, GRCC trustees shouldn't hesitate to ask again in either August or November.
The .56-mill request lost by just 739 votes, due largely to the "no" votes that came from suburban and rural communities. The tax was backed by voters in Grand Rapids, Kentwood, East Grand Rapids, and the townships of Ada, Cascade and Plainfield. GRCC President Juan Olivarez, board trustees and supporters must do a more effective job of selling the college's mission and its needs.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/NEWS01/705140333/1001/opinion
Published May 14, 2007
[ From Lansing State Journal ]
Court hopes workers will volunteer for unpaid leave
Mich. judicial branch, facing cuts, creates furlough program
Chris Andrews
Lansing State Journal
Michigan Supreme Court officials are hoping enough of their employees will volunteer to take unpaid time off this summer to reduce or eliminate the need for mandatory days off.
The Supreme Court and its administrative arm, the State Court Administrative Office, are bracing for a $1.1 million cut in their budget for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.
They've launched the voluntary furlough day program - in which workers can agree to take up to 20 unpaid days off - even before budget cuts are finalized by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and state lawmakers. That gives them a little more time to spread out the cut.
Cerberus likely buyer of Chrysler
5/13/2007, 5:53 p.m. EDT
By TOM KRISHER
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP likely will be the winning bidder to buy Chrysler Group from DaimlerChrysler AG, and an announcement could come as early as Monday, a company official said Sunday.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because negotiations still have not been finalized, said no announcement would be made Sunday.
The potential sale comes after nearly two months of study and negotiations by several companies interested in buying DaimlerChrysler's troubled U.S. operations.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/BUSINESS01/70514006
DCX reaches deal with Cerberus
May 14, 2007
UPDATED 5:48 A.M.: In a deal to end nine unhappy years of marriage between Chrysler and Mercedes, DaimlerChrysler AG announced early this morning that it had picked private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management to take a majority ownership in the Auburn Hills-based automaker.
Cerberus, a New York City fund with several ties to the auto industry already, will pay $7.4 billion for an 80% stake in the maker of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brand vehicles.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/BUSINESS01/70514007
UAW: Deal with Cerberus in best interest for workers
May 14, 2007
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, an important voice in making a deal to sell the Chrysler Group work, this morning announced his support for a plan to sell the Auburn Hills-based unit of DaimlerChrysler AG to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.
"After a thorough review, General Holiefield and I concluded that the transaction with Cerberus is in the best interest of our membership, the Chrysler Group and Daimler," Gettelfinger said in a statement issued by the UAW early this morning.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-43/1179062452171810.xml&coll=5
Truck line may be for sale
International may buy GMs medium-duties
GENESEE COUNTY
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, May 13, 2007
By Todd Seibt
tseibt@flintjournal.com
FLINT General Motors is considering selling its medium-duty truck line, which employs about 500 people at the Flint Truck Assembly Plant, but there is no firm deal yet, sources said.
And right now, the UAW, wrapped in thorny national contract negotiations with GM and Delphi Corp., doesnt see a good reason to approve any such move.
We are aware of these ongoing talks between the parties, said Cal Rapson of Clayton Township, vice president of the UAWs GM and Delphi departments.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION01/705140318/1008
Monday, May 14, 2007
Don't punish state colleges for 'Angels' play
Lawmakers should drop threats to slice universities' funding
If the American Family Association of Michigan gets its way, a few buttocks will derail Michigan's economic resurgence.
The AFA and its supporters have been raising a stink, even threatening to lobby for a decrease of state funding to Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) and other Michigan colleges and universities for hosting a play that includes bare derrieres. The focus of their protest: Saginaw Valley's student production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Angels in America," which explores AIDS.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/NEWS05/705140368/1001
The Kalamazoo inspiration spreads widely
Similar programs follow Promise
May 14, 2007
Many have tried, but few have been able to duplicate the Kalamazoo Promise.
Bob Jorth, executive administrator of the program, said he gets calls daily from people across the country wanting to know how they can copy it.
