Saturday, January 12, 2013

Moonlighting security official Barnett Jones will keep job at Detroit water department after resigning from Flint post

Moonlighting security official Barnett Jones will keep job at Detroit water department after resigning from Flint post | MLive.com
He'll keep the water department job, McCormick in a statement Friday afternoon.
"Barnett Jones is doing a finejob for us at DWSD," she said. "Jonescame to DWSD with extensive experience in security and emergency management,and a distinguished career in law enforcement that included internal affairswork."
The water department doesn't prohibit additional outside employment, McCormick said.

GM CEO 'cautiously optimistic' about 2013; continues to defy critics

GM CEO 'cautiously optimistic' about 2013; continues to defy critics | MLive.com
In 2012, GM accomplished a number of company milestones, including reacquiring Ally Financial Inc., which helps give the company more control over lending and leasing to potential customers; de-risking its pension plan by $29 billion for salaried employees and retirees; achieving at least 11 consecutive profitable quarters; and reacquiring 200 million shares of common stock from the U.S. Treasury Department, which plans to exit the automaker by March 2014.

Is the Pure Michigan brand being misused? MEDC ad outrages right-to-work opponents

Is the Pure Michigan brand being misused? MEDC ad outrages right-to-work opponents | MLive.com
Right-to-work opponents are criticizing an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that uses the Pure Michigan logo while touting the new right-to-work law as a reason to do business in the state.
The full-page print ad, titled, ‘What happens when Michigan makes history,’ contains the following text:
“It’s a new day for business in Michigan. Michigan is the newest Right-to-Work state.
This once-in a generation transformation has Michigan poised to become a preferred place to do business.
Michigan has also redesigned incentive programs, streamlined regulatory processes, approved legislation to eliminate personal property taxes and launched a new flat 6% business tax, giving the state its most competitive position in decades.
The perfect storm of opportunity, resources and passion is Pure Michigan.”

Judge baffled by support for Metro Detroit teacher convicted of sex crimes against students

Judge baffled by support for Metro Detroit teacher convicted of sex crimes against students | MLive.com
A judge sentenced a substitute music teacher to five years in prison for having sex with a 17-year-old student and exchanging lewd cellphone photos and video with two other girls, and she lambasted his many supporters, saying they apparently didn't know the extent of his misdeeds.

Muskegon County Republican Executive Committee to discuss prevailing wage at a free public event on Monday night

Muskegon County Republican Executive Committee to discuss prevailing wage at a free public event on Monday night | MLive.com

Comments:

alaskanwolverine
As a former member of the Muskegon County Republican Executive Committee, I'm glad to see them being active and reaching out publicly to address the pertinent issues of the day. I was not a popular member of the committee due to my true conservatism in economic and social issues. Sounds like the committee is on the right track now.
alaskanwolverine, Please join us Monday night. You will be welcomed now.

Editorial: Spirited mayor's race is just what Muskegon needs

Editorial: Spirited mayor's race is just what Muskegon needs | MLive.com#incart_river
With the election scheduled in November, Muskegon residents will have 10 months to take a hard look at who we say we are and what we want be as a community.
They will be able to dissect the visions presented by the candidates and chose a leader.
And they will have time to figure out how to join forces behind the new leader to turn this community into the city they see when they defend it against the bashers.
Let's begin the discussion today.

Truancy plan will work with families, not against them, officials say in live chat

Truancy plan will work with families, not against them, officials say in live chat | MLive.com
The plan calls for schools to look at students once they have five absences, whether they are excused or not.
School personnel will decide whether the absences are cause for concern and those that are will continue to be monitored.
If a student being monitored is absent four more times, they will be referred to the prosecutor’s office, which will explain to the student’s family they could lose welfare benefits if the absences continue.

Muskegon County Republican Executive Committee to discuss prevailing wage at a free public event on Monday night

Muskegon County Republican Executive Committee to discuss prevailing wage at a free public event on Monday night | MLive.com#incart_river
The federal government has its own prevailing wage laws, butMonday night's meeting will likely focus on the Muskegon County's rules, whichare similar.
Vincent Vernuccio, director of labor policy at the MackinacCenter for Public Policy, will be a featured speaker.

GOP Establishment Standing in Way of Prevailing Wage Reform

GOP Establishment Standing in Way of Prevailing Wage Reform [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
“I absolutely won’t support increasing any fees or taxes (for road improvements) as long as we have prevailing wage in Michigan,” he said recently at an Independent Tea Party Patriots Meeting in Clarkston.

