Job destroying democrats forcing employers to become "smart"------Meet "Smart Restaurant": The Minimum-Wage-Crushing Robot

Meet "Smart Restaurant": The Minimum-Wage-Crushing Robot | The Federalist Papers:
This is for all those economically illiterate people who think raising the minimum wage is a good idea!

Via Zero Hedge:

With a seemingly endless line of talking-heads willing to ignore essentially every study that has been undertaken with regard the effects of raising the minimum-wage; and propose what is merely populist vote-getting ‘benefits’ – we thought the following burger-flipping robot was a perfect example of unintended consequences for the fast food industry’s workers.

With humans needing to take breaks, have at least 4 weekend days off per month, and demanding ever-increasing minimum-wage for a job that was never meant to provide a ‘living-wage’, Momentum Machines – a San Francisco-based robotics company has unveiled the ‘Smart Restaurants’ machine which is capable of making ~360 ‘customized’ gourmet burgers per hour without the aid of a human. 

What exactly does a “Smart Restaurants” machine do? Via Momentum Machine’s Press Release:

“Fast food doesn’t have to have a negative connotation anymore. With our technology, a restaurant can offer gourmet quality burgers at fast food prices. Our alpha machine replaces all of the hamburger line cooks in a restaurant. It does everything employees can do except better.”
....The issue of machines and job displacement has been around for centuries and economists generally accept that technology like ours actually causes an increase in employment. The three factors that contribute to this are 1. the company that makes the robots must hire new employees, 2. the restaurant that uses our robots can expand their frontiers of production which requires hiring more people, and 3. the general public saves money on the reduced cost of our burgers. This saved money can then be spent on the rest of the economy. We take these issues very seriously so please feel free to tell us how we can help with this transition.

The other main benefit to companies is machines do not require Obamacare! 
This is the outcome you can expect in industry after industry if you raise the minimum wage, or make the cost of employment too high for employers.
What do you think?

Obama’s Attack on Coal-Fired Electrical Power

Obama’s Attack on Coal-Fired Electrical Power:
I find it somewhat surprising how little press the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Report card on the nation’s infrastructure received when it came out in 2013.

Considering how poorly our nation’s infrastructure faired on this report, I would have thought that the press would have been all over it.
Bridges, which have received a lot of press for needing upgrading or replacement nationwide, actually received one of the highest grades at a C+.
Overall, the nation’s infrastructure received a D+, nothing to brag about.
If I had ever dared to bring home a report card like that to show my mommy, I would have died an early death and wouldn’t be writing this right now.
While everything on this report card is important, one of the biggest concerns is the Energy infrastructure, which received a D+.
The energy grade includes the electrical grid, natural gas and oil. 
Of the three, the electrical grid is obviously of the greatest import and the one that we should be the most concerned about. 
A large percentage of our electrical grid is aged; having outlived its 50 year intended life expectancy.

.....Coal accounts for about 40 percent of our country’s electrical power generation.
Of the 600 coal-fired power plants in the country, about half of them have already outlived their designed life-expectancy.
Another 20 percent of them are within ten years of the end of their programmed life.
That means that at least in theory, our country’s electrical power industry needs to replace about 400 of these within the next ten years, just to maintain our current electrical power production.
Here’s where the problem comes in. Obama’s EPA has created regulations making it virtually impossible to replace those coal-fired plants with newer coal-fired plants. While the EPA isn’t saying that they can’t be built, their new regulations are so stringent, that it is driving the cost up to the point where it is no longer financially feasible.
While Obama wants solar and wind power to replace coal, that’s not all that financially feasible either.
The technology hasn’t reached the point where it need to, in order to be able to take over our country’s energy needs.
Coal costs 4.1 cents per kilowatt hour to produce, where wind costs 4.3 cents and solar a whopping 7.7 cents. 
Natural gas, which seems to be the most likely alternative to coal, is running at 5.2 cents per kilowatt hour to produce.

White House: Obama Looking to Act ‘Administratively, Unilaterally’ on Guns | TheBlaze.com

White House: Obama Looking to Act ‘Administratively, Unilaterally’ on Guns | TheBlaze.com:

 "White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that President Barack Obama is “always” looking for opportunities to act “unilaterally” again on guns, though he would prefer to work with Congress."