“It is a lot of money for a community, especially if you're going to do it using private funds," Jorth said.
At least 15 similar programs were launched after the Promise. Of those, only the El Dorado (Ark.) Promise -- which covers tuition in and out of that state -- compares in scope.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/NEWS05/705140367/1007
College? There's no stopping them now
Students are determined to get free ride to success
May 14, 2007
Enrollment in Kalamazoo Public Schools is surging. More students are going to college. Fewer are dropping out. Home sales are up. And new homes are being built in the city.
The impact of the Kalamazoo Promise -- the revolutionary program that last year began providing up to four years of free college tuition to graduates of the district -- is told in the stories of people like Mondrea Sims, a 17-year-old determined to fulfill her late mother's dream that she should go to college.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION03/705140301/1008/OPINION01
Monday, May 14, 2007
Amber Arellano: The Detroit News
Young felon tries to overcome odds with new college program
At 7 a.m. Friday, Lawrence Carter's alarm shrieks as if an urban rooster. He shakes himself off his cousin's lumpy couch in a tiny apartment on Detroit's scrappy southwest side and quickly readies himself for another day of rebuilding his life.
At age 31, Lawrence is humble and a bit desperate. Once a solid working guy who supported his two children, a home and middle-class hobbies, he's now a convicted felon who can't get a job and not a dime for college.
America's young men are a new endangered species when it comes to college achievement. Nowhere in the country is that more evident than in Detroit. At Wayne County Community College, the percentage of male students has dropped to just 31 percent.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION03/705140366/1003/METRO
Monday, May 14, 2007
Nolan Finley
Kilpatrick wants 25 charter schools
Mayor hopes new middle and high schools will help redevelop Detroit.
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will ask for approval to open up to 25 charter schools in Detroit as part of what he calls an aggressive push to provide parents with quality education options.
Kilpatrick, in an exclusive interview, said that by early summer, he will ask Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the Legislature to raise the cap on charter schools to allow his office to partner with cultural institutions and businesses in the city to create a string of small middle and high schools, the first of which would likely open in fall 2008.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION01/705140307/1069
MSU needs to step back on med school vote
May 14, 2007
Health care in the Detroit area, especially the city, is too big an issue and, at the moment, too unsettled for Michigan State University to decide unilaterally to move some of its medical students into the Detroit Medical Center. If there are, in fact, consequences for the Wayne State University Medical School, which also is at DMC -- and WSU raises some legitimate issues -- there will be an adverse effect on health care in the city.
The MSU board also may chill relations with WSU at a time when the two schools and the University of Michigan profess to be working in rare concert to catalyze much-needed economic activity for the state.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/NEWS05/705140324/1007
Rising gas prices fuel rise in office carpooling
Workers say they save big, enjoy company
May 14, 2007
The three men fold their rugged frames into the sedan, dressed in pressed business casual. Five days a week, they meet at 6 a.m., with a 15-minute grace period, and head home together at 3:30 p.m.
Bob Hasenauer of Fraser, Bill Coyne of Clinton Township and Dominic Torres of Shelby Township are among the growing number of Michigan residents who carpool to save money on fuel.
With gas prices hitting up to $3.39 a gallon in metro Detroit over the weekend, carpooling can be an attractive option.
"It's the cost of gas and the wear and tear on vehicles," explained Hasenauer, a 53-year-old cost analyst, adding that he saved about $240 a month. "It's to help with our budgets at home and help with our car care. It's a big plus for us to be able to catch some Z's. We're up at 4:30-5 every morning to get to work."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION01/705140317/1008
Monday, May 14, 2007
Mayor should disband troubling civic fund
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick once again finds himself under a cloud of suspicion for not drawing a sharp line between spending on public duties and spending on personal luxuries.
The best way for the mayor to walk out from under that cloud is to dismantle the nonprofit Civic Fund that paid for an $8,600 trip to a California resort for him and his family and submit the fund to a thorough independent audit.
