Sunday, June 17, 2012

Athletics to remain part of Muskegon Heights school tradition under charter system

Athletics to remain part of Muskegon Heights school tradition under charter system | MLive.com
“The community said they want athletics,” Weatherspoon said.
“The new direction is academics. So we’re moving forward with both.”

Governor's staff in Muskegon Monday to gather community input

Governor's staff in Muskegon Monday to gather community input | MLive.com
MUSKEGON, MI – Ryke’s Bakery is the place to be Monday morning if you have a state government question or concern for Gov. Rick Snyder.
You can also grab a doughnut or two.
Representatives from the Governor’s Office are scheduled to meet face-to-face with Muskegon community members from 10 a.m. to noon Monday at Ryke’s Bakery, Catering and CafĂ©, 1788 Terrace in Muskegon.
The local visit is part of a tour of more than 60 sites in Michigan by the Governor’s Office of Constituent Services.

Keith Guy's move from Muskegon Heights to Muskegon almost a done deal

Keith Guy's move from Muskegon Heights to Muskegon almost a done deal | MLive.com
Guy led the Muskegon Heights Tigers to the boys basketball state semifinals last year and to the state finals the previous year.

Charter school company withdraws interest in Muskegon Heights

Charter school company withdraws interest in Muskegon Heights | MLive.com
New Paradigm, a nonprofit company, operates the Detroit Edison Public School Academy, which has 1,100 students and a staff of 110, as well as the Glazer Academy and Loving Academy, both of which are authorized by Detroit Public Schools.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Four Muskegon County sites to offer free HIV tests June 27

Four Muskegon County sites to offer free HIV tests June 27 | MLive.com
Tests will be offered from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Public Health Muskegon County, 209 E. Apple; 9 a.m. to noon at Benson Drug, 961 Spring; 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at McClee’s Clinic, 1700 Clinton; and 1 to 3:30 p.m. at Hackley Community Care Center, 2700 Baker, Muskegon Heights.

Who will be Muskegon's next mayor? The city commission will begin to decide

Who will be Muskegon's next mayor? The city commission will begin to decide | MLive.com
Even though Warmington announced his intentions at the commission’s May 22 meeting, commissioners said they would not discuss his replacement until the resignation became officiall out of respect for the mayor.

Special education overhaul, closure of schools help Muskegon schools balance budget

Special education overhaul, closure of schools help Muskegon schools balance budget | MLive.com
Special education is a category with one of the biggest spending reductions.
The reductions are expected to come as a result of an overhaul in qualifying students for special education services, said Muskegon Public Schools Superintendent Jon Felske.
“We believe there are students who have received services who no longer qualify,” Felske said.

Mark Steyn: Earthly woes mount as Obama's rhetoric soars

Mark Steyn: Earthly woes mount as Obama's rhetoric soars | obama, moon, together - Opinion - The Orange County Register
Round about this time in the election cycle, a presidential challenger finds himself on the stump and posing a simple test to voters: "Ask yourself – are you better off now than you were four years ago?"

International - Robert Wright - Obama's Drift Toward War With Iran

International - Robert Wright - Obama's Drift Toward War With Iran - The Atlantic
The most undercovered story in Washington is how President Obama, under the influence of election-year politics, is letting America drift toward war with Iran.

Five Reasons Why Romney is the Favorite

Five Reasons Why Romney is the Favorite « Commentary Magazine
3. Intellectual exhaustion.
The Obama campaign is out of ideas.
On the economy, Obama has used virtually everything in his progressive toolkit.
Nothing has worked.

Unfunded and Unreported: $900 Billion in States’ Liabilities

Unfunded and Unreported: $900 Billion in States’ Liabilities | Heartlander Magazine
The five “sinkhole states,” along with the amount taxpayers would need to pay are: Connecticut ($49,000), New Jersey ($35,800), Hawaii ($32,700), Illinois ($31,600), and Kentucky ($23,500).
Weinberg says “politicians for years have been saying their budgets are balanced, but that’s because they’re not including these liabilities.”

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

GREENFAIL: Syracuse’s little-used electric car chargers being replaced after just months.

#GREENFAIL: Syracuse’s little-used electric car chargers being replaced after just months.

A Syracuse nonprofit got a $700,000 government grant last year to buy and install 68 electric car charging units around Central New York.

But this week, Synapse Sustainability Trust ripped the last of the chargers out of a downtown Syracuse parking lot.

But reader Kenneth Strumpf writes that this is the key bit:
The goof-up will have little impact on the public. After all, there are only 30 electric or electric hybrid cars in five counties surrounding Syracuse. There are more charging units than there are cars that can use them.
He comments: “I regularly park in a lot containing about a dozen of these charging stations and have never seen a car attached to one.”

Interestingly, the company that got the grant, Synapse Partners, is run by the county Democratic chairwoman.“Fed by government grants, their company and its nonprofit arm also have strong connections to the Democratic Party.”

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson: Calling reforms voter suppression is 'partisan theatrics' or a misunderstanding

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson: Calling reforms voter suppression is 'partisan theatrics' or a misunderstanding | MLive.com
State Rep. Woodrow Stanley, D-Flint, said protests erupted at a committee hearing due to frustration over “a naked assault on that sacred right to vote.”