Hypocrite of the day----Liberal, drunk prof (probably anti-gun) with big pay, cush job shoots at little guy trying to make a living---- Police: CMU prof arraigned after shots fired at door-to-door vacuum salesmen

Police: CMU prof arraigned after shots fired at door-to-door vacuum salesmen | MLive.com
The Isabella County Sheriff's Department has arrested a Central Michigan University professor accused of shooting at a group of door-to-door salesmen in Fremont Township.
...At 6:05 p.m.  Thursday, June 5, two vacuum-cleaner salesmen approached a residence in the 6000 block of South Vandecar in Fremont Township, knocked on the door and observed a man approach the door without opening it, police reported.
The man, who police identified as Lee, gestured "one minute" by holding an index finger up before walking toward the garage, according to a press release posted on the Sheriff's Department's website.
The salesmen told police they decided to leave.
As their van rolled down the driveway, Lee emerged from a pole barn next to the residence and brandished a long gun, according to police.
Two shots were heard by the van's occupants and they saw Lee pointing the gun at them as they drove away, they told police.
One of the victims reported hearing the pellets "whiz" by his open driver's side window, police said.
Lee is a faculty member in the CMU's human and environmental studies department, said Director of Public Relations Steve Smith.
A note on the professor's classroom door states that class was canceled and the final exam was waived.
...Deputies retrieved a 20-gauge shotgun, and police said they believe alcohol is a factor in the incident. 
No one was injured, police said.

Cowardly RINOs defineing themselves as "democrat-lite"-----GOP panics on minimum wage

GOP panics on minimum wage - Nolan Finley - The Detroit News:
"Republican lawmakers and Gov Rick Snyder panicked in adopting a bill to raise the minimum wage to $9.25 an hour.
Afraid Democrats would make a campaign issue out of a ballot drive to hike the wage to !0.!0, the Republicans chose bad policy to avoid having worse policy forced on them.
But there was no guarantee that the unions backing the initiative could raise the resources to push it through. Union campaign warchests are depleted, and they have a lot of priorities competing for resources in this election cycle.
And even if the Democratic proposal had passed, the outcome would have only been marginally worse than what the GOP approved.
Republicans did get a lower rate for teen workers, and a more favorable formula for calculating the annual cost of living increase.
They also feel they took the politics out of this issue for the long term by indexing future wage increases to inflation.
But those automatic annual increases are a job killer. Businesses faced with stagnant or falling revenue will have just one choice for controlling labor costs — they’ll have to fire workers instead of simply freezing their wages.
Or raise prices.
And those price hikes will eat up the wage increases for workers who are also consumers.
If Republicans are going to make policy like Democrats, whats the point of electing them?"

Primary Stunner: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Loses to Underdog Tea Party Challenger

Primary Stunner: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Loses to Underdog Tea Party Challenger | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"After being all but counted out, tea party activist David Brat pulled off a stunning victory against House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Tuesday in the Virginia GOP primary for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Associated Press reports."

Holi crapoli! You do know that if they can think it, it WILL happen.-------The East Coast Chatterati Are Buzzing About John Conyers' Reparations Bill

The East Coast Chatterati Are Buzzing About John Conyers' Reparations Bill –  Deadline Detroit:
"The cover story in the June issue of The Atlantic, an impassioned essay by Ta-Nahesi Coates titled "The Case for Reparations," generates a remarkable amount of discussion among commentators at the big and small media outlets between Boston and Washington.

The 15,000-plus word article argues that American society has plundered black Americans since their forced arrival in the country four centuries ago through laws, customs, finances and politics, and the nation needs to come to grips with its past. Coates says the way to do that is to consider the bill introduced annually by U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., the Detroit Democrat whose measure calls for a deep study of the effects of slavery and possible solutions."

....One cannot escape the question by hand-waving at the past, disavowing the acts of one’s ancestors, nor by citing a recent date of ancestral immigration. The last slaveholder has been dead for a very long time. The last soldier to endure Valley Forge has been dead much longer. To proudly claim the veteran and disown the slaveholder is patriotism à la carte. A nation outlives its generations. We were not there when Washington crossed the Delaware, but Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s rendering has meaning to us. We were not there when Woodrow Wilson took us into World War I, but we are still paying out the pensions. If Thomas Jefferson’s genius matters, then so does his taking of Sally Hemings’s body. If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge."

