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LANSING, Mich. — Michigan's unemployment rate, which was the nation's highest at 15.2 percent in August, crept up to 15.3 percent in September, state officials said Wednesday. A year ago, Michigan's jobless rate was 8.9 percent.

ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood says federal money to help Chrysler and General Motors appears to have been well-spent. LaHood toured Ford's Research and Innovation Center , Chrysler's Technical Center, and GM's Milford Proving Grounds this week. "And I want to tell you all, you should be very, very happy, there is lots of innovation and creation and energy and enthusiasm in the auto industry, and that's what I'm going to report to the President tomorrow." LaHood says he received a commitment from all three automakers that they will develop hands-free alternatives to cell...

A bill making the rounds on Capitol Hill marries two feel-good propositions -- tax cuts and pet ownership -- to generate a novel idea: A tax break of up to $3,500 per person for pet care expenses. The measure is a legislative long shot. But it's been championed by a veteran Hollywood tough guy and by a conservative Michigan congressman, and has drawn the enthusiastic support of animal rights groups eager to promote pet ownership during economic down times. "We think this is as much a health care bill as any," said Nancy Perry, vice president of government affairs at...

Kellogg's has developed a hi-tech method to stamp out imitation cereals - by branding individual flakes of corn with the company logo.   The new technology enables the firm - which makes 67million boxes of Corn Flakes every year - to burn the famous signature onto individual flakes using lasers.  Kellogg's plans to produce a number one-off trial batches of the branded flakes to test the system. Bosses will then consider inserting a proportion of branded flakes into each box to guarantee the cereal's origins and protect against imitation products.  If the system is successful it could be used...

Town Hall Rallies in Response ToObama’s GITMO Maneuverings Folks, this is the critical moment we have been waiting for. Many concerned citizens in Standish and all across Michigan are holding their breath to see what’s next for their state. Sources on the ground say that “Standish Max” prison is being emptied out now and will be completely empty and shut down by the end of October. Is this the empty prison Obama has been looking to put the GITMO terrorists? The people of Michigan, who hear the rumors circulating day by day, know that an empty prison and a...

Listen and watch HERE Related thread: Chaos erupts at Cobo as thousands jockey for federal aid (Obama "Stimulus" Giveaway)

Detroit -- The lure of federal cash assistance for needy Detroit families sparked pandemonium Wednesday at Cobo Center, as hundreds of city residents pushed, jostled and trampled others in a rush to apply for the aid. In a scene that spoke volumes about the despair of one of the nation's poorest cities, about 50,000 Detroiters descended on downtown to pick up 5,000 applications in hopes of enrolling in a federal program that pays a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to low-income residents to help pay rent and utilities. In fact, some 60,000 residents applied for the aid over...

Stimulus Money Available For Low-Income, Homeless Detroit Residents POSTED: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 UPDATED: 3:04 pm EDT October 6, 2009 Video at link

Two hours into a government shutdown last night, the Michigan legislature caved on passing a set of budget bills and instead approved a temporary measure that keeps the government running for another 30 days. The midnight hold-up: approval of a K-12 budget that cuts school aid fund spending by less than 3% ($218 per pupil). The demand: higher taxes on Michigan residents...

HIDALGO — Autoworkers from Michigan shouted for an end to free trade Monday afternoon on the Mexican-American border, where relaxed trade restrictions have fostered rampant economic growth. As the 18 or so members of the Local 174 of the United Auto Workers union from Romulus, Mich. waved signs at drivers approaching the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge, maquiladora workers in Mexico gathered on a street corner to protest what they say is an unfair dismissal of workers. At one point during the concurrent protests, two American autoworkers crossed the bridge to meet and support the maquiladora workers, in a gesture of conciliation...

Representative Thaddeus McCotter, a fourth-term Republican from Livonia MI, has introduced the HAPPY Act—the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years Act. It is HR 3501, and it was introduced on July 31. You could look it up. The HAPPY Act would allow taxpayers to deduct up to $3,500-a-year in pet care expenses, including vet care.

Regulators have shut Warren Bank in Warren, Mich., and two small banks in Colorado and Minnesota, boosting the number of failed U.S. banks this year to 98 as loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Warren Bank, with about $538 million in assets and $501 million in deposits as of July 31. The Huntington National Bank, based in Columbus, Ohio, agreed to assume the deposits and about $83 million of the assets of the failed bank. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition. Warren Bank's six branches...