THE RISE OF NAKED VACATIONS

THE RISE OF NAKED VACATIONS
When the Carnival Freedom sets sail from Florida next February for an eight-day cruise to Panama, it will offer the same amenities as any other Carnival cruise: three pools, a jogging track, a 1970s dance club and a cigar bar.
But there is one stark difference.
Passengers on the white behemoth of a ship, which can carry 2,974 passengers, will enjoy those facilities naked.
Warning: Few, if any, of your fellow passengers will be supermodels.

Gerald O'Driscoll: How the Euro Will End

Gerald O'Driscoll: How the Euro Will End - WSJ.com
For such reasons, when the euro was created in 1999, Milton Friedman famously predicted its demise within a decade. He was wrong about the timing, but he may yet be proven right about the fact.

The Bizarre White House Reaction to Commerce Secretary John Bryson News

The Bizarre White House Reaction to Commerce Secretary John Bryson News
Later in the briefing, Carney said the White House was alerted on Sunday evening and the president was informed on Monday morning. Again, this strikes even the casual observer as odd.
The Commerce Secretary is tenth in the presidential line of succession and there is a government-wide Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) that ensures that the executive branch leadership is accounted for and able to serve.
Did the President of the United States really find out at the same time as the general public that 36 hours beforehand his Commerce Secretary had been hospitalized?
And if so, was his first concern the fact that his staff left him in the dark unnecessarily for so many hours?

An open letter to the Rt Rev Michael Langrish, Bishop of Exeter, on the subject of his foiled wind farm scheme

An open letter to the Rt Rev Michael Langrish, Bishop of Exeter, on the subject of his foiled wind farm scheme – Telegraph Blogs
What surprised me about your letter was that a man intelligent enough to have gained two degrees (one from Cambridge) and canny enough to have risen to the not totally immodest heights of the Bishopric of Exeter should yet be puzzled as to why his flock might object to having a hideous pair of bat-chomping, bird-slicing eco-crucifixes plonked next to their tranquil North Devon villages.

U.S. NEWS: Why The Higher Education Bubble Will Be Worse Than the Housing Bubble.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » U.S. NEWS: Why The Higher Education Bubble Will Be Worse Than the Housing Bubble. 
“Even when homeowners got hopelessly behind on their mortgages, two options helped.
First, they could declare bankruptcy and free themselves of their crippling debt; second, they could sell their houses to pay down most of their loans. Students don’t have either of these options.
It’s illegal to absolve student loan debt through bankruptcy, and you can’t sell back an education.”

Jenna Bush Interviews Former President George H. W. Bush on His 88th Birthday: VIDEO

Jenna Bush Interviews Former President George H. W. Bush on His 88th Birthday: VIDEO

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

More nations exempt from Iran sanctions

More nations exempt from Iran sanctions - FT.com
The state department said that Turkey, India, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa and Sri Lanka had all reduced purchases of Iranian oil by enough to be given a six-month exemption from the sanctions, which come into operation on June 28

Oh, the power of "sanctions"!

EyeOnMuskegon: Important meetings Today, Tue. Jun 12!

EyeOnMuskegon: Important meetings Today, Tue. Jun 12!
Remember, when they operate without any citizen input, they operate for those who already have input and that's why we're broke.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Sheila Jackson Lee Declares Rodney King a 'Great Philosopher'

Blog: Sheila Jackson Lee Declares Rodney King a 'Great Philosopher'
On Friday in response to a Fox News reporter's question about Obamacare, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), a University of Virginia Law graduate, invoked the name of Rodney King calling him a "great philosopher."
Not since Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) expressed concern that the addition of 8,000 service personnel and their families onto the island of Guam might cause it to tip over have Americans heard such moronic craziness.

Do we really pay the Queen of Racism $174,000 per year?

NYC principal bars students from singing 'God Bless the USA' at graduation

NYC principal bars students from singing 'God Bless the USA' at graduation | Fox News
A New York City principal has pulled the plug on patriotism by preventing students from singing "God Bless the USA" at their graduation.
.....But Hawkins marched in on a recent rehearsal and ordered a CD playing the anthem to be shut off, staffers said.
She told the teachers to drop the song from the program.
"We don't want to offend other cultures," they quoted her as explaining.

Detroit faces a choice between acceptance of reality and suicidal defiance

Stephen Henderson: Detroit faces a choice between acceptance of reality and suicidal defiance | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
Swallow your pride -- or choke on it.
That's what Detroit is down to in its operatic arc of financial tragedy: a final choice between acceptance of reality and suicidal defiance.
The city's elected officials can let their rogue corporation counsel, Krystal Crittendon, force payless paydays or worse with her quixotically loopy attempt to undo the consent agreement with the state to better manage Detroit's finances.
Or they can act like grown-ups and accept, with just a modicum of humility, that it is their responsibility to determine Detroit's fate, not Crittendon's.
 They can order her to stand down, so that other agreements between the city and state (including one worth an immediate $80 million to the city) can go forward.

You'd think there would be no question about the right choice.
But this is Detroit.
So there was City Council President Charles Pugh on Friday, saying he's fine with Crittendon going ahead with her challenge to the consent agreement and with waiting until a judge rules.
As for Chief Financial Officer Jack Martin's prognosis that the city could bounce paychecks as early as this week?
Pugh said it's likely a bluff, an overstatement of the city's condition.