The fund is a distraction the mayor doesn't need as he strives to avoid repeating the lapses in judgment that dogged his first term.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION01/705140315/1008
Monday, May 14, 2007
Special Letter
Reform state's broken public defender system
Solutions to the state's prison crisis ("Amend laws to ease overcrowded prisons," April 17) must include reform of Michigan's broken public defense system. Public defenders play an enormous role in ensuring that our criminal justice system operates efficiently.
But, due to huge caseloads, defenders frequently seek delays that leave people sitting in jail for long periods before their guilt or innocence is determined. They fail to research alternatives to incarceration or check that the sentencing calculation is correct. As a result, people have undoubtedly spent far longer in jail than the law requires. Worse, without an appropriate defense, the innocent are convicted of crimes they did not commit -- a gross injustice that wastes taxpayer money. Michigan fails to provide adequate funding, standards, oversight or training for public defense. The link between this failure and our ballooning incarceration costs is obvious. State policymakers should take note.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070513/NEWS06/70513015/1008
State probe finds racism in Natural Resources Dept. division
May 13, 2007
LANSING — A state investigation of a black conservation agent’s complaints found evidence of racism and a culture of oppression and fear in the Department of Natural Resources agency’s law enforcement division.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION01/705140306/1069
Get back to safety first for public
May 14, 2007
Posh downtown condos won't revive a city. To attract and keep people, and maintain a healthy tax base, Detroit must deliver the basic services that neighborhood residents deserve and demand. Above all, that means protecting public safety.
By that measure, Detroit is failing, as two stories in last Thursday's Free Press showed.
Members of the Detroit City Council continue to endanger bus riders by refusing to approve a sensible, three-year security contract that would put Wayne County sheriffs on buses. They failed to act again last week, when they voted down the measure 5-4. Opponents of the plan want Detroit police, not sheriff's deputies, to do the job.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION03/705140305/1008/OPINION01
Monday, May 14, 2007
Paul W. Smith
Pure Michigan still inspires, surprises
Outta' my mind on a Monday moanin'
Pure Michigan. That pretty much sums up what we experienced this past week during our annual tourism and commerce promotional journey.
We started Monday in my hometown of Monroe with lots of old friends (and new), bursting with pride for their (our) town. Everyone is especially excited about the return of the Tall Ship Niagara, sailing into the port of Monroe on June 16 and 17.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18620352/site/newsweek/
Barack's Sister Souljah Moment?
The Democratic candidate's tough rhetoric backfired in Detroit. Plus, griping about gas prices.
Newsweek
Updated: 8:12 p.m. ET May 11, 2007
May 11, 2007 - Nine years ago this week, Al Gore warmed up his run for the presidency by making a visit to Motown and speaking to the Detroit Economic Club. I covered that speech and recall that Gore was entering hostile territory. Detroit, an SUV boomtown in those days, was deeply skeptical of the vice president, who famously called for the death of the internal-combustion engine. But Gore, keen on endorsements from Big Labor and contributions from wealthy auto execs, changed his tune in Detroit. "Here in Motor City, we recognize that cars have done more than fuel our commerce," he rhapsodized. "Cars have freed the American spirit, and given us the chance to chase our dreams."
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201192.html
In This Race, There's No Starting Gun
By Chris Cillizza And Shailagh Murray
Sunday, May 13, 2007; Page A02
C onventional political wisdom dictates that early political advertising campaigns are akin to flushing cash down the toilet, based on the idea that voters aren't paying enough attention for commercials to change the dynamic of a race.
Three candidates for president -- former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) -- are placing big bets that the conventional wisdom is wrong and launching a series of ads in early caucus and primary states in hopes of getting the jump on their rivals. And a fourth, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), has started to check into advertising rates in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2007/05/may_13_preview_giuliani_mccain.html
May 13 Preview: Giuliani, McCain and Obama
It's a big weekend for the 2008 campaign on the Sunday shows, with a trio of major candidates making appearances.
