Michigan Weekend Update:
Uh oh. It looks like the Asian carp are closer to invading the Great Lakes, which led one local news anchor to proclaim that it may [...]
Fox News host Glenn Beck is the media's "fearmonger-in-chief," helping to sow distrust and paranoia about the government through conspiracy theories, says the Anti-Defamation League.
The ADL, one of the world's most prominent groups devoted to fighting racism and anti-Semitism, singled out the controversial TV and [...]
By Amanda TerkelFired Up! Missouri points out that the Lafayette County Republican Central Committee is highlighting a new billboard in the state with steps for a “citizens guide to revolution of a corrupt government“:
This billboard replaces one that warned that [...]
Recently, the Liz Cheney-founded right-wing advocacy group Keep America Safe released a mini-documentary that features several residents of Standish, Michigan, speaking out against a possible transfer of detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a prison in the city. The video ominously warns that the transfer would turn [...]
Journalist Diane Bukowski, who was convicted in May of two felonies related to police obstruction, got one step closer to getting a her conviction overturned this morning when a judge granted her a new hearing of her case.
Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Hathaway at first said he wasn’t [...]
Last week’s bargain basement auction of the Pontiac Silverdome is far from the end of the story.
After the 80,000-seat arena was sold for $583,000 — about 1 percent of what it cost to build the stadium in the early 1970s — a [...]
The first time I read about the story of the Hudson Riverkeepers, I was introduced to two important concepts -- the concept of market-based environmental initiatives and also the deep connection between local economies and environmental stewardship. At the heart of it was a man who may be the greatest [...]
Rio Tinto, the global mining company whose subsidiary Kennecott Eagle Minerals has sought to develop a nickel sulfide mine near Marquette, has withdrawn a request to prospect for minerals on public forest land in the western Upper Peninsula, the Lake Superior Mining News reports.
On Nov. 6 Rio Tinto [...]
I favors a .45.
Late edit explanation: Alan said, “Brother Mouzone favors a Walther PPK380. Omar was the one carrying the .45. He said the Walther tends to jump in the hand.” Whatever. But I admit the error.
[...]
Very bad news. Very bad news indeed.
The decade-old battle to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes might be over.
New research shows the fish likely have made it past the $9 million electric fish barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, a source familiar with the situation [...]
The Detroit Free Press reports that there is evidence that the invasive Asian carp may have already breached an electrical barrier set up in a shipping canal in Chicago in order to keep the incredibly aggressive species from reaching the Great Lakes, where they would likely destroy the ecosystem [...]
A new report from the University of Michigan’s Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics concludes that while we may be nearing the end of the worst decline, job growth in Michigan will continue to be virtually non-existent until 2011 — and it won’t exactly be going like gangbusters after that. The [...]
Dave Camp doesn't usually unleash Teh Crazy. In fact, he's mastered the art of dodging difficult questions and issues so softly that you don't know that the subject has been changed without him actually saying anything worthwhile. It's a skill I think he probably learned from Bill Schuette.
Anyway, that all [...]
Someone at the gym sent me one of the parody videos for the Shake Weight. No links here, as they’re about as difficult to find as Vi@gra spam, and I don’t want to be responsible for offending any of you. But it raises the question of what, exactly, the [...]
Someone the other day was wondering if physical geography was maybe playing a part in whether Pam Byrnes plans to run for a Washtenaw County state Senate seat. Today comes news from a state senate district where geography is definitely a consideration for one of the candidates.
In a WKZO exclusive, [...]
Blogging for Michigan quotes a Gongwer report (subscription only) on a new study by the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) that concludes that Michigan is among the states with the most regressive tax structures, resulting in the poor and the middle class paying a much higher [...]
FERNDALE– Charles Pugh, the recently elected Detroit City Council President, says he won’t back cuts to police or fire programs, public transportation or cuts to the city’s health department programs dealing with HIV/AIDS.
“Everything else is on the table,” Pugh said.
He said moves to cut services from public safety [...]