Obama "leadership"-----Al Qaeda Militants Capture US Black Hawk Helicopters In Iraq

Al Qaeda Militants Capture US Black Hawk Helicopters In Iraq | Zero Hedge:

Just when one thought US foreign policy couldn't sink any deeper into the hole of its embarrassment, it takes out a shovel and starts digging. 

Overnight, in what AP describes as a stunning assault that exposed Iraq's eroding central authority, Al Qaida-inspired militants from ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, overran much of Mosul on Tuesday, seizing government buildings, pushing out security forces and capturing military vehicles as thousands of residents fled the second-largest city.

...Residents of Mosul said they were shocked at the ease of the rebel takeover of government buildings, television stations and military installations where U.S.-supplied fighter airplanes, helicopters and other heavy weaponry are based.

"The whole of Mosul collapsed today. We've fled our homes and neighborhoods, and we're looking for God's mercy," said Mahmoud Al Taie, a dentist. "We are waiting to die."

Videos showed victorious insurgents waving black flags emblazoned with an Islamic script—the standard brandished by al Qaeda militants world-wide.

The biggest irony here is that while the US is arming "rebels" in neighboring Syria, among which numerous Al-Qaeda rebels, the weapons and the trained "fighters" then promptly make their way across the border and continue fighting the US-blessed government in Iraq!

Jessica Lewis, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, said ISIS fighters won a notable victory in Mosul.

....."I think that means that Iraq is going to start to look more like Syria. 

It's a gauge of the severity of the conflict and the trajectory that it's on. 

That's a very bad sign."

HuffPo Sources: Bergdahl a Traitor; Obama Silencing Soldiers

HuffPo Sources: Bergdahl a Traitor; Obama Silencing Soldiers:

"He also reveals that his sources informed him that the Obama administration is also going to great lengths to intimidate Bergdahl’s former platoon members and high level Pentagon officials into silence. Robinson says that there is a bigger story that the American people need to know. "

Written before yesterday's election....heh---------The tea party is after Eric Cantor. Seriously

The tea party is after Eric Cantor. Seriously. - Yahoo News:
"The theory behind running primary campaigns against incumbents, generally, is that they get you outsize influence, even if you lose the vast majority of them.
Other incumbents look at whichever of their poor colleagues is having to spend every last dollar to stave off an embarrassing defeat at the hands of some activist armed with a Facebook page and a bullhorn, and they think: I'd better make these people happy, or they'll come after me next.
That strategy has worked pretty well for the tea party so far.
But the strategy works only if incumbents think they have a reasonable chance of placating the pitchfork-wielding mob.
If leading Republicans can say all the right things and make all the right votes and lay prostrate before the talk radio gods, and still they end up fending off primary challenges and getting booed out of their own conventions, then they might just start to wonder:
What's the point of all this cowering in the corner, anyway? If you're going to get slammed no matter what you do, then why not, you know, actually try to govern?
If Eric Cantor isn't anti-government, anti-spending, anti-Obama enough to insulate himself from grass-roots rebellion, then you've got to ask yourself: Who is?"

White House: Obama Looking to Act ‘Administratively, Unilaterally’ on Guns

White House: Obama Looking to Act ‘Administratively, Unilaterally’ on Guns | TheBlaze.com:
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that President Barack Obama is “always” looking for opportunities to act “unilaterally” again on guns, though he would prefer to work with Congress.
“The president’s goal is to look for opportunities to act administratively, unilaterally using his executive authority to try to make our communities safer,” Earnest said, responding to a question the day that a gunman opened fire at an Oregon high school, killing one student and injuring a teacher.
“We’re always looking for those opportunities.
Obama went on to say, “Now it’s hard to get even the most minor legislation passed and we should be ashamed.”
...“The question I think really facing lawmakers right now is what common sense steps can Democrats and Republicans take to reduce the likelihood of gun violence,” Earnest continued.
“And there are some, and they have unfortunately been bottled up in Congress and that is a disappointment to the president.
But that’s not going to stop the president from continuing to push for administrative steps that we can take to help reduce gun violence.”