"Fox News Sunday" has former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R). Hot topic: Giuliani's position on abortion rights, as he outlined Friday in a speech in Houston.
NBC's "Meet the Press" has Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Hot topic: Whether he can convince conservatives he is their best candidate.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2007/05/may_13_a_parade_of_presidentia.html?hpid=topnews
May 13: A parade of presidential candidates
On the Sunday shows: Giuliani says he could appoint antiabortion judge; Unique questions for Obama; McCain defends war stance; Two month Iraqi parliament recess ditched; GOP patience on war thins; and Hagel leaves door open to '08 bid
Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani said he could nominate a judge for the Supreme Court who opposed a woman's right to an abortion. "I might be able to, sure," Giuliani said, adding that the decision would be in the context of the judge's record.
May 13, 4:20 PM EDT
Summary: Candidates tackle gas mileage
POLITICAL MILEAGE: Many of the Democratic presidential candidates are promising to increase fuel economy standards, even though the domestic automobile industry is struggling.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Concerns about global warming, high gas prices and dependence on foreign oil have altered automobile manufacturers' political currency in recent years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301083.html
A Roundup of the Buzz From the Sunday Talk Shows
Monday, May 14, 2007; Page A02
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who leads the field of Republican presidential candidates in national polls, said that he supports a woman's right to an abortion, then added that he "might be able" to appoint antiabortion justices to the Supreme Court.
Giuliani said he hates abortion and would advise against it. "That's a principle I've held forever, and I'll hold it forever," he said on "Fox News Sunday." But he added that he does not think he should impose his view on women.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20676
Hillary Up, Obama Down
by Robert Novak (More by this author)
Posted: 05/11/2007
Sen. Hillary Clinton's upward bump in Democratic presidential polls is viewed by insiders as a delayed reaction to Sen. Barack Obama's mediocre performance in the opening debate April 26.
Not many people actually watched MSNBC's telecast of the debate from Orangeburg, S.C., but press accounts and word of mouth have spread the news of Obama's performance. When asked by moderator Brian Williams what he would do as president if he learned that "two American cities have been hit simultaneously by terrorists," Obama replied -- citing Hurricane Katrina -- that "the first thing we'd have to do so is make sure that we've got an effective emergency response." In contrast, Clinton responded that she would "retaliate."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201512.html
Edwards Campaigns To Make Memorial Day An Antiwar Statement
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 13, 2007; Page A04
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is calling on his supporters to turn this year's Memorial Day into a day of antiwar activism, saying that the best way to honor the troops is to demand an end to the Iraq war.
"Each of us has a responsibility as Americans, a duty to our troops and to each other, to do all we can to support the troops and end this war," the former senator from North Carolina said yesterday during a commencement address at New England College in Henniker, N.H.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110010072
Cutting the Grass
Congressional Democrats prepare another assault on the First Amendment.
Monday, May 14, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows 6 in 10 Americans think the Democratic Congress "hasn't brought much change." Eager to change this impression, the Democrats are frantically trying to pass legislation before Memorial Day. First on the agenda is a bill restricting lobbying, which is heading for the House floor with lightning speed. The House Judiciary Committee is expected to pass it tomorrow, sending it to the full House for a final vote next Tuesday or Wednesday.
When a bill moves that quickly, you can bet an someone will try make some last-minute mischief. Hardly anyone objects to the legislation's requirement that former lawmakers wait two years instead of one before lobbying Congress. Ditto with bans on lobbying by congressional spouses and restrictions on sitting members of Congress negotiating contracts with private entities for future employment.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010071
Illinois Tax Implosion
The political limits of "universal" health care.
Monday, May 14, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
"Universal" government health care has once again returned as a political cause, with many Democrats believing it's the key to White House victory in 2008. They might want to study last week's news from Illinois, where Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich's tax increase to finance health care became the political rout of the year.