By Matt Corley
During a debate on the House floor today over designating 21 miles of the Molalla River as “wild and scenic,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-old right wing battle ax), who opposes the legislation, tried to claim a progressive environmental record for her party. [...]
By Amanda Terkel
The newest far-right craze is an anti-Obama slogan that is making its way onto t-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, and even teddy bears: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8,” which reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” The meme [...] Hobbled by opposition from the carbon incumbents and their short-sighted allies on Capitol Hill the Obama administration acknowledged this week that it would not return from Copenhagen with any groundbreaking commitment to control green house gases. Meanwhile, Congress is backsliding on the administration's wise commitment to impose [...]
Rick Jones
LANSING — Former Eaton County sheriff and Republican State Rep. Rick Jones says even after the death of a 30-year-old Matthew Bolick following a taser incident with East Grand Rapids Public Safety officers, he will [...]HIV activists from the group Michigan Positive Action Coalition have issued a press statement encouraging people with infectious diseases, including H1N1, HIV or the common cold, to call the Macomb County prosecutor and “voluntarily turn themselves in” to be charged with terrorism.
In the statement issued by Mark Peterson, a [...]
As part of an ongoing investigation into questionable real estate transactions, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb announced Thursday that he plans to ask a judge to force testimony from those unwilling to cooperate with public hearings on the matter.
Bobb said he wants a judge to compel Board [...]
Most of Michigan's income and local taxes come from the state's [...]
Time Inc.’s Assignment Detroit, as you may already know, is promoting a contest that has several of Detroit’s most prominent ad agencies competing to create the best “Selling Detroit” ad campaign.
The idea is to see what the best, local advertising gurus can [...]
Why is it that the people who talk the loudest are always the most easily frightened?
The Obama administration's decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and several of his associates in a federal district court in New York is both unnecessary and dangerous. Mohammed is the confessed mastermind of the [...]
If "sex offenders" remain such a menace to children that they can't be allowed to pass out Halloween candy, then why in God's name are we letting them out of prison?
Halloween will no longer be a treat for the 24 registered sex offenders in Allen Park: City Council [...]
Alan came back from a short fishing trip yesterday, which took him through western Michigan. Our many commenters who hail from that whiter, Dutchier, more pious part of the state can attest it has a lot in common with northeast Indiana — Fort Wayne with more blueberries, if you will. [...]
A Bay City man will spend the next nine months in jail for having unprotected sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old Midland girl.
The Midland Daily News reports 21-year-old Isaiah Jacob Diaz pleaded guilty under Michigan’s felony disclosure law. Under that law, any person who is HIV positive must [...]
I had to get away from the Grand Rapids Palin Mania yesterday. Our local media was downright embarrassing in their coverage - this was a celebrity, selling a book, and you would have thought it was a visit from [...]
The Detroit News reports that the Michigan Economic Growth Authority approved $2.6 million in additional tax breaks for General Motors as an incentive to keep at least 2,500 workers at the Renaissance Center.
The most high-profile project addressed by the MEGA board Tuesday involved additional tax incentives to help [...]
As the court hearings continue over former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his required restitution payments, some very interesting tidbits have come to light. It had already been revealed that a group of prominent Detroit businessmen — Peter Karmanos, Dan Gilbert, Roger Penske and James Nicholson — had given Kilpatrick [...]
Much attention has been paid to Sen. John McCain’s comment the other day at a Nascar event that Chrysler is unlikely to survive, but that isn’t the only thing he said at the time. He also claimed — falsely — that the bailout happened because the unions refused to negotiate [...]
By Amanda Terkel
In a new interview with Newsmax, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin hinted that a “dream ticket” of Palin and Fox News host Glenn Beck is not out of the question:
“I can envision a couple of different combinations, if ever I were to [...] 
Much like Bush supporters, Sarah Palin supporters are dumb. I'm guessing the lady didn't mind Bush taking white out to the constitution during his tenure as president. [...] 
By Faiz Shakir
This afternoon, Fox News host Gregg Jarrett proudly announced that Sarah Palin is “continuing to draw huge crowds while she’s promoting her brand new book. Take a look at — these are some of the pictures just coming into us.” But the [...]