60,000 patients put on death pathway without being told

60,000 patients put on death pathway without being told but minister still says controversial end-of-life plan is 'fantastic'

Pathway involves the sick being sedated and usually denied nutritionand fluids
Families kept in the dark when doctors withdraw lifesaving treatment
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said pathway was a 'fantastic step forward'
Anti-euthanasia group said: ‘The Pathway is designed to finish people off double quick'

Sandy Relief Dwarfs Past Aid Packages

Sandy Relief Dwarfs Past Aid Packages
The measure bill includes $150 million for what the Commerce Department described as fisheries disasters in Alaska, Mississippi and the Northeast, and $50 million in subsidies for replanting trees on private land damaged by wildfires.
....Critics are taking the sharpest aim at $12.1 billion in the amendment for Department of Housing and Urban Development emergency block grants.
Any state struck by a federally declared major disaster in 2011, 2012 or this year would qualify for the grants, and that's just about all the states, said Stephen Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group.
Only South Carolina, Arizona and Michigan would not qualify, he said.

Detroit Water’s security chief Barnett Jones resigns 2nd job in Flint amid questions

Detroit Water’s security chief Barnett Jones resigns 2nd job in Flint amid questions | Michigan news | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
Flint’s administrator of public safety resigned this morning after the Free Press raised questions about how he could work there while also working as the head of security for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.
Barnett Jones, a longtime lawman in southeast Michigan, was earning $273,750 at the two jobs, which are almost 70 miles apart.
He had been working both since May.

Revealed: Civil servant secretly working two full time public jobs, 70 miles apart - netting a salary higher than the Vice President's

Revealed: Civil servant secretly working two full time public jobs, 70 miles apart - netting a salary higher than the Vice President's | Mail Online
Flint City Administrator, Michael Brown, told the Press he wasn't aware of Jones' other role.
'We didn’t know that he was working at Detroit water and sewer,' Brown said. 'I was surprised and to be honest, disappointed'.
Jones' salary broke down as $135,000 a year from Flint and $138,750 from Detroit.
It gave him a total salary higher than a senator, Supreme Court judge or even Vice President Joe Biden.
Jones told the Free Press on Wednesday that he was doing justice to both jobs, when the newspaper asked him if he could juggle the two.
'Absolutely,' Jones said.
'There are some days I go to both, some days I go to one.
Sometimes I leave out at 8, 9, 10 o’clock at night, Saturdays.
I’m a workaholic.'

Top Ten Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2012

Top Ten Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2012 | Free Enterprise

Sunspot unleashes intense solar flare

Sunspot unleashes intense solar flare - Technology & science - Space - Space.com | NBC News
"AR1654 is getting bigger as it turns toward Earth," the website reported.
"Not only is the chance of flares increasing, but also the chance of an Earth-directed eruption.
This could be the sunspot that breaks the recent lengthy spell of calm space weather around our planet."
The sun is in an active phase of its current 11-year weather cycle, which scientists call Solar Cycle 24. The sun's activity cycle is expected to reach its peak (or "solar maximum") in 2013, astronomers have said.
The most powerful solar flares, X-class flares, have the most significant effect on Earth.
They can cause long-lasting radiation storms in our planet's upper atmosphere and trigger radio blackouts.
Medium-size M-class flares can cause brief radio blackouts in the polar regions and occasional minor radiation storms.
C-class flares, the weakest in scientists' three-tiered classification system, have few noticeable consequences.

Feeling poor? WHO took all your money? NOT capitalist bastards?

Feeling poor? WHO took all your money? NOT capitalist bastards? • The Register:

Hillary Clinton Rescued By Iranians from Near Fatal Plane Crash

Hillary Clinton Rescued By Iranians from Near Fatal Plane Crash | Stuart Wilde | The Official Author Website
A new Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin today is saying that United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [photo 2nd left] was injured, and a top US Navy Seal Commander killed when their C-12 Huron military passenger and transport aircraft crash landed nearly 3 weeks ago in the Iranian city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border.

Iranian intelligence agents quoted in this GRU report confirm that the C-12 Huron aircraft is still in their possession in Ahvaz, but will only admit that the plane was “forced to land because of technical problems.”

The US Navy Seal member reported killed in this bizarre incident, this report says, was indentified as Commander Job W. Price [photo 3rd left] who as a leader of this highly specialized American Special Forces unit protects high-ranking diplomats traveling in Middle Eastern and Asian combat zones.

Curiously, US media reports on Commander Price’s death say it being investigated as a possible suicide as he died from what the American Defense Department describes as “a non-combat related injury.”