The Democratic House in Springfield killed the proposal, 107-0, after Mr. Blagojevich came out against his own idea when it became clear he was going to be humiliated. Only a month earlier he had said he was prepared to wage "the fight of the century" in defense of his plan to impose a $7.6 billion "gross receipts tax" on Illinois businesses.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201330.html
Costs Grow for Common Medicare Drugs
Price Increase in Prescription Program Is Twice That Seen in Wholesale Rates
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 13, 2007; Page A10
After some initial success containing drug prices, private insurers in the new Medicare prescription drug program may be losing their leverage over drug manufacturers as they try to hold down medicine costs for seniors and the federal government, House investigators have found.
Prices for 10 of the most prescribed brand-name medications have shot up an average of 6.8 percent since December under Medicare private insurance plans, while wholesale prices for the same drugs have risen just 3 percent, House Oversight and Government Reform investigators say. The cost of a month's supply of cholesterol-controlling Lipitor had climbed 9.6 percent, to $84.27 in mid-April, from $76.91 in mid-December. Over the same time, list prices climbed 5 percent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/opinion/14mon3.html
Consumers Take a Break
Published: May 14, 2007
Consumer spending has been the powerful and dependable engine of the current economic expansion. Americans have continued to shop through boom-time borrowing, high oil prices, on-and-off job growth, uncontrolled medical costs, rampant trade deficits, hurricanes and war.
Until last month, that is.
Major American retailers reported April sales declines that were among the worst on record. The pain was widespread, including discounters, department stores and specialty shops. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, had the steepest decline since it began reporting monthly figures 28 years ago. Government retail figures for April confirmed the slump, showing the first decline in seven months.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/opinion/14mon4.html
Educating the Education Secretary
Published: May 14, 2007
“It’s not our fault.” That’s what Education Secretary Margaret Spellings seemed to say while testifying before Congress last week about her department’s failure to halt the payoffs, kickbacks and general looting of the public treasury by a lending company that collected nearly $300 million in undeserved subsidies. But that doesn’t track with the federal Higher Education Act, which clearly authorizes the secretary to disqualify from federal programs lenders who employ payoffs, kickbacks and unethical practices like those that have been found to be commonplace in the college lending business.
Angry at the department’s failure to control corruption in the loan program, Congress has taken the unusual step of reiterating the secretary’s powers in the Student Loan Sunshine Act, which passed the House last week. The bill, which deserves to pass the Senate, too, makes it a crime for lenders to offer colleges anything of value in exchange for the right to do business at a given school. It authorizes the secretary of education to fine, suspend or even terminate lenders who violate the new guidelines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/opinion/14mon2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
A Fresh Start on Energy
Published: May 14, 2007
Congress’s last effort to craft a decent energy strategy, in 2005, was largely disappointing. But at the risk of getting our hopes up once again, we call attention to two promising bills making their way to the Senate floor. Stapled together, they could make a constructive start toward reducing this country’s dependence on oil imports and its emissions of greenhouse gases.
The first, championed by Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici of New Mexico, has three main objectives. It seeks to reduce oil consumption by quintupling the production of biofuels — principally ethanol from sources other than corn — by 2022. It would mandate stronger efficiency standards for energy-intensive household appliances, including lighting fixtures and refrigerators.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301105.html
Federal Loans for Coal Plants Clash With Carbon Cuts
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 14, 2007; Page A01
A Depression-era program to bring electricity to rural areas is using taxpayer money to provide billions of dollars in low-interest loans to build coal plants even as Congress seeks ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
That government support is a major force behind the rush to coal plants, which spew carbon dioxide that scientists blame for global warming.
The beneficiaries of the government's largesse -- the nation's rural electric cooperatives -- plan to spend $35 billion to build conventional coal plants over the next 10 years, enough to offset all state and federal efforts to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over that time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301050.html
Warming Proposals
The presidential candidates and climate change
Monday, May 14, 2007; Page A14
ONE OF THE benefits of being in the second tier of presidential candidates is feeling freer to promote worthy ideas that might seem too risky to a front-runner. That may be the case with Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), whose plan to tackle climate change involves a bold move for any politician: a new tax -- in this case, on carbon emissions. "You cannot be serious about acting on the urgent threat of global warming, about making us less captive to Middle East oil, or investing in renewable energy, unless you have a corporate carbon tax that eliminates the last incentive there is to pollute -- that it's cheaper," Mr. Dodd said in a speech last month.
