A mini-boom in one of the oldest businesses in Michigan is offering at least a few Upper Peninsula entrepreneurs a windfall — if you can define a fur trapper as an entrepreneur. (Tramp for hours through freezing swamps to maintain a trapline? Works for me.) The Wall Street Journal visited Calumet in the U.P. to […]
There's gold – $10, anyway – in them rodents
Posted inQuality of Life
Mitten tussle warms map fan's heart
Michigan and Wisconsin have been tussling over the use of the term “mitten” to describe geography. Michigan long has explained its shape (at least for the Lower Peninsula) as a mitten. Wisconsin recently decided it liked the mitten idea and started promoting the idea on its TravelWisconsin site. In no surprise, plenty of Michiganians find […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity” — Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish novelist, poet and playwright. * If you are wanting to start the new year in a sunny frame of mind do NOT read Joseph Stiglitz’s piece in Vanity Fair this month. If you DO want to learn some important points about […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Food stamps returning for some needy families
Thousands of Michigan families who were expected to lose food stamps will now keep the assistance or get it back next week. How many families? No one knows. Which families? No one knows that either. The Department of Human Services, which was very efficient at removing families from food stamps in October, is struggling to […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Snyder puts end to 'moderate' tag
Gongwer just reported that Gov. Rick Snyder has signed the legislation that bars local governments from making their own decisions on whether to offer benefits to adult partners of their employees. (No link; Gongwer is paywall protected.) He did this even though he said he didn’t want the bill to apply to universities and some […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Measuring the mood in 2012
During one of the busy points of a debate over welfare benefits in Michigan, someone asked me, “What do I get out of my taxes going to this? What’s the ROI (return on investment) for welfare?” I replied, “You don’t have to install bars over the windows of your house.” That’s far too flippant to […]
Posted inSuccess
Luke columns to appear in Bridge
Bridge Magazine is adding one of the most perceptive political observers in Michigan to its contributors in 2012. Beginning in January, Peter Luke will join the Bridge site as a correspondent, penning regular commentaries and the occasional news report. “Talk about a great start to 2012. Bridge readers will receive the insight of the most […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan population shrinks
State Demographer Ken Darga reports that the most recent population estimates are out — showing changes among the states from 2010 to 2011. The news for Michigan will play negatively. The state lost 7,400 people in the period, about the equivalent of the city of Houghton. Michigan was one of only three states (Rhode Island […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“The more extensive a man’s knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be his power of knowing what to do” — Benjamin Disraeli, 19th century British prime minister, author and noted clothes horse. * The New York Times Magazine visits Benton Harbor: “Between the almost-delusional optimism of those who support the redevelopment of […]
Posted inMichigan Government
How to get a government's attention
A blog that focuses on doings in the city of Troy has published what appears, to my eye, to be a bombshell of a note from a major Troy employer to city officials. Keeptroystrong presents the memo as coming from Frank Ervin III, the government affairs manager for Magna International. The memo apparently is in […]