Rep. Miller: “Republicans hope that the President and Speaker Pelosi will put aside their job-killing agenda and help promote policies to get Americans working again.” Washington, Oct 2 -WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) delivered the weekly Republican address one day after a new jobs report from the Labor Department provided new indications that the Obama Administration’s trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ isn’t working. The congresswoman’s home state of Michigan currently has the highest rate of unemployment in the United States at 15.2 percent. Rep. Miller urged Democrats in Washington to put aside their job-killing agenda and start focusing on common-sense solutions...

A pair of crooks picked the wrong Milford home to break into. They weren't attacked by the family dog or confronted by the police. Instead, they were confronted by a 13-year old boy. Josh Cichy came home Friday night to two men trying to rob his house. That's when the teen went straight for his spotlight, an airsoft pistol and his shotgun to scare them away. Cichy says he first shined the spotlight in their eyes then fired a warning shot. The thieves took off running. Fox 2's Simon Shaykhet spoke with the teen about how he defended his home....

Here is a list-serv notice sent in our school district... Educators in my district don't get it... INTERNATIONAL WALK TO SCHOOL DAY "In conjunction with the Safe Routes 2 School initiative Wednesday, October 7 is International Walk to School Day. We are encouraging all students to ride their bike or walk to school on that day. In order to organize this we are going to meet at N****** Church at 7:15 a.m. and walk as a group to school. Please drop off you child there rather than in the school parking lot that morning. Bus riders are also encouraged to...

DETROIT — The Rev. Lawrence Adams teaches his flock at the Westside Bible Church to turn the other cheek. Just in case, though, the 54-year-old retired police lieutenant also wears a handgun under his robe. Adams is one of several Detroit clergymen who have taken to packing heat in the pulpit. They have committed their lives to a man who preached nonviolence and told followers to love their enemies. But they also say it's up to them to protect their parishioners in church. "As a pastor, I'm referred to as a shepherd," Adams said. "Shepherds have the responsibility of watching...

U.S. auto sales tumbled by 23 percent in September as showrooms emptied after the government-funded boom from the "cash for clunkers" program, with General Motors Co and Chrysler hardest-hit. Sales for General Motors Co and Chrysler -- the two U.S. automakers struggling to regain momentum after emerging from bankruptcy -- dropped by 45 percent and 42 percent, respectively. Ford -- the only U.S. automaker to have avoided bankruptcy -- managed to hold its sales decline to 5 percent from a year earlier despite low inventories and reduced incentives for car shoppers. Automakers had braced for a sharp pullback in September...

Granholm signs temporary budget bill Shutdown ends after Granholm signs interim budget Updated: Thursday, 01 Oct 2009, 12:42 PM EDT Published : Wednesday, 30 Sep 2009, 11:50 PM EDT LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) - Michigan lawmakers missed a midnight Wednesday deadline to balance the state's budget by eliminating a projected $2.8 billion deficit, opting instead for an interim one-month budget. The Legislature had been moving toward that goal without tax increases, opting instead for cuts and the use of federal stimulus money. But a full-year plan was out of reach after a standstill on the most contentious cuts. A status report:...

DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- At 1300 E. Warren St., you can smell the plight of Detroit. Inside the Wayne County morgue in midtown Detroit, 67 bodies are piled up, unclaimed, in the freezing temperatures. Neither the families nor the county can afford to bury the corpses. So they stack up inside the freezer. Albert Samuels, chief investigator for the morgue, said he has never seen anything like it during his 13 years on the job. "Some people don't come forward even though they know the people are here," said the former Detroit cop. "They don't have the money." Lifelong Detroit residents...

<p>DETROIT (AP) - A retired police officer-turned-pastor shot and wounded a man who broke into his Detroit church, police said Monday.</p> <p>Lawrence Adams went to Westside Bible Church on Sunday evening and found the intruder inside the building, said Detroit police Sgt. Eren Stephens. The man began swinging an object at the retired police lieutenant, who pulled out a handgun and shot him in the abdomen, he said.</p>

Pastor Lawrence Adams knows how to handle a gun after spending 25 years as a Detroit police officer, many at the department’s training academy. That experience helped Sunday evening when the retired lieutenant was confronted by a burglar at his Detroit church. When the intruder began swinging an object at him, Pastor Adams pulled a handgun and shot the man in the abdomen. Police say the pastor was not injured and is licensed to carry the handgun.