History for June 11

History for June 11 - On-This-Day.com:
150th birth anniversary of German composer  Richard Georg Strauss (1864-1949).


Birth anniversary of undersea explorer and Oscar-winning filmmaker Jacques Cousteau (1910-97):“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”



Birth anniversaries of Ben Jonson (1572-1637), Vince Lombardi (1913-70), William Styron (1925-2006).


Happy Birthday! Adrienne Barbeau, Joe Montana, Jackie Stewart



1509 - King Henry VIII married his first of six wives, Catherine of Aragon. 



1770 - Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia when he ran aground. 


1880 - Jeanette Rankin was born. She became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress. 


1895 - Charles E. Duryea received the first U.S. patent granted to an American inventor for a gasoline-driven automobile. 


1919 - Sir Barton became the first horse to capture the Triple Crown when he won the Belmont Stakes in New York City. 


1930 - William Beebe dove to a record-setting depth of 1,426 feet off the coast of Bermuda. He used a diving chamber called a bathysphere. 


1934 - The Disarmament Conference in Geneva ended in failure. 


1937 - Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a purge of Red Army generals. 






1947 - The U.S. government announced an end to sugar rationing. 



1982 - Steven Spielberg's movie "E.T." opened. 

1987 - Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term of office. 

1991 - Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted. The eruption of ash and gas could be seen for more than 60 miles. 


1993 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who commit "hate crimes" could be sentenced to extra punishment. The court also ruled in favor of religious groups saying that they indeed had a constitutional right to sacrifice animals during worship services. 

Obama Unleashes his Wrath on Arizona Using Children as Pawns

Obama Unleashes his Wrath on Arizona Using Children as Pawns:

"Barack Obama’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) agency has been taken to a disturbing practice. Upon apprehension at the Rio Grande border, rather than sending illegal aliens back home, they are sending them to Arizona, Oklahoma, and other places within Texas. Arizona, however, has received the largest influx of illegal aliens with, to date, 48,000 illegals being sent via plane and bus to the state.  Thousands of these individuals are children who have been sent here as unaccompanied minors, housed in warehouses with little security available, virtually no place to sleep, with many areas being quarantined because of diseases that many are carrying. "

County Sheriff’s Chilling Justification for Bringing Former Military Vehicles to Local Police Forces | Video | TheBlaze.com

County Sheriff’s Chilling Justification for Bringing Former Military Vehicles to Local Police Forces | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"Pulaski County, Indiana, is home to less than 14,000 people. In all of 2012, they saw only 11 larceny or theft incidents, one murder and a grand total of 17 property crimes.
Yet, their police force has a mine-resistant ambush protection vehicle at their disposal."

Chicago Public Schools prom slogan: ‘This Is Are Story’

Chicago Public Schools prom slogan: ‘This Is Are Story’ - EAGnews.org powered by Education Action Group Foundation, Inc.:
"It’s hard to deny just how poorly Chicago’s public schools are performing when it hits you in the face. Such is the case with Paul Robeson High School’s 2014 prom theme: “This is Are Story.”
That image came from veteran investigative reporter Chuck Goudie, who posted this image on his Facebook page.
Some people might enjoy mocking the irony of the gross misuse of vocabulary.
But unless the organizers of the prom festivities planned the wording this way as a joke, there’s nothing funny about the situation.
Paul Robeson High School is located in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. The high school also is part of the failing Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, system.
Four out of 10 CPS freshmen do not graduate.
If they do graduate, 91 percent have to take remediation courses in college because they do not know how to do basic math and school work. 
Just 26 percent of CPS high school students are college-ready, according to the ACT subject matter tests."

Andrew Puzder: Why Young People Can't Find Work

Andrew Puzder: Why Young People Can't Find Work - WSJ:
The main culprits are policies that make new jobs more expensive.
In President Obama's speeches this year, a steady theme has been creating jobs and economic opportunity for Americans.
...Yet during the more than five years Mr. Obama has been in office, young people have been especially hard-hit by the slow and virtually jobless recovery. Given the destructive effect this has on individual initiative and the prospects of a productive and rewarding working life, the continuing struggle of young Americans to find jobs, start building families and contribute to society is no longer simply a matter of politics or policy. On a deeply human level, it's profoundly sad.
...These disturbing numbers raise a simple question: Where are the entry-level jobs?

