Looking back: Hillsdale's "Teen Mayor" elected Homecoming King. Looking back further: Idlewild, Michigan's African American summer resort. Looking way back: Michigan Governor Austin Blair supported a joint resolution of the legislature that "unreservedly" approved President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation on Feb 24, 1863. Looking ahead: Governor-hopeful Dick DeVos establishes grass roots base, now taking to the airwaves.

West Bloomfield's Alex Ostrovsky Downloads Number One Billion

Check the post started yesterday on our Blog for all the details.

Michigan Business Development Loan Program Launched

Crain's Detroit Business reports that Charter One Michigan announced Thursday a $200 million low-interest loan program designed to create 2,000 new jobs in Michigan during the next five years. The bank is working with the Michigan Economic Development Corp. on the program, which offers loans at a fixed interest rate of 4.99 percent — 2.51 points below the current prime of 7.5%. Loans will be made over a two-year period, with the minimum amount of $1 million and the maximum of $10 million. Recipients will have three years from the time the loan is granted to add one new job for each $40,000 of the loan amount.
Read Charter One, MEDC to team up on $200M low-interest loan program from Crain's Detroit Business

Governor Plans to Dramatically Increase Michigan Travel Ad Budget

The Escanaba Press has a column from George Weeks about Gov. Granholm's plan to use $7.5 million dollars from the 21st Century Jobs Fund to dramatically boost advertising dollars and promote summer tourism. Travel Michigan currently advertises only in Chicago, Cleveland and Indianapolis, but in April, ads will start in additional markets including southern Ontario, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee.
Read Granholm touts tourism plan in the Escanaba Press

$1 Blue Band Working Against Racism

The Lansing State Journal reports that in an effort to combat an upswing in racist graffiti at Holt Senior High, the school's International Club started a "Take a Stand, Buy a Band" campaign. The blue rubber bands are engraved with "Racism = Ignorance" and the club has sold 500. The school has about 1,400 10th, 11th & 12th-graders, and roughly 13% are black, Latino or Asian.

Sophomore Brittanie Beebe said the bracelet "is showing to all the people who are racist that a lot of people aren't. Maybe it'll change some minds out there."
Read Bracelets cool racism in Holt in the LSJ
Holt High School web site

Diving the Great Lakes in Summer ... and Winter

Part III in our series of "Sports You Are Unlikely to Try, but may Nevertheless Find Interesting" is this Traverse City Record-Eagle feature on father-daughter diving duo Christopher and Claire Morey. In summer and in frigid winter months, they plunge into West Grand Traverse Bay, free diving up to 30 feet down and photographing what they see with an underwater camera.

"The Great Lakes have remarkable visibility now on par with the Mediterranean because of the zebra mussel phenomenon," said Christopher, referring to the invasive bivalve whose marked trait is filtering water. "As a kid I could see about 12 feet on a good day – now it's up to 35 to 40 feet."
Read Taking a dive: Underwater exploration is year-round pursuit in the Record-Eagle
Very cool Great Lakes diving photo gallery!!

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