He would spend the $50 billion in annual revenue on research into renewable technologies. And he would couple the tax with legislation to mandate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and raise automobile fuel economy standards to 50 miles per gallon by 2017. Mr. Dodd's tax proposal in particular goes far beyond the standard fare of the better-known Democratic candidates, who advocate a cap-and-trade approach to spur companies to reduce emissions combined with other incentives to increase production of renewable energy and to cut consumption.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/117904034150310.xml&coll=5
Mileage standards
U.S. Senate bill wrong policy for carmakers, environment
FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The higher vehicle mileage standards that a U.S. Senate committee recommended last week reflect lawmakers' technological ignorance and lack of courage, the consequences of which, unfortunately, would be suffered disproportionately by U.S. automakers and their workers.
Unless Michigan's two U.S. senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, can head off this unfair and shallow legislation, auto companies will be forced to spend billions of dollars on technology and products for which there might be little payoff. There are wiser investments they and the government should be making that would do more to help the environment and cut oil consumption.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/POSTAL_RATES?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
May 13, 11:44 AM EDT
Stamp prices rise to 41 cents on Monday
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A reminder: Extra postage needed on those letters and packages. For a first-class card or letter the rate taking effect Monday is 41 cents for the first ounce, a 2-cent increase. But the cost for each additional ounce drops to 17 cents, so heavier letters will be cheaper than before.
The post office is also introducing extra changes for large or odd-shaped mail and altering a wide variety of its charges.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION01/705140313/1008
Monday, May 14, 2007
Black preacher's inclusive approach draws gays
Deb Price / The Detroit News
Wanting to be like his great-grandfather, grandfather and father, Carlton Pearson set his young heart on becoming a Pentecostal preacher.
By 5, the African-American boy was preaching to other kids in his poor southern California neighborhood. He grew into an unusually gifted preacher and gospel singer at storefront churches, the kind with colored plastic lining on their windows because they can't afford stained glass.
Pearson's talent widened his world: He went on to study at Oral Roberts University, serve on the evangelical school's board of regents, move in the most elite white evangelical circles, chat with Republican presidents and host his own gospel TV show.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301181.html
RM + WSJ: Let's Do The Math
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 14, 2007; Page C01
While much of organized journalism recoils in horror from Rupert Murdoch's latest business gamble, let's see, as a thought experiment, if we can construct a case for his taking over the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper business is battered these days, with rich folks buying up properties at fire-sale prices and proceeding to slash costs. Avista Capital Partners just cut 50 newsroom jobs at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Philadelphia public relations executive Brian Tierney laid off 71 at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Chicago real-estate mogul Sam Zell hasn't taken a wrecking ball to the Tribune papers yet, but the chain's jewel, the Los Angeles Times, announced plans to eliminate another 150 editorial jobs. And none of these new owners had a previous day of newspaper experience.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
May 13, 5:39 PM EDT
Bush hails Jamestown's humble beginnings
JAMESTOWN, Va. (AP) -- Fond of promoting the endurance of freedom, President Bush on Sunday hailed the nation's humble beginnings as a reminder that new democracies require huge sacrifice.
"From our own history, we know the path to democracy is long and it's hard," Bush said in a ceremony honoring the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, America's first permanent English colony.
"There are many challenges, and there are setbacks along the way," Bush said. "Yet we can have confidence in the outcome because we've seen freedom's power to transform societies."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CONDUCTOR_BUSH?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
May 13, 9:51 PM EDT
Bush plays conductor in Jamestown
JAMESTOWN, Va. (AP) -- JoAnn Falletta was doing what a conductor should - concentrating on the orchestra in front of her. No wonder it took her a few seconds on Sunday to realize someone behind her was motioning for a try. President Bush.