One of the nation's most economically battered states remained without a budget and stumbled into a partial government shutdown Thursday as Michigan lawmakers failed to agree on a spending plan. A deal to fill a nearly $3 billion shortfall with federal recovery dollars and more than $1 billion in cuts fell through, as many lawmakers discovered they couldn't stomach deep cuts to schools and local services such as police and fire protection in the stricken state.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- With a midnight deadline that's come and gone, Michigan lawmakers continue to struggle to craft a spending plan, leaving many of those with a stake in how the budget turns out as uncertain as they were the day before. A deal to fill a nearly $3 billion shortfall with federal recovery dollars and more than $1 billion in cuts fell through, as many lawmakers discovered they couldn't stomach deep cuts to schools and local services such as police and fire protection in the stricken state. Michigan already is struggling with the nation's highest unemployment rate, a...

The TODAY Show on Tuesday featured a story you read here last week. A Michigan woman is threatened with a fine by the Michigan Department of Human Services for letting her neighbors' kids stay at her house before the school bus arrives. Then there is this story from Terre Haute Indiana: Sally Harpold is a grandmother of triplets who bought one box of Zyrtec-D cold medicine for her husband at a Rockville pharmacy. Less than seven days later, she bought a box of Mucinex-D cold medicine for her adult daughter at a Clinton pharmacy, thereby purchasing 3.6 grams total of...

ABC News also reports that, "The in-car cameras and computers in most squad cars don't work so officers can't record traffic stops, run license plates and check for warrants." So basically, speeding is now fair game in the city of Detroit.

Penske Automotive Group (PAG.N) said on Wednesday it has terminated discussions with General Motors Co GM.UL to acquire the automaker's Saturn brand. GM said in a separate statement it would wind down the Saturn brand and its dealership network.

GM To Shut Down Saturn After Penske Ends Talks Production agreement with another manufacturer falls through, killing deal GM to drop Saturn after Penske ends talks Sept. 30: General Motors Co. says it plans to shut down its Saturn brand and dealer network after talks with Penake Automotive Group fell apart. DETROIT - General Motors Co. said Wednesday it would shut down its Saturn division after an agreement to sell it to Penske Automotive Group Inc. fell apart. The Bloomfield, Michigan dealership headed by auto racing magnate Roger Penske walked away after it was unable to find a manufacturer to...

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (WXYZ) - The Penske Automotive Group has announced that it has terminated talks with GM on acquiring the Saturn brand. Penske says negotiations with GM regarding the future supply of vehicles caused the breakdown in talks. G In a statement issued by General Motors, the company is very disappointed about Penske's decision. This will ultimately be the end for the Saturn brand as GM prepares to wind down production and dealership network. STATEMENT FROM GENERAL MOTORS: Today we learned that Penske Automotive Group (PAG) has decided to terminate discussions with General Motors to acquire Saturn. This is...

Michael Moore Makes Friends in GOP-Leaning Town By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS September 30, 2009 TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- Seated on a platform in a blocked-off street, the founder of the Traverse City Film Festival grinned as Mayor Michael Estes hailed him for boosting the local economy and cultural scene --''with almost no government assistance!'' Who was that free-market champion? Michael Moore. Yes, THAT Michael Moore. The Oscar-winning firebrand whose ''Roger & Me'' attacked General Motors, whose ''Sicko'' extolled government-run health care. His latest film, ''Capitalism: A Love Story,'' which opens nationwide Friday, blames deregulation for the financial meltdown and...

IRVING TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood's children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school. Regulators who oversee child care, however, don't see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she'd be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers. "I was freaked out. I was...

Economically beleaguered Michigan faces a possible government shutdown - shuttering highway rest areas, state parks, construction projects and the state lottery - if lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal in the next few days. The state with the nation's highest unemployment rate has a nearly $3 billion shortfall. Federal recovery act money will fill more than half the gap, but the spending cuts or tax increases needed to fill the rest have caused bitter infighting at the state Capitol. Michigan is one of just two states whose budget year starts Oct. 1. The other, Alabama, already has a spending...