MILTON FRIEDMAN: Why we don’t need to throw the bums out. “It’s nice to elect the right people, bu…

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MILTON FRIEDMAN: Why we don’t need to throw the bums out.
MILTON FRIEDMAN:
Why we don’t need to throw the bums out.
“It’s nice to elect the right people, but that’s not the way you solve things.
They way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.”
Politicians are at best semi-autonomous.
They mostly respond to external forces.
If you want them to behave differently, change the correlation of forces.
 That can be done by taking over state parties, by primarying people, by changing the culture and all sorts of other ways.

Report: Child playing with matches may have started Manistee house fire

Report: Child playing with matches may have started Manistee house fire | MLive.com

"playing with matches"?

How Michigan Supreme Court opening will be filled in wake of Diane Hathaway departure

#incart_river
Hathaway’s attorney said the justice served notice in late December she would retire.
But news of her plan didn’t become public until Monday -- shortly after the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission filed a formal complaint and called for her interim suspension in light of a federal lawsuit alleging bank fraud and money laundering.

Mike Lee pushes for changes to union exemption from Hobbs Act

Mike Lee pushes for changes to union exemption from Hobbs Act | Washington Free Beacon
"Labor groups are immune from prosecution under the Hobbs Act, a 1946 provision that criminalized extortion and robbery using the threat or fear of force.
Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) attempted to close that loophole last year with the Freedom from Union Violence Act (FUVA)."

White House Considers Funding for Cops in Schools

White House Considers Funding for Cops in Schools
"In what seems like a surprise move, the White House working group on gun control is considering expanding federal funding for cops in schools."

Report: Americans Die Younger, Contract More STDs Than Any Other High-Income Country Worldwide

Report: Americans Die Younger, Contract More STDs Than Any Other High-Income Country Worldwide « CBS DC
“Research is important, but we should not wait for more data before taking action, because we already know what to do,” Woolf said.
“If we fail to act, the disadvantage will continue to worsen and our children will face shorter lives and greater rates of illness than their peers in other rich nations.”

State, Melrose mayor target violent video games

State, Melrose mayor target violent video games - Metro - The Boston Globe
Mayor Robert Dolan of ­Melrose said Thursday that the city is launching an initiative aimed at persuading families to get rid of their violent video games, movies, and toys by offer­ing coupons to residents who turn in those items at the city yard.
“If a family has this discussion and maybe tries to get rid of some of this stuff, they are going to get one of these coupons,” Dolan said.
“The child may be getting rid of something they like, but they are getting some value for it.”

Third candidate for Muskegon mayor Demario Phillips withdraws hours after entering the race

Third candidate for Muskegon mayor Demario Phillips withdraws hours after entering the race | MLive.com
"Demario Phillips, 23, of 1394 Ransom publicly declared his candidacy for mayor of Muskegon at the end of Tuesday’s city commission meeting.
But early Thursday morning, he called MLive and The Muskegon Chronicle to withdraw from the race.
“I will be back again to run for mayor in following years,” Phillips said, adding that his decision was partially “financial.”
He said he will support Gawron’s candidacy because the current mayor is someone he knows and likes.
Phillips said he has never met Abiade.
“Steve Gawron is a cool person and a friend,” Phillips said. “He deserves my blessing.”
Phillips is a 2009 Muskegon High School graduate.
He was recently employed in December by Kandu Inc. in Holland working in production of bandages, mirrors and home supplies.
Kandu is a non-profit agency that teaches life-skills and job training to people with barriers to employment, according to its website.
Besides mayor, city voters also will select two at-large city commissioners in seats now held by Commissioners Sue Wierengo and Lea Markowski.
...Wierengo and Markowski said they are both considering running again for the city commission but have not made a final decision.
The candidate filing deadline is in May.

Unhappy with Windows 8? Here are your options

Unhappy with Windows 8? Here are your options | Microsoft windows - InfoWorld:

Obama Opposed Gun Ban Exception to Defend One’s Home

Obama Opposed Gun Ban Exception to Defend One’s Home | The Blog on Obama: White House Dossier
As a state senator in Illinois, President Obama opposed legislation providing an exception to handgun restrictions if the weapon was used in the defense of one’s home.

Obama Signs Bill Giving Him Armed Protection For Life

» Obama Signs Bill Giving Him Armed Protection For Life 

Drought Still Plagues US: Food Prices 'Going Up'

Drought Still Plagues US: Food Prices 'Going Up'

"Forecasts are for a four percent (price) increase in food this year, but I think that's on the low side if the drought continues," Gross said. "Food prices will likely be going up much more than the forecast."
Lack of rain and extremely warm temperatures—thought to be from global warming as well as natural climate changes— are blamed for the drought.
......And some 40 percent of the nation's corn crop goes to ethanol producers—and into the gas tanks of the nation's automobiles—putting more strain on food supplies."