"Smiling at me kind of devilishly," Falletta said.
She gave him her baton and stepped aside.
Gesturing exuberantly, the president led the orchestra during part of its performance of "Stars and Stripes Forever."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201436.html
Bush's Relations With Capitol Hill Chilly
Despite President's Efforts to Reach Out, Democrats and Republicans Are Wary
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 13, 2007; Page A05
Every few weeks, President Bush invites House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and their GOP counterparts to the White House for a discussion of Iraq and other issues of the day. By the accounts of those in the room, the meetings are gracious, formal -- and rarely productive.
Sitting at a table in the Cabinet Room, Bush generally offers an opening statement, turns to Pelosi and then Reid for their views, and usually gives Republicans the last word. Vice President Cheney often sits in, saying nothing. There is usually little genuine back-and-forth before the leaders emerge for a media stakeout outside the West Wing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301106.html
Voter-Fraud Complaints by GOP Drove Dismissals
By Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 14, 2007; Page A04
Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews.
Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year, five were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud -- Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those districts were dismissed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301104.html
A Nod to Irresponsibility
Monday, May 14, 2007; Page A03
Accountability is in the air in Washington.
At one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Paul Wolfowitz is struggling to save his job as president of the World Bank after getting caught arranging a sweetheart deal for his, well, sweetheart. A few blocks down the road, President Bush faces endless questions about his Iraq policy and the reasons he took the country to war. Farther down the avenue, congressional Democrats are hauling up administration officials by the bucketful to testify about a variety of alleged misdeeds -- last week, they grilled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the firings of several U.S. attorneys.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301014.html
Lawmakers Warn Watchdog
By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 14, 2007; Page A13
Republicans and Democrats often bicker about the focus of congressional oversight. But the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigation of the Commerce Department's internal watchdog has elicited some rare bipartisan unity.
That unanimity was on display again last Thursday when the committee sent a stern letter to Commerce Inspector General Johnnie E. Frazier and his deputies. It warned that lawmakers will not tolerate the "harassment and mistreatment" of subordinates in the office who are cooperating with the investigation.
http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20070513-100741-5296r.htm
Was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tortured?
By Nat Hentoff
May 14, 2007
The president was displeased when Dana Priest of the Washington Post was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for reporting last year. Best known for her reporting on CIA secret prisons -- and this year, on Walter Reed Hospital's failure of care -- she recently spoke on "Secrecy and Government" at New York University's Center on Law and Security. She recalled that "People were calling me a traitor" after her CIA story, and that reportedly Alberto Gonzales -- if he can recall -- might start a criminal investigation.
Since then, however, Miss Priest notes, "There have been ramifications from the CIA prison stories, [including] investigations throughout Europe in every country [connected to those CIA secret prisons]. Those governments have been forced to respond to their citizens and their legislatures. And there are three criminal investigations." Although Americans have long been aware of not only the CIA secret prisons operation around the world, as well as CIA "renditions" -- kidnapping European citizens to be tortured in other countries -- there have been no substantive congressional investigations, with subpoena powers, of the CIA which, with presidential support, acts as a law unto itself.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FALLON_BIO_BOX?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
May 13, 12:36 PM EDT
Look at commander of Central Command
NAME (AP) -- William J. Fallon.
AGE-HOMETOWN - 62; raised in Merchantville, N.J.
EXPERIENCE - Served in flying assignments for 24 years, deploying to the Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, embarked aboard the USS Nimitz, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and USS Theodore Roosevelt and other ships. Logged 4,800 flight hours in jet aircraft. He later served in staff assignments with NATO and the U.S. Atlantic Command. He was the vice chief of naval operations at the Pentagon, 2000-2003, then commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command and the U.S. Atlantic Fleet before becoming commander of U.S. Pacific Command. Assumed command of U.S. Central Command on March 16, 2007.