Despite a blog discussing abortion and another focusing on potential gubernatorial candidate Andy Dillon's potential choice of a lieutenant governor candidate, it's been a slow week at Michigan Liberal.
Perhaps most readers are out harvesting deer? Perhaps we can kick up the conversation a bit by focusing [...]
Last week the City of Detroit’s Department of Transportation switched transit services for the disabled passengers by halting further payments to Veolia transportation, the company that runs the Metro Lift service for passengers in Detroit with disabilities that prevent them from taking the bus.
Instead of one unified transit service [...]
An Israeli wastewater treatment company will locate a pilot project in Oakland County, Lt. Governor John Cherry announced this week from Tel Aviv, one of the stops on an economic development mission to the Middle East.
EPC Ltd. Onsite Wastewater Solutions (EPC) is a developer of waste water treatment systems [...]
Like die-hard U2 fans camping out overnight for coveted concert tickets the moment they go on sale, some of Sara Palin’s Michigan die-hards showed up last night — with chairs and sleeping bags — at the Barnes and Noble just outside Grand Rapids prepared to pull an all-nighter.
They were [...]
Judy McGovern, writing for the Ann Arbor Chronicle, says that Pam Byrne's absence from the field for the 18th state Senate seat is noticeable and fueling speculation that Byrnes may get the nod as Andy Dillon's lieutenant governor if he opts to get into the race for governor. Byrnes [...]
Many thanks to yesterday's sponsor, which coincidentally is the same at today's sponsor, which in turn is coincidentally the sponsor for the next two weeks ... i3 Strategies. Please show your appreciation for that company's support by paying its Web site a visit and finding out what it is [...]
Gov. Jennifer Granholm said today that new unemployment figures expected to be released today will show that Michigan’s unemployment rate dropped slightly from 15.3 percent to 15.1 percent. Not exactly the roaring 20s again, but every little bit helps amid the doom and gloom of the last couple years.
[...]It’s time for another edition of Short Attention Span Theater:
In honor of “unfriend” being christened a word by the New Oxford Dictionary, I decided to do some. My Facebook is becoming ridiculous, not only a time suck but a ceaseless update on the lives of people I wouldn’t [...]
Longtime capitol reporter Tim Skubick, who is generally reticent about crossing the line to become a commentator, has a clearly angry post on his blog about the state legislature going on a hunting vacation rather than staying and working on Michigan’s budget crisis. He writes:
For time in memoriam [...]
U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, had an op-ed column in the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday calling for the financial industry to be re-regulated in the wake of multiple scandals and trillions of taxpayer dollars being used to keep banking and investment [...]
Public defender systems around the nation are not in good shape, but Michigan’s system is so underfunded and unguided that one study earlier this year called it a “constitutional crisis.” Michigan’s cases of failed public legal representation are so shocking that they caught the attention of U.S. Attorney General [...]
Rick Snyder, the businessman from Ann Arbor who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor of Michigan, has some stern words of warning for Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele, and any other GOP member who might conflate GM’s bankruptcy woes with President Barack Obama’s agenda: Cut it out. [...]
Chrysler's PT Cruiser
OK, this is somewhat predictable, but still interesting.
On Sunday, ex-GOP presidential nominee John McCain was doing his duty as grand marshal of a NASCAR race at the Phoenix International Raceway, and he made the following quip about what he clearly sees' [...]
The now-infamous C Street house in Washington D.C., owned by a mysterious Christian group called the Family or the Fellowship and home to numerous members of Congress including U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, is no longer tax exempt. The house, which was formerly a convent, has long been [...]
LANSING — The Michigan legislature is getting ready to head out for a two week holiday, and that has education advocates fuming.
The legislature has until Nov. 21 to override Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s line item veto of J-20 funding. In addition, the Senate has yet to act on a bill [...]
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, one of Michigan’s most high-profile elected Republicans, told an audience earlier today that he’s planning on seeking another term in 2012.
Barely through the first-year of his current four-year term — his fifth term overall — [...]
