Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Muskegon County's dog-law oversight turned over to sheriff, treasurer

Muskegon County's dog-law oversight turned over to sheriff, treasurer | MLive.com
As part of the change, the three animal control officers and the clinic clerk will be transferred to the Sheriff’s Office, effective Oct. 1.
Dog licenses are already sold in several of the treasurers’ offices for local cities and townships.
The county Treasurer’s Office already has a working arrangement with those local treasurers’ offices. Therefore, some county officials expect the administration of the dog licensing to be more efficient to operate.

Governor declares financial emergency in Muskegon Heights schools

Governor declares financial emergency in Muskegon Heights schools | MLive.com
"Ensuring a quality education for the students of Muskegon Heights is our top priority," Snyder said in a press release.
 "The appointment of an emergency manager is the next logical step in restoring financial stability to the troubled district and, in fact, is a step requested by members of the Muskegon Heights Board of Education."
The school board four months ago asked that an emergency manager be appointed for the district, which ended last year with an $8.5 million deficit.

Tony Tague won't seek re-election as Muskegon County prosecutor

Tony Tague won't seek re-election as Muskegon County prosecutor | MLive.com
Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague announced Tuesday he will not seek re-election this year.
Tague, 54, has been the county's prosecutor since his first election in 1988. He is now in the final year of his sixth four-year term.
In a news release Tuesday morning, Tague said, "after considerable reflection, I believe it is time to turn over the reins."
BOMBSHELL!

China's cash buys inroads in Caribbean

NYT: China's cash buys inroads in Caribbean - World news - The New York Times - msnbc.com
The new stadium here, Bahamian officials said, was in part a reward for breaking ties with Taiwan in 1997 and establishing and keeping relations with China.
It is one of several sporting arenas that China has sprinkled in Caribbean and Central American nations as gratitude for their recognition of “one China” — in other words, for their refusal to recognize Taiwan, which Chinese officials consider part of their country.
“They offered a substantial gift and we opted for a national stadium,” said Charles Maynard, the Bahamian sports minister, adding that his government could never have afforded to build it on its own.

This is vote buying at the UN.
The USA just drowns small and large countries in money and gets NOTHING back in return.
Except contempt.

Disappearing data doesn't aid union's case

Editorial: Disappearing data doesn't aid union's case | The Oshkosh Northwestern | thenorthwestern.com
Problem is, those old surveys disappeared from WEAC's website.
Representatives from the union did not respond to questions from the State Journal.

Followup to Illinois Pension Issues

Followup to Illinois Pension Issues
"... post on an Illinois state official commenting on the unsustainability of the Teachers Retirement System in Illinois"

amazing dog lifeguard rescues pup

Monday, April 09, 2012

The Big Double Standard

Klavan On The Culture » The Big Double Standard
Some of you may be bothered by the fact that NBC News lied and is now lying about its lies in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case.
As Breitbart.com reported while all the mainstream outlets except the Washington Post looked the other way, NBC News edited a tape of Zimmerman’s 911 call to make Zimmerman sound like a racist. A full description of the scurrilous edit is at the link.
When they were caught in their dishonesty, NBC News temporized.
When they could no longer temporize, they scapegoated a single unnamed producer, firing him late on the Friday before Easter/Passover weekend so no one would notice.
Then NBC News President Steve Capus released a statement to Reuters saying the deliberate editing of the tape to misrepresent the phone call was “a mistake and not a deliberate act to misrepresent the phone call.”
Some of you may read that statement and say to yourself, “Golly, Klavan on the Culture! How can Mr. Capus keep the word News in his title and not curl up in a ball of shame while tearing at his own flesh with his fingernails and begging God to forgive him for having sunk to depths of disingenuousness unimaginable to any real news person?”

EyeOnMuskegon 4-8-2012

St. Maarten KLM Boeing 747 landing (1080p)

IRS may be given the authority to restrict travel

IRS may be given the authority to restrict travel

Sunday, April 08, 2012

Elementary school teacher tells students Republicans are stupid

Elementary school teacher tells students Republicans are stupid | Fellowship of the Minds
On the heels of the Arizona high school teacher who let a lone student stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and the Masschusetts elementary school that tried to get rid of the words “God” and “bless” from Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless the U.S.A.,” comes another teacher caught behaving badly.

Kalyn McMackin reports for The Daily Caller, April 5, 2012, that a Virginia elementary school teacher told her 6th grade class that “Republicans are stupid” and “they don’t care about anyone but wealthy people and businesses.”
Kristin Martin said this as Republican voters were filing into the halls of Colin L. Powell Elementary School in Fairfax County to vote on Super Tuesday.
One student told The Daily Caller: “It all started when this disabled kid came in and named all the Republicans candidates for Super Tuesday.
She [Martin] said to him, ‘I don’t like them, I think that they are stupid.’”