May 13, 1:49 PM EDT
New Mideast commander off to quiet start
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Admirers of Adm. William J. Fallon salute his reputation for deft diplomacy. Judging from his first weeks as top commander of American forces in the Middle East, a talent for tact has served him well in many countries of the region except, perhaps, the one that matters most - Iraq.
Fallon is off to a quiet start as President Bush's surprise choice to succeed Army Gen. John Abizaid as head of Central Command. He is overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while managing military relationships with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other nations at the center of Bush's strategy in fighting terrorism.
May 13, 4:27 PM EDT
Summary: New CentCom chief is diplomatic
CHANGING NAMES: Adm. William J. Fallon's most notable decision in his first few weeks as head of Central Command is discontinuing the phrase the "Long War" to describe the war on terrorism.
LOOK AND LEARN: The admiral has expressed concern about alienating Iraqi leaders and stressed the need for diplomacy. He said talks with regional leaders gave him the impression that they felt slighted in their dealings with the United States.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301165.html
Defense Skirts State in Reviving Iraqi Industry
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 14, 2007; Page A01
Paul Brinkley, a deputy undersecretary of defense, has been called a Stalinist by U.S. diplomats in Iraq. One has accused him of helping insurgents build better bombs. The State Department has even taken the unusual step of enlisting the CIA to dispute the validity of Brinkley's work.
His transgression? To begin reopening dozens of government-owned factories in Iraq.
Brinkley and his colleagues at the Pentagon believe that rehabilitating shuttered, state-run enterprises could reduce violence by employing tens of thousands of Iraqis. Officials at State counter that the initiative is antithetical to free-market reforms the United States should promote in Iraq.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDBkODdmNmQzZjkwZDhiMjIwMzM3ZmRkOWY1Njk1ZDE
May 10, 2007 4:52 PM
Our Responsibility to the Troops
Sen. Lieberman on funding the war.
Editor's Note: The following is the text of the statement Senator Joe Lieberman made on the floor of the U.S. Senate today on the subject of providing funding for the war in Iraq.
Mr. President, in the days ahead, this Congress and the President of the United States face a choice on the critical question of funding our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a choice between brinksmanship and statesmanship... a choice between continuing to stalemate largely along partisan lines or uniting across partisan lines in support of our troops.
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1325114220070513?feedType=RSS&rpc=22
Republican senator slams Iraqi government
Sun May 13, 2007 4:35PM EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate on Sunday expressed frustration with the Iraqi government, saying Republicans were "overwhelmingly disappointed" with the lack of political progress.
"The Iraqi government is a huge disappointment," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN'S Late Edition on Sunday.
"So far, they've not been able do anything they promised on the political side," the Kentucky Republican said, citing the Iraqis' failure to pass a new oil revenue bill, hold local elections and dismantle the former Baath Party of Saddam Hussein. "It's a growing frustration."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MCCONNELL_IRAQ?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
May 13, 4:07 PM EDT
Iraq frustrates senators
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate GOP leader, said Sunday that senators in both parties are frustrated with the Iraqi government.
"I don't know what their problem is, but this country has made an enormous investment in giving the Iraqis a chance to have a normal government after all of these years of Saddam Hussein and his atrocities," McConnell said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"And there's a growing sense of bipartisan frustration in the Senate over the lack of progress on the political side of the Iraqi government," he said. "I think benchmarks will be a part of the final package that we get to the president for signature on the troop funding bill."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3399491,00.html
Ahmadinejad leads unprecedented anti-US rally in Dubai
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led a raucous anti-American rally in the United Arab Emirates a day after a low-key visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney there in an attempt to counter Tehran's influence in the region.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a cheering Dubai crowd Sunday that America was to blame for creating instability and robbing the region of its wealth. ''Every time your name is mentioned, hatred builds up,'' Ahmadinejad said of the United States to a crowd of thousands, mostly Iranian expatriates. ''Go fix yourself. This is Iran's advice to you. Leave the region... The nations of the region can no longer take you forcing yourself on them.'' (AP)
