Detroit restoration projects polish up the city's gems

The restoration and cleanup that began in anticipation of Super Bowl XL coming to Detroit in 2006 has continued. This is what was hoped for by bringing an event such as the Super Bowl to town. Billions of dollars are currently being spent to restore the numerous architectural and artistic gems around the city. Businesses are popping up that specialize in restoration and jobs have been created as a result of the restoration boom.

The Detroit News reports -

In fact, the surge of renovations of historic structures in Detroit and across the state has created more than 26,000 jobs from 2000 through 2006, according to the State Historic Preservation Office. The 211 projects involving historic preservations generated $2.2 billion in economic impact, according to the state agency.

It's great to see old forgotten buildings and Detroit receive new life.

For more information, pictures, and virtual tours of the ruins of Detroit visit www.DetroitYES.com home of "The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit."

Hot topics in the news today in Michigan

Here are some of the hot topics in headlines across Michigan today, April 24, 2007. Will a decline in the honeybee population affect Michigan's fruit production?

Great Lakes invasive species reducing food for native fish population

Conservation group looks to ban ocean vessels on the Great Lakes

Michigan Senate finds another $300 million to cut from the budget

Republic-Michigamme pink-slips entire teaching staff

All 14 teachers in the Republic-Michigamme school system were given pink slips on Wednesday. The school will be back in session this fall according to school superintendent, Vicki Holsworth. The move was made in light of the rumblings in Lansing of possible cuts to school funding. There are 150 students in the entire K-12 at Republic-Michigamme making it one of the smaller districts in the state. Evidently the move gives the district flexibility in terms of having to adjust positions to half-time or eliminating some positions.

The article struck me as I had not heard of a district giving its entire (albeit small) staff pink slips.

Read my previous post about the possible cuts to the school systems in Michigan as proposed by Governor Granholm just a couple of weeks after telling schools to "fight" a similar (although less drastic in terms of dollars) cut to school funding by state Republicans.

The duplicity of our governor is too disturbing to even be funny.

President Bush might be visiting west Michigan this week

Channel 3 News is reporting that President Bush might pay a visit to west Michigan later this week (perhaps Friday). There are tentative plans for the President's visit to occur on Friday. The exact location of his visit and further details of his plans for the trip will be made available later in the week. He is planning on a speech with the war in Iraq and the war on terror featuring prominently.

Michigan legislators will pay Apple back for 'free' ride

The Detroit News is reporting that the two legislators who had at least part of their California trip paid for by Apple are planning on paying Apple back. They want to "end this public perception that something is misguided," said Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills." Um yeah, why did it take public outcry to make you realize how foolish this makes you and the state of Michigan look? I just read in the news today that Gov. Granholm will cut school aid funding as much as $125 per pupil if the legislature doesn't come up with a way to balance the state budget soon.

Hmm, that's funny that Granholm is threatening school aid cuts. Look at what she said 2 1/2 weeks ago.

An article in the Detroit Free Press dated March 27, 2007 quotes Granholm as saying -

"I urge you to suit up, jump in, fight like the future of Michigan depends on you," she said. "They need to hear how it's going to affect local schools."

This was in response to state Republicans wanting to cut school aid funding by $34 per pupil to help erase the state's budget deficit.

She further said -

"For those of you who have already looked your legislators in the eye, I need you to do it again," she told a group of more than 200 educators gathered at the Lansing Center. "Write letters, send e-mails. The kids need you, the state needs you."

Where is the anger from Granholm about slashing state aid by up to $125 per pupil?

Still want to spend that $38 million on iPods?

Perhaps we should all write our governor.

You won't believe what Michigan Democrats want to do now!

Over the weekend I came across an editorial at the Detroit News with the following title - "An iPod for every kid? Are they !#$!ing idiots?" That made me curious so I clicked the headline to read the full article. What I read made me wonder if this was a late April Fool's joke or something.

From the Detroit News:

We have come to the conclusion that the crisis Michigan faces is not a shortage of revenue, but an excess of idiocy. Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy a MP3 player or iPod for every school child in Michigan.

The $38 million dollar proposal to outfit "all Michigan students" with iPods or other similar MP3 players is absurd. We are currently facing a $600 million budget deficit this year and a $2.1 Billion deficit next year.

Here is what Michigan Democrats want to do:

• Increase our taxes
• Cut business taxes
• Release 2,400 inmates from our prison system
• Tax businesses that do business in Michigan but do not have a location in Michigan
• Spend $100 million to improve downtowns
• Spend $38 million so kids can have iPods

Now I don't know about all of the school systems in Michigan, but a couple of the local ones here have leaky roofs, 30+ year old heating systems, 20 year old textbooks, and have overcrowded classrooms.

Do you think those kids would rather have textbooks that are current and decent classroom space that you don't freeze or get soaked in or snazzy iPods that can be used for "educational" purposes. Sure some of the kids will choose the iPod, but you would have a hard time convincing me that it would be filled with "educational" items.

I am tired of hearing about how our state government has to raise taxes to balance the budget because they have cut everything they can only to see that they want to do the same old "tax and spend" garbage as always. If Michigan is ever going to make it out of this recession we need to let our legislature know what we do or don't want and have them listen to us or elect representatives who have a better handle on how to fix our broke state.

We are selling the t-shirts below for $16 with 50% of the profits being donated to the Food Bank Council of Michigan. Make a statement and raise some funds so that the hungry in Michigan can be fed even if they don't have an iPod.

To buy a shirt just click the t-shirt image to arrive at our Goodstorm store.

UPDATE:

My jaw still smarts from when it hit my desk the other day after reading the article mentioned above. Then, I was browsing over at the Detroit Free Press and I see that Apple, maker of the iPod, paid for at least part of a trip for the two Michigan lawmakers sponsoring the bill to come visit Apple in northern California.

The lawmakers visited other sites and hit other topics such as the wine industry. It just seems interesting that they made this trip and visited with Apple earlier this year and now they are sponsoring a bill to put $36 million in Apple's bank account so kids in Michigan can use iPods to help their learning experience.