Five years of 2% average yearly GDP growth simply doesn't produce enough jobs to absorb the natural increase in the labor force, and over the past eight quarters GDP growth has averaged only 1.7%.
.....The bottom line on labor: Make something less expensive and businesses will use more of it. Make something more expensive and businesses will use less of it. The Congressional Budget Office has forecast a loss of 500,000 jobs should the president's proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour become law.
...ObamaCare is also increasing the cost of hiring inexperienced workers. The health-care law requires that businesses with more than 50 full-time employees offer medical insurance to employees working 30 or more hours a week. The administration knows that the employer mandate will kill jobs and has twice delayed implementing it. With an election on the horizon, American businesses know that these delays were political and that the mandate's economically damaging impact is in the pipeline, coming their way.
ObamaCare gives businesses an incentive to either eliminate entry-level jobs or keep the workers' hours to under 30 a week. It also gives businesses a reason to reduce the hours of experienced employees to under 30 a week. These experienced employees are now working second jobs to compensate for their lost hours—resulting in fewer positions for less-experienced workers.
To get on the ladder of opportunity, America's young people need jobs. Creating disincentives to hire them diminishes the notion that "if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead." The reality is that you can't get ahead if you can't find a job.
I'm not speaking primarily as a business CEO. My company will adjust to new laws. I'm speaking as someone from a working-class family. I started work scooping ice cream for the minimum wage at Baskin-Robbins. To put myself through college and law school while supporting my family, I cut lawns, painted houses and busted concrete with a jackhammer. I know how important these jobs are. For one thing, they taught me—as no lectures from my parents ever could—that I needed a good education so I wouldn't have to settle for low-paying work the rest of my life. Too many young people today are being deprived of even that basic lesson.

White House Breaks Its Silence on Jailed Marine in Mexico | TheBlaze.com

White House Breaks Its Silence on Jailed Marine in Mexico | TheBlaze.com:

 "More than 123,000 people have signed a petition on the White House website calling for President Barack Obama to get directly involved in Tahmooressi’s release. Last week, Veterans of Foreign Wars leader William A. Thien urged Obama in a letter, “A personal phone call from you to Mexican President Nieto can make this happen.”

It All Started Here

It All Started Here - Answers.com:

What’s the Second Biggest Religion in Your State and the Country?

What’s the Second Biggest Religion in Your State and the Country? | TheBlaze.com:

Once again, in the national news. But not in the Muskegon news..........VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System to receive further review from patient access taskforce

And now the same folks want more money for a new project: 
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/06/muskegon_county_seeks_funding.html#incart_river


VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System to receive further review from patient access taskforce | MLive.com:
"The Ann Arbor-based health system is one of 112 VA sites that was flagged for further scrutiny by the report.
Outpatient clinics in Lansing and Muskegon will also be receiving follow-up reports.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the decision to more stringently audit certain hospitals and health systems “is based on a review of qualitative responses by front-line staff to questions contained in site audit reports.”
Questions for front-line staff included whether or not patients on a “missed opportunities” list were called to remind them of upcoming appointments and whether a supervisor periodically checks work and gives feedback.
The report noted that the secondary reviews are a “preliminary step” and that “further actions will be taken after the determination of the extent of issues related to scheduling and access management practices.”"

Holi crapoli! She really did damage her brain in that fall-------Hillary Clinton says she understands 'hard life'

My Way News - Hillary Clinton says she understands 'hard life':
"WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that she and former President Bill Clinton "fully appreciate how hard life is for so many Americans," seeking to refine remarks she made about the pair being "dead broke" when they left the White House.
...In an interview on the day her book "Hard Choices" was being released, Clinton told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she and her husband left the White House roughly $12 million in debt at the end of his second term in early 2001.
But she also acknowledged that "we've continued to be blessed in the last 14 years."
In response to a question, Clinton told anchor Robin Roberts she wants "to use the talent and resources that I have to make sure" others have the same opportunities.
Clinton's Senate financial disclosure forms, filed for 2000, show assets between $781,000 and almost $1.8 million. 