Wind farm=green manufacturing jobs. They also equal lease payments to local property owners, who can avoid turning farms into semi-liquid retirement funds, sold off to developers bit by bit. Good news for the Bay area ... stuff our good friends in the trades can do instead of doing temp [...]
A 30-year-old man East Grand Rapids Police officials say was arrested for assaulting officers has died in police custody. In order to subdue the man, police say they had to taser him.
The Grand Rapids Press reports the tasering incident has not been officially tied to the man’s death.
[...]
Just a quick update to the story unfolding up here in mid-Michigan that is also unfolding around the state ... school boards work to deal with the big per-pupil cuts made by the governor and sniffed at by the no-revenue state Senate.
Rosebush School and kindergarten enrichment programs in Mt. [...]
The Dept. of Energy’s $243 million allocation for weatherization assistance in Michigan had fixed up just seven houses as of Sept. 30, according to a status report issued this month by the state Economic Recovery Office.
The weatherization program, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is managed by [...]
Call you Senator today, 517-373-2400, or e-mail them at senate.michigan.gov. The governor is right - public pressure is the only thing that will move these guys to [...]
As the son of a nurse who worked in primary care for many years, I've long held the belief that decisions about childbearing should be made by a woman in consultation with her family and doctor. The government doesn't belong in the room when these very personal, private decisions [...] As the son of a nurse who worked in primary care for many years, I've long held the belief that decisions about childbearing should be made by a woman in consultation with her family and doctor. The government doesn't belong in the room when these very personal, private decisions [...]
The story is one you have read here already; [...]
The Los Angeles Times online crossword is easier than the New York Times’. It also has a faultless interface that never falters, making speed part of the experience and leading to my daily back-and-forth e-mail with Eric Zorn; if you can beat 7:23, you can beat me today. (Late-breaking [...]
The Detroit News reports on perhaps the most unsurprising study since the Rand Corporation famously determined that water is, in fact, wet. This study concludes that the state of Michigan is unprepared to handle a flood of residents newly in need of Medicaid, food stamps and other social services.
[...]
Saying that he saw “signs of progress and signs of stability,” General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson announced on Monday that the nation’s largest automaker had lost $1.15 billion in the third quarter of the year. That amount was less than half the loss from the same quarter in 2008 and [...]
By Daniel Tencer
A speaker at an anti-immigration rally in Minneapolis this past weekend got the crowd to support more than just the deportation of all illegal immigrants -- he got them cheering for the eviction of all European-descended immigrants to America [...] 
By Alex Seitz-WaldGlenn Beck(R-creepy stupid douche) had Fox News host Bill O’Reilly(R-phone sex) on his radio show today to promote their upcoming “Bold & Fresh Tour,” which will take the two right-wing personalities around the country to preach “the truth — straight up, whether [...]
Michigan’s Democratic Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow are part of a new push to dilute the climate change bills that are moving through Congress, my colleague Mike Lillis at The Washington Independent reports.
Last week Levin and Stabenow joined a dozen other Senate Democrats in asking their party [...]
DETROIT—Two weeks ago, Mayor Dave Bing got job security — at least for the next four years — when he emerged victorious in the municipal election. Now, two weeks into his first full term leading the city, Bing has sold the auto supply company he founded 29 years ago.
Last [...]
While it may have gone virtually unnoticed beyond the county’s borders earlier this month, Macomb County will have a new, streamlined government structure in place next year.
The county’s current 26-member board of commissioners will be cut in half and a county executive will be added as a result of [...]
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow said in a speech on Monday that she does not favor the so-called employer mandate that would require employers to extend health care benefits to employees or else face penalties.
Instead, Michigan’s junior senator, according to Crain’s Detroit [...]
(Sniff) ... smell the maverick-y goodness (and, no, this has nothing to do with that Going Rouge woman, you awful perverts).
McCain blamed unions for creating the conditions leading up to the bailout while questioning Chrysler's ability to survive, despite the $15 billion in loans it received.
"It" [...]
If you're a Republican, you have a 
