It's the first day of 2005, we're launching a new Michigan web site. Welcome!

Welcome to Absolute Michigan
Absolute Michigan has been designed by the folks who made Leelanau.com to be the most useful and entertaining guide to the State of Michigan on the Internet. We've obviously got a ways to go before we reach that point, but with your help and support (please add links, lots of them!), we're confident we'll get there.

Our Five Things You Need to Know will be 5 things that we think people who know & love Michigan will want to be aware of: news stories, events, features and web sites. We'll try and post it every week day, but we'll probably miss some days, so please don't get mad at us if we do. We'll also post articles that aren't part of our Five Things, so check our Articles page as well.

More or less, we'll report news and link to it. Every so often, one of our writers may offer an opinion or comment. We hope that's ok. For the most part, we'll try to confine our opinions to this blog.

If you are aware of something that you think may be one of the five things and want to make us aware of it, send an email to absolutemichigan@gmail.com.

Houghton Ice Fishing School
Detroit Free Press columnist Eric Sharp has an article abough the annual Ice Fishing Vacation and School in Houghton (on the Keewanaw peninsula). It will be held Jan. 9-12 this year and offers a chance to learn the fine points of this Michigan sport.

2005: The Year of Tough Choices
The Detroit News has an editorial listing some of the choices that are facing our state in 2005. When you read it and see that they are talking about business taxes being too high and financial crisis for schools, you can see where we will be facing such challenges.

Motor Cities National Heritage Area
The Freep has a feature on this amazing web site that gives you everything you need to explore the history of the automobile. We highly recommend it too!
Motor Cities National Heritage Area web site

Michiganians of the Year
The Detroit News is calling for nominees for their 2004 Michiganian of the Year awards. Past winners include the famous (Jerry Linenger, Al Kaline, Aretha Franklin, Helen Milliken) and everyday heroes who have made a difference.

Read More (external link) »