This is a prime example of a law that was supposed to have good intentions, but ended having unintended consequences. As is usually the case, the law comes down on the worng side of the issue, overextending its reach and creating more authoritarian control over our daily lives. Lisa Snyder of Middleville is threatened by the State of Michigan for having the audacity to watch her neighbors kids. According to WZZM13 News, the neighborhood school bus stop is right in front of Snyder's home. It arrives after her neighbors need to be at work, so she watches three of their...

DETROIT - Police say a Detroit woman fired shots at two men trying to steal her purse at a gas station, killing one of them. Detroit police spokesman John Roach tells the Detroit Free Press the 43-year-old woman had a license to carry the gun. Police say two men approached the woman about 5:30 a.m. Friday at a gas station on the city’s northwest side and stole her purse. She fired several shots and they fled. About a half hour later, a man with several gunshot wounds was brought to Detroit’s Sinai-Grace Hospital, where he died. Roach says investigators believe...

Mitt Romney, the early favorite of many for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, is making nice with his rivals from the last race. The former Massachusetts governor, who was the source of much consternation among his opponents during the GOP presidential primaries last year, has made strides to repair those relationships in recent days. The latest example came Saturday in Romney’s speech to the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan, in which Romney will praise former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s (R) effort to clean up New York and suggest Detroit could use a similar program.“Detroit needs to be...

By Kalamazoo Gazette staff September 25, 2009, 9:05PM By Julie Makarewicz MIDDLEVILLE — A mother who helps neighbors in the morning by watching their children for a short time before the bus comes has been told she’s breaking the law. Lisa Snyder’s house is by the corner bus stop on Thornbird Drive just outside Middleville. Two of her friends who need to leave for work bring their children to her home in the morning before the bus arrives to take them to Thornapple Kellogg schools. Snyder said she doesn’t think she’s doing anything wrong, but she was notified by the...

MIDDLEVILLE (WZZM)- A West Michigan woman says the state is threatening her with fines and possibly jail time for babysitting her neighbors' children. Lisa Snyder of Middleville says her neighborhood school bus stop is right in front of her home. It arrives after her neighbors need to be at work, so she watches three of their children for 15-40 minutes until the bus comes. The Department of Human Services received a complaint that Snyder was operating an illegal child care home. DHS contacted Snyder and told her to get licensed, stop watching her neighbors' kids, or face the consequences. "That...

Free Speech: The Senate votes against transparency as the administration silences a private insurer for exposing the president's health care proposal. Meanwhile, AARP is allowed to tout reform as it awaits payday. We weren't surprised when the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday voted 12 to 11 against allowing two weeks for the Congressional Budget Office to complete its cost analysis of the health care bill pushed by Montana Democrat Max Baucus and to put the bill online in its original wording. Instead, the Senate panel passed another amendment to require the committee to post the full bill online in "conceptual"...

If Detroit had been savaged by a hurricane and submerged by a ravenous flood, we'd know a lot more about it. If drought and carelessness had spread brush fires across the city, we'd see it on the evening news every night. Earthquake, tornadoes, you name it — if natural disaster had devastated the city that was once the living proof of American prosperity, the rest of the country might take notice.

Canton Township (WWJ) -- New details emerged Wednesday about Detroit police homicide investigator Ed Williams II, who shot and killed his wife--also a Detroit police officer--before fatally turning the gun on himself. Williams, who killed his wife Patricia outside the Canton Township Public Library Tuesday morning, was featured on TV crime-drama show "The First 48", which follows the footsteps of police detectives and airs on the A&E cable network.

Hummer LLC plans to locate its new headquarters in Michigan once General Motors Co.'s sale of the sport-utility vehicle maker to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery is finalized, Hummer spokesman Nick Richards said. The new headquarters, expected to be located at a refurbished site in either Detroit or a northern suburb of the city, promises to provide a modest lift to a Michigan economy that has been battered by the rapid decline of the U.S. auto industry and other economic pressures. The region has lost tens of thousands of white- and blue-collar automotive jobs in the past year due...