Detroit's work force lacking job skills; it's called a 'huge problem'

Detroit's work force lacking job skills; it's called a 'huge problem' | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
Most major cities see at least 60% of adults participating in the work force, either by working jobs or actively applying for them. In several cities -- Seattle, Charlotte, N.C., and Denver, for example -- more than 70% of adult residents are in the labor force.
Detroit's rate is the lowest among big cities: 49.8%

Sentenced to death for being old: The NHS denies life-saving treatment to the elderly, as one man's chilling story reveals

Sentenced to death for being old: The NHS denies life-saving treatment to the elderly, as one man's chilling story reveals | Mail Online
When Kenneth Warden was diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer, his hospital consultant sent him home to die, ruling that at 78 he was too old to treat.
Even the palliative surgery or chemotherapy that could have eased his distressing symptoms were declared off-limits because of his age.
His distraught daughter Michele Halligan accepted the sad prognosis but was determined her father would spend his last months in comfort.
 So she paid for him to seen privately by a second doctor to discover what could be done to ease his symptoms.
Thanks to her tenacity, Kenneth got the drugs and surgery he needed — and as a result his cancer was actually cured. Four years on, he is a sprightly 82-year-old who works out at the gym, drives a sports car and competes in a rowing team.

HOSPITAL CONSULTANT?

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Stabenow honored for helping MI seniors

Stabenow honored for helping MI seniors | WOOD TV8
A ceremony was held at the Grand Rapids Senior Neighbors Center in which Sen. Debbie Stabenow was recognized for her efforts.
Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, presented Stabenow with boxing gloves so she can continue the fight.

Sugar shock

BACON: Sugar shock - Washington Times
Once upon a time, there was a medical “consensus” that fats and cholesterol in the blood were major causes of heart disease.
Armed with this “settled science,” the public health establishment moved in the 1970s to expunge the offending substances, beyond a basic minimum deemed to be necessary, from Americans’ diets.
Food bureaucrats established dietary guidelines.
Physicians ordered billions of dollars of blood tests.
Pharmaceutical companies made tens of billions of dollars on drugs that suppressed cholesterol levels. Food companies, castigated in some quarters as soulless merchants of dietary corruption, were compelled to report the nutritional breakdown of their packaged products.
Badgered by public officialdom and the media over the decades, Americans slowly, grudgingly changed their eating habits.
What good did it do them?
Americans are more overweight, more prone to diabetes and more at risk of heart disease than ever before.
Now, it transpires, the public health consensus and settled science might not have gotten it right.
A new wave of scientific research finds that the worst culprit of all is sugar.
CBS‘ “60 Minutes” hit the highlights of that research in a show broadcast April 1, “Is Sugar Toxic?”

Population downer: Census watcher disappointed in Muskegon County's 2011 estimated totals

Population downer: Census watcher disappointed in Muskegon County's 2011 estimated totals | MLive.com
Michigan lost 7,448 people in the latest population estimate for 2011, a 0.07 percent decline to 9,876,187.
Other large counties with population declines were Wayne (Detroit), Genesee (Flint) and Saginaw – all from 0.5 to 1 percent declines.

Have Biff and Buffy dropped out of the workforce?

NetRight Daily » Have Biff and Buffy dropped out of the workforce?
Even the left-thinking MSNBC eventually stumbles upon the answer that Americans for Limited Government has been pointing to for months — the labor participation rate has been falling like a stone since Obama became president.
This means that a smaller percentage of the civilian working age workforce are actually participating in the labor market, and the 4.4 million people who have dropped out are simply not being counted as unemployed

Full Jail Forcing Flint Police To Give Tickets

Full Jail Forcing Flint Police To Give Tickets | Fox News
They show some of the suspects let go were those police said were driving on suspended licenses, driving under the influence, involved in assaults or caught during a burglary.

Spineless Illinois Politicians Propose to Shift Pension Burden to Schools

Spineless Illinois Politicians Propose to Shift Pension Burden to Schools - Kyle Olson - Townhall Conservative Columnists
Do they have the courage to look public employees in the eye and say, “We screwed up – we can’t afford what we promised,” and dramatically change the system?
Or will they continue playing games, putting local schools and taxpayers in an even more dangerous position?

Crowd Laughs As Tourist Beaten, Stripped And Robbed

Caught On Video: Crowd Laughs As Tourist Beaten, Stripped And Robbed
Caught on camera– a tourist being beaten in downtown Baltimore and instead of helping him, a crowd laughs and steals his belongings.

Commentary: 'Card Check’s' Big Lie Exposed

Commentary: 'Card Check’s' Big Lie Exposed [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
But when the election actually took place last week, 62 percent of the GSRAs who participated voted against unionizing.
This result exposes the big lie behind union demands that Congress enact “card check” legislation.

Tough decisions need to be made about Brookhaven

Viewpoint: Tough decisions need to be made about Brookhaven | MLive.com
I believe the county now has three choices.
We can keep things the same, we can privatize or we can simply sell the facility.

How Sturdy Is the Obama Narrative that 'Keeps Us Silent'?