Art or Vandalism? Street Artist Sabo Creates Edgy Work That Has Made the Left Angry | TheBlaze.com

Art or Vandalism? Street Artist Sabo Creates Edgy Work That Has Made the Left Angry | TheBlaze.com: "After it was announced that actress and noted anti-war activist Jane Fonda would be giving the commencement address at the University of California, Los Angeles’ film school graduation ceremony, Sabo unveiled a new piece to mark the event."

Big election coming up in August. Educate yourselves. Or they'll educate you.

Ballot proposal

http://muskegonpundit.blogspot.com/2014/06/an-explaination-sort-ofdont-let-wording.html

Muskegon county board of commissioners meeting minutes

http://www.co.muskegon.mi.us/boardofcommissioners/board_minutes.cfm

Michigan Votes

http://www.michiganvotes.org/VotingIndex.aspx?ID=872

http://www.michiganvotes.org/ListIndices.aspx

http://www.michiganvotes.org/

The Soviet communists opposed the Marshall Plan for the same reason. Freedom and capitalism helping people hurts communism/progressivism.------Leftists Accuse the Koch Brothers of Helping Poor Minorities Go to College

Leftists Accuse the Koch Brothers of Helping Poor Minorities Go to College | Mediaite:

Billionaire businessmen Charles and David Koch are prolific philanthropists, patronizing art,science, medicine, education, and public policy. Sounds wonderful, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, their libertarian philosophy isn’t an approved variation of the self-hatred and hypocritical cant required by the progressive left, so their money can do no good to anyone.

In fact, their charitable gifts are even more suspect than if they simply hoarded their money in Scrooge McDuck-like towers of gold coins. It seems the only thing some progressives hate more than libertarians who don’t care about society, the poor, or minorities is… libertarians who do. How else can you explain the outrage (and sometimes protest rallies) that has accompanied their huge gifts to museums, hospitals, cancer research, and (most recently) the United Negro College Fund?

Koch Industries and the Charles Koch Foundation has just donated 25 million dollars to the UNCF. $18.5 million will support a scholarship program, and $6.5 million will support UNCF and member colleges, including $4 million for students whose parents were denied loans. But the gift has generated controversy and furor on the left.

Inside Higher Ed reported attacks on Twitter such as, “#UNCF Literally Sells Their ‘Souls To The Devil’ Accepting Checks From The #KochBrothers” and “#Koch donation to @UNCF tells children everywhere that money is first and integrity is unnecessary.” But criticism also came from liberal professors such as UPenn’s Marybeth Gasman, director of the Center for Minority-Serving Institutions, who says it was “wrong” to accept Koch money, even though “she didn’t doubt that many individual students might benefit from the scholarships,” because the brothers have been “deeply affiliated with the Tea Party.”

Try to follow the logic here: “How dare Charles and David Koch give millions of dollars to help African American students access higher education! They’re libertarians! And libertarianism is bad for black people!” Spot any glaring, borderline crazy non sequiturs here? You can’t take money from people who legitimately earned it if they also believe the wrong things about politics.

An explaination. Sort of........Don't let wording confuse PPT (Personal Property Tax) issue

Let's see.
The media likes it.
The financially mismanaged municipalities like it.
Some businesses like it.
Politicians love it.
What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
Don't let wording confuse PPT issue | Crain's Detroit Business:
(Plus this from FREEP:  http://www.freep.com/article/20140608/OPINION01/306080051/michigan-proposal-1)

