Associated Press- A Roundup of Recent Editorial/Opinion from Michigan Newspapers

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A roundup of recent editorial opinion from Michigan newspapers
11/12/2007, 12:13 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

(AP) — Stand firm, you Wolverines, against attacks on our state's Jan. 15 primary election that will bust the stranglehold that Iowa and New Hampshire have on choosing who would be president.

The latest gust against the Great Lakes State came late last month from the Republican National Committee's executive committee. That cozy little cadre voted to recommend that the national GOP punish Michigan, New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina and Wyoming for scheduling primary elections before Feb. 5.

The Republican Party would strip each state of half of its delegates to its national nominating convention in Minneapolis.

That recommendation follows a national Democratic Party announcement that Michigan won't be allowed to seat its delegates to that party's convention in Denver because of its early primary.

How dare they!

To their great credit, Michigan's Democratic Party and Republican Party leaders have chosen to stand with their state and defy their national parties.

The national party threats, however, have already caused several candidates to cower. Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and John Edwards withdrew their names from the Michigan Democratic Party primary election ballot because our state dared flout their party's arbitrary rules.

It's already becoming clear who is with Michigan, and who isn't. That's the whole point of this early primary exercise.

For far too long, the nation and our presidential primary election candidates have pretty much ignored Michigan as they pandered to the homogenous tastes of mostly white, largely rural and 100 percent quaint Iowa and New Hampshire.

This country's campaigns for the most important office in the land need to check in with reality.

Go visit Michigan's ravaged inner cities and tell us how you would help us save our people from drugs, prison and violent, early death.

Drive our bumpy, cracked roads and see the rural and city schools where teachers and students accomplish much, with way too little help.

Go kick at the muck washing up on our Great Lakes shores.

And, yeah, let's see some trips to Michigan's still-mighty auto works, where we can talk trade and transportation.

Oh, there's a lot more we can discuss, and we will.

We haven't forgotten that kick in the rump when the nation started calling us the Rust Belt many years ago. We're still here, busters, and we won't be ignored. Not anymore.

We've got plenty of company among the states tired of the irrelevant garden parties called the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses.

The leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties had better get a clue. This primary election fight is a steamroller, baby. Get on board, or get run over.

THE BAY CITY TIMES, Nov. 8

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UAW deals with GM, Ford, Chrysler good for all concerned

For the third time this fall, Detroit's Big Three automakers and their employees have made huge leaps forward. The United Auto Workers has reached contracts with General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and now Ford Motor Co. that reshape the benefits that employees receive. What's left is for 54,000 workers at Ford to ratify their deal — and for the automakers to get back to making profits.

Two significant points in the Ford contract: New hires would come in at lower pay, and retiree health care IOUs — some $22 billion for Ford — would shift to a union-run trust.

Those moves rightly give car buyers and Wall Street hope for the automakers' future. Decades of contracts — all negotiated properly with the UAW, mind you — led to absurdities that no company can afford. The person who mows the lawn might get very high pay and benefits, and laid-off workers still would collect close to full pay. And the health care bill for retirees has hung like a heavy weight around the companies' necks.

Changing contract terms won't alone turn GM, Chrysler and Ford around. Each has to appeal to a car-buying public that wants to cut carbon emissions and quality that holds up with Honda and Toyota. You can't blame employee contracts, for example, for the fact that Ford will sell some 1.5 million fewer vehicles this year than in 1999.

The employee contracts won't improve car sales, but they should help the companies stay in the black. If you don't think that's your business, look around. The automakers still drive this state's economy and are the lifeblood for many suppliers.

We commend the UAW and the Big Three for getting serious, and we hope Ford's employees ratify their deal soon.

JACKSON CITIZEN PATRIOT, Nov. 6

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U.P. hurt by closing of state police Marquette crime lab

The plan to close the Michigan State Police crime lab in Marquette was opposed by just about every local police agency and politician when it was announced.

The closure plan, which also includes a lab in downstate Sterling Heights, was developed as a way to cut about $2 million from the state police 2008 budget. The Marquette facility has an annual budget of about $800,000, with the Sterling Heights facility accounting for the other $1.2 million in savings.

The Marquette lab provides crime scene analysis, drug analysis, latent print analysis, polygraphs, firearms comparisons, serology and trace evidence analysis and houses a forensics bomb squad.

With the next closest crime lab well south of the Mackinac Bridge, local police say closing the Marquette facility will significantly hamper law enforcement efforts in the region.

"It would be a serious loss for our efforts if it were to close," said Detective Capt. Mike Angeli of the Marquette police.

He said his department uses the crime lab extensively for latent print and drug analysis and for polygraphs. And in emergencies, the loss of the bomb squad would hit local departments hard.

Another concern voiced involves the extra time required to have evidence analyzed. That could lead to charges being dropped or suspects leaving the area or perpetrating new crimes while police wait for enough evidence to charge them.

State Rep. Steve Lindberg, D-Marquette, said a joint Senate-House conference committee recommended the lab closures as opposed to cutting troopers on the road.

Lindberg did oppose the lab cuts, saying it would probably end up costing more money to transport evidence to downstate labs and forensic experts to Upper Peninsula courts, as well as shift more costs to local agencies.

While the state budget crunch is being felt by all state departments, including the state police, it doesn't make a lot of sense to close down a facility that has such an impact on a large geographical region of the state.

THE MINING JOURNAL (MARQUETTE), Nov. 5

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Hollywood writers strike gives us chance to pause

As members of the Writers Guild of America step away from their computers and out to the picket lines, we're forced to face the reality of life without television and film writers — that is, a life of reality TV. That's right, as the "The Daily Show" airs reruns, Fox is gearing up to run "American Idol" for six of the 15 hours the network has to fill every week.

Are we prepared to watch endless "CSI" reruns or episodes of "Dancing with the Stars" — which has WGA writers but is continuing without them? If anyone even cares, what will "The View" look like as the show continues without writer support? What kind of small talk will Regis make with Kelly?

Broadcast networks and cable channels are ready for a strike lasting at least three months, and some executives think there may not be a settlement until late spring, according to the San Jose Mercury News. We could be in this for the long haul.

Of course, we could use this strike to make some exciting new life changes. We could take a walk around the block, cook a decent dinner or learn to knit. We could do our political science homework or play a pickup game of baseball. We could even read a book! There's no need to anxiously await the conclusion of a WGA-written season when the ending to "The Sun Also Rises" or "The Catcher in the Rye" is already written.

But let's not get crazy here. It may just be time to finally drop the cash for the complete series of "Arrested Development" on DVD.

In all seriousness, while we at The State News admittedly don't know much about the inner workings of the show business industry, we're writers, too. Unlike some of the work behind various other unions across the country, the scripts writers create are creative expressions of themselves. Many writers also are actors, and many writers act out the roles they write.

"The Shield" creator Shawn Ryan won't cross picket lines to work on the season finale, but not being there breaks his heart. Many other actors, such as Steve Carell and Ellen DeGeneres, are breaking their contractual obligations to show up because they are WGA members. They write because they love it, but they support their union because they believe in wage distribution equality.

Regardless of where the content airs, a writer should be appropriately compensated for that content, and the biggest issue WGA workers are focusing on is receiving fair pay for work on mediums not covered under the last writers' contract, such as digital downloading and DVD sales. The Internet is an ever-growing economic power, and Hollywood moguls will stuff more and more money into their pockets as profits increase.

If the current contracts aren't altered, writers will see little compensation for their creative genius that is so central to the very existence of television's most popular shows.

THE STATE NEWS (EAST LANSING), Nov. 6