Articles: How Sturdy Is the Obama Narrative that 'Keeps Us Silent'?
Regarding the nativity story of Barack Obama, Kimball notes that "[i]t's not just that you are not allowed to express certain opinions about the subject.
You are not even allowed to publicly entertain any questions about it."

Get $15,000 Off Your Chevy Volt or Nissan LEAF in Lansing, Michigan

Get $15,000 Off Your Chevy Volt or Nissan LEAF in Lansing, Michigan | PluginCars.com
A program in Lansing, Michigan, that provides what is likely the best deal in the nation towards the purchase of a plug-in vehicle has come to light over the last few days—and it's a wonder that it wasn't plastered all over the news to this point.
Using money from federal and local funds, the Lansing Board of Water and Light will match the already existing federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for the purchase a qualifying plug-in car, resulting in up to a $15,000 overall incentive package.
As an added bonus, the extra $7,500 is a straight-up cash payment that LBWL provides to you at the time of purchase, so there's no waiting for the next tax year to claim it. In addition, the LBWL will install, for free, charging docks in both the participants' homes and their places of work.
The catch?
It's currently only available to the first 25 people to purchase qualifying plug-ins in the LBWL service area.
Of course, the most observant among us will realize that the Nissan LEAF won't initially be available in Lansing, so the program will probably be restricted to just Chevy Volt sales, but LBWL tells AutoblogGreen that if somebody were to buy the LEAF somewhere else and truck it back to Lansing, they would also qualify for the extra $7,500 and the free home charging dock

GM cuts week from Chevy Volt production shutdown in wake of record sales

GM cuts week from Chevy Volt production shutdown in wake of record sales | MLive.com
DETROIT- General Motors Co. will reportedly recharge Chevrolet Volt production a week earlier than expected.
According to the Detroit Free Press, GM will resume production of the extended-range vehicle April 16 after a four-week shutdown, instead of the previously announced five-week shuttering.
The news comes in wake of GM reporting Volt sales of 2,289 units in March, the vehicle’s best performance since being launched in December 2011.
In March, the Detroit-based automaker said it planned to temporarily shutter and lay off 1,300 workers at its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in an attempt to meet production with demand, which has been less than enthusiastic in wake of a federal investigation and political scrutiny.
GM sold 7,671 Volts in 2011, well below GM CEO Dan Akerson's announced target of 10,000. However, Akerson thjis week told Bloomberg News that sales could reach at least 3,000 Volts a month sooner than later.
The Volt, which can travel about 35 miles on battery power before a small gasoline engine generates power to run the car's electric motor, has a base price of about $40,000 before an up to $7,500 tax credit from the U.S. government

Friday, April 06, 2012

The Real Causes of Income Inequality

Gramm and McMillin: The Real Causes of Income Inequality - WSJ.com
This growth in income inequality is largely the result of three dynamics:

1) Changes in the way Americans pay taxes and manage their investments, which were a direct result of reductions in marginal tax rates.
2) A dynamic shift in the labor-capital ratio, resulting from the adoption of market-based economies around the world.
3) The flourishing of economic freedom and technological advances in the Reagan era, which were the product of lower tax rates, a reduced regulatory burden, and an improved business climate.
These changes have not only raised the measured income of the top 1%, they benefited the nation and the world.

OLSEN: Dangers of academia's 'indoctrination mills'

OLSEN: Dangers of academia's 'indoctrination mills' - Washington Times
For decades, conservatives have documented and criticized how liberal ideology runs rampant throughout higher education. Hence William F. Buckley’s famous quip from the 1960s:
“I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”
Fifty years later, few conservatives would disagree.
But could the problem be getting worse?
The Pew Research Center released a study in December showing that more Americans age 18 to 29 have a favorable view of socialism over capitalism.
In fact, this demographic has a net positive view of socialism (49 percent positive to 43 percent negative) and net negative view of capitalism (46 percent positive and 47 percent negative).

Energy Department prepares to approve more green loans

Energy Department prepares to approve more green loans - The Hill's E2-Wire
The Energy Department said Thursday it expects to begin tentatively approving new taxpayer-backed loans for renewable energy projects in the coming months.
The announcement comes about seven months after Solyndra, the California solar firm that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the administration in 2009, went bankrupt, setting off a firestorm in Washington.

D.C. Dem to Introduce Bill to Change Eating Habits in ‘Workplace and Community Settings’

The PJ Tatler » D.C. Dem to Introduce Bill to Change Eating Habits in ‘Workplace and Community Settings’
The representative for a district with higher-than-average rates of obesity-related conditions will return from recess a week from Monday to reintroduce her Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise (LIFE) Act.
D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) will say on the House floor, according to prepared remarks, that her bill is intended to tackle a health problem “that cannot be remedied through the health care system alone.”
The LIFE Act would give the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention $25 million “for a coordinated national effort to reverse increasingly sedentary lifestyles and diets that are high in fat and sugar.”