The (Michigan) Aug. 5 ballot proposal to replace the personal property tax now paid by businesses is widely supported by both business and the communities that benefit from the tax, but it still faces a hurdle to passage:
How it's worded.
The issue, which will be Proposition 1 on the ballot, is written to fit the technical requirements of changing state law.
But the effect is to make the average reader believe that there must be a hidden tax lurking in it somewhere.
Small wonder.
As Lansing correspondent Chris Gautz pointed out in his May 5 Capitol Briefings, the proposal includes the word "tax" or "taxes" eight times and doesn't include the phrase "personal property tax."
We know that legally, certain requirements must be met.
But is there really no way this proposal could have been made clearer?
In fact, what the proposal does is this: 
Eliminate the personal property tax, essentially a local tax on business equipment, and make local governments and school districts whole in lost tax revenue.
The latter objective will be paid for by increased state revenue tied to the expiration of various corporate tax credits, increasing the amount of the state use tax that is sent to local school districts and establishing a special assessment that only manufacturers receiving a PPT reduction pay.
The PPT has been unpopular for a long time.
Businesses don't like it because it's hard to figure out and it's not charged by most nearby states.
Local governments haven't liked it because the assessments are constantly under appeal by businesses.
Getting rid of it was a priority of Gov. Rick Snyder when he took office, but finding a solution took some time because the tax in some Michigan communities is a comparatively large part of the budget.
The current proposal addresses the concerns of both businesses and municipalities and doesn't raise anyone's taxes.
Let's hope the clunky wording doesn't get in the way.

Some always gain with liberal policies. Usually the politically "connected crowd". Why don't we care about those who are hurt by the same policies?------The hidden costs of raising the minimum wage

The hidden costs of raising the minimum wage | WashingtonExaminer.com:
"Most of the debate surrounding the minimum wage has focused on the question of whether raising it destroys jobs.
Conservatives say yes, liberals say no and both eagerly point to various economic studies to buttress their point.
Less attention has been paid to what impact a hike will have on those who will still be working.
After all, even if the hike does cost some jobs, that may still be a worthwhile trade-off if enough other low-income workers benefit.
But will those remaining workers really be better off?
Not necessarily.
They may lose out as employers cut back elsewhere.
Some anecdotal evidence from Seattle, which recently voted to raise its hourly rate from $9.32 to $15, appears to be bearing that out.
There’s also the awkward fact that a higher minimum wage actually benefits some larger businesses by reducing competition. 
Walmart may be able to pay a higher wage, but neighborhood mom and pop stores may not.

...A Center for Economic and Policy Research study from February 2013 argued that the evidence was “either inconclusive … or suggestive of only small economic effects.”
But if that is the case, then how do the businesses that employ people at or near the minimum wage absorb their now-higher labor costs? CEPR, to its credit, offered some answers:
"Some employers may cut hours; others, fringe benefits; still others, the wages of highly paid workers. Some employers may raise prices (particularly if their competitors are experiencing similar cost increases in response to the minimum wage). 
Some employers may see their profits fall (along with those of their competitors), while others may reorganize the work process in order to lower costs."
In other words, the workers will simply lose out elsewhere.
Meanwhile consumers will pay higher prices and the businesses will see lower profit margins.

There's an Intelligence Crisis at the White House

There's an Intelligence Crisis at the White House:
"For years, word has circulated in Washington that the president frequently refuses to take intelligence briefings or chooses to ignore the advice offered in those meetings by intelligence officers."

Why do we pay haters of our country's traditions to indoctrinate our children?--------Controversial Principal Allegedly Strikes Patriotic Song from School Ceremony

Controversial Principal Allegedly Strikes Patriotic Song from School Ceremony | Healthy Living - Yahoo Shine:

A Brooklyn elementary school principal with areputation for banning patriotic songs has reportedly forbidden students from marching into a school assembly to a tune called “Stand Up for the Red, White and Blue.” 
According to a story published Sunday by theNew York Daily News, Public School 90 Edna Cohen School principal Greta Hawkins will not allow 54 pre-K students from walking into a June 19th ceremony to the song which was scheduled to play over the school’s broadcast system. As an explanation, Hawkins, 54, told her staff that no one had asked her permission to play it. 
The song includes lyrics such as, “I’ll always do my part, I love my land that’s free.”
Hawkins did not return Yahoo Shine’s calls for comments, however a school secretary told Shine that the song was never slated for the program. 
The principal, who arrived at PS90 in 2009, has caused controversy in the past. According to the New York Times, in 2012, Hawkins rejected the country song “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood from an end-of-year kindergarten ceremony for being too aggressive for small children. 
A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Education pointed to the opening line “If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life…” as one example. 

Map of State Gasoline Tax Rates in 2014

Map of State Gasoline Tax Rates in 2014 | Tax Foundation