TRAVERSE CITY -- An allegedly drunken man who entered a Traverse City home in the middle of the night found himself at gunpoint. Aaron TwoCrow, 24, of Suttons Bay, allegedly entered a home on the 800 block of Fern Street at about 4:20 a.m. Saturday, police said. A female homeowner was up rocking her 15-month-old child in the living room when she heard her kitchen door open and saw a stranger in the home. "She's just sitting there in the dead of night ... and this guy comes in and scares the crap out of her," Traverse City Police Capt....

U.S. Reps, John Conyers (D-Detroit) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Congressional Research Service requesting an investigation of ACORN, the anti-poverty group whose employees in Baltimore recently were caught on hidden camera offering questionable advice to conservative activists posing as a prostitute and pimp. In the letter, Conyers and Frank ask the nonpartisan research group to look into ACORN's alleged misbehavior, including funding violations and alleged voter registration irregularities. But they also question whether Congress' swift move to cut the group's funding was unconstitutional. Specifically, Conyers and Frank ask whether the funding cuts qualify as...

Policymaking: If the stimulus isn't working, perhaps it's because it was largely written by a collection of leftist interest groups called the Apollo Alliance that counts among its directors a co-founder of the Weather Underground.The Labor Department reported Friday that 42 states lost more jobs than they gained in August, and that 14 plus Washington, D.C., reported unemployment rates of 10% or more. Michigan's rate rose to 15.2%, highest in the nation. Nevada, represented by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is second with 13.2%. California, home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is tied for fourth with Oregon at 12.2%. Clearly,...

TROY, Mich. (WXYZ) - Hundreds opposed to President Barack Obama's proposed health care initiatives gathered outside Rep. Gary Peters' office in Troy Monday to voice their displeasure and concern. The "tea party" participants sported signs showing their opposition to the health care overhaul the president is trying to pass through congress. Rep. Peters, a Democrat, was not at his Troy office during the protest. A spokesperson says Peters is still not sure which version of the bill he will support, but he is glad to see Americans voicing their opinions and beliefs on the issue.

A pair of local child care workers are suing the state over their mandatory inclusion into a union. Following a December 2008 notification letter from the state, child care workers began paying union dues to the Child Care Providers Together Michigan, an arm under the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and United Auto Workers, because they receive subsidy checks from the Michigan Department of Human Services for caring for children of low income families. But Petoskey residents Sherry Loar and Dawn Ives said they never asked to be part of a union and contacted the Mackinaw Center...

Governments and schools across Michigan are bracing for the possible loss of millions of dollars in tax revenue as General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC argue that they should pay less in property taxes... More at link.

September 21, 2009 I will hold a telephone town hall meeting at 6:00 p.m. EDT / 5:00 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, September 30, 2009. The telephone town hall will allow residents of the First Congressional District to ask me questions on a range of issues, including health care and the economy. This will be my fourth town hall meeting with constituents since July 29. These town hall meetings have been extremely productive, allowing me to hear directly from constituents and provide accurate and clear explanations about health care reform and other critical issues of concern to Northern Michigan residents. This...

Orlando, the vacation destination for millions of families worldwide, is getting a bit of a smackdown: Children's Health magazine, in an issue on newsstands Tuesday, has ranked the 100 best and worst cities to raise a family -- and Orlando finished almost last. Burlington, Vt., came in first, while Orlando finished 98th, ranking just above Miami and last-place Detroit. What doesn't Orlando have? Editors at the magazine dinged the City Beautiful for its relatively low per-pupil spending, high crime rates, low homeownership rate, high unemployment and the number of sex offenders and missing children per capita. Burlington, by contrast, was...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee responded Sunday to recent criticism from former White House hopeful Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the committee. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, has lately suggested that the proper course for the United States to pursue in Afghanistan is to beef up the country’s own army and police forces before planning on sending in any additional American troops.

Chrysler Group LLC Deputy Chief Executive Jim Press appears to have fallen victim to the same financial crisis that pushed the auto maker into bankruptcy earlier this year, according to documents filed in a Michigan county court. Mr. Press, who was kept on in senior management after Fiat SpA took control of Chrysler in June, owes $947,410 in back taxes to the federal government and has defaulted on $609,286 he owes Western Federal Credit Union, according to the documents filed in Oakland County. In a letter last November to the Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based credit union, Mr. Press said he was...