Wave-carved Limestone, Mosquito Beach
by GS George

Apologies for today's break from my normally (more or less) dispassionate newscasts, but most of the news is so darned bickery that my hands hurt from pounding them on my keyboard. Message to our elected officials at all levels: It doesn't matter WHO is elected if out state is a pile of rubble and ghost towns as a result of your "gridlock-as-government" policies. I'm donating some money today to The Center for Michigan. I encourage anyone who feels similarly to do the same.

I could also use a new keyboard.

Governor Announces Expanded Health Plan
MITECHNEWS.COM reports that yesterday Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced an expanded $1 billion Michigan health care plan to cover 1.1 million uninsured state residents, supported with $600 million in new federal funds. Granholm said the state is negotiating with federal officials for a waiver, good for 10 years, to run the Michigan First Health Care Plan, which she said is similar to the universal health care program in Massachusetts and would provide assistance automotive industry and other employers struggling with soaring insurance costs. Though the aim of the Michigan plan is also universal coverage at an affordable cost, among the key differences is the Michigan plan would not mandate that everyone obtain health care insurance.


Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis issued a single-sentence response: "A press release is not a plan." To which I have to respond "My God can you politicians please quit bickering and get to work solving a problem or two????!!!!" ("????!!!!" is intended to convey extreme frustration with the he said/she said public discourse that is paralyzing Michigan)

Interview with Governor William Milliken

In an excellent, must-listen interview, Jack Lessenberry talks with former Michigan Governor William Milliken. Milliken says even he has learned things about himself by reading Dave Dempsey's William G. Milliken: Michigan's Passionate Moderate. He talks about what he might do as governor and says that we can only hope to solve Michigan's problems by working closely with the auto companies and each other, saying that fighting between the parties and blaming each other is a recipe for failure.

Lessenberry then reflects on Milliken and how he thought government should be an active force which could make a positive contribution to the lives of Michigan's citizens.
Read Interview: William Milliken from Michigan Radio
Also see Essay: Passionate Moderate
William G. Milliken: Michigan's Passionate Moderate from University of Michigan Press

Michigan Vacations On the House? (well, the Senate)
The AP reports that Sen. Gilda Jacobs (D-Huntington Woods) has proposed $75 tourism vouchers for anyone who filed a Michigan tax return last year. The "Our State Michigan Vacation Program" vouchers could be used at any hotel, motel, inn or resort in Michigan, and could then be claimed against the business's state tax bill. Jacobs says it would boost the economy and reward families for traveling in their home state.

Ari Adler, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema of Wyoming, said the hit to the state budget could be "quite large." Note: this is the Majority Leader of the party in favor of scrapping the $1.9 billion Small Business Tax without a replacement
Read State senator wants to give $75 tourism voucher to taxpayers in the Traverse City Record-Eagle

Mother's Day in Michigan (and elsewhere)

• Habitat for Humanity's Women Build program in Michigan ... Women in Detroit will take up hammers at 3531 24th St. in southwest Detroit.


• Mother's Day Specials from Travel Michigan ... might be a little late, but good ideas for next year or any time.


• Albion, Michigan historical marker commemorating Mother's Day in Albion ... Charles and Moses Blakeley encouraged others to pay tribute to their mothers


• Michigan Mothers ... photos on Flickr


• The "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe (author of the Battle Hym of the Republic) was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States.
  

MySpace and Social Networking Under Fire
"I'm very against it. I think there needs to be more done about MySpace, trying to get it shut down if we can."

-Sherrie Polowski

An incident in southeast Michigan leads to more MySpace bashing, and this Freep article has some good links and information about how to become aware of what your child is doing online.
Read WIDE-OPEN WEB SPACE: Danger of social-networking sites lies in what youths post and others' motives in the Detroit Free Press