Conservative thinker and writer Josh Barro prescribes reforms that will displease conservatives and liberals alike when it comes to public pension programs and their weaknesses as exemplified by Detroit. How safe are your college kids when they study abroad? Probably safer than they used to be. More and more universities are hiring “risk managers” to […]
fracking
Posted inQuality of Life
Canadian firm plans fracking campaign that could require 4 billion gallons of Michigan water
THIRSTY WORK: The Encana Corp.’s Westerman well in Kalkaska County recently used 8.5 million gallons of water to complete a hydraulic fracturing process. (courtesy photo) KALKASKA — A Canadian firm has laid out plans to drill 500 new natural gas wells in Northern Michigan, using a technique that could consume more than 4 billion gallons […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* So much for Michigan’s fracking boom. Remember when media outlets – including this one — were full of references to the Antrim shale formation and how the natural gas there would be a big deal. Well, not so much, according to these charts from ProPublica. The wellhead price of gas has dropped by half since […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Education can counteract the natural tendency to do the wrong thing, but the inexorable succession of generations requires that the basis for this knowledge be constantly refreshed” — Garrett Hardin, 20th century American conservationist. * Michigan teachers are a nearly perfect bunch, says a new state evaluation. Education Trust-Midwest says that a review that finds […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Drooping natural gas prices slow rush to 'frack'
Two years after oil and gas companies spent a record $178 million for the right to drill on state land, the rush to tap deep deposits of natural gas using a controversial drilling technology known as “fracking” still has momentum in Michigan. Even the Chinese government has joined the pursuit of what could be large […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Poverty and lack of knowledge must be challenged” — Russell Simmons, American music entrepreneur and philanthropist. * This New Yorker piece lays out a case for having national chains take over American health care, thereby ensuring consistent quality. Marianne Udow-Phillips of the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation in Ann Arbor wrote in Bridge recently […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“You can’t know too much, but you can say too much” — Calvin Coolidge, president of the United States, 1923-1929. * The operator of a charter school for Muskegon Heights promises a public meeting a bunch of big changes. Among them: “school days will be longer – 7 ½ hours”; the school year “will include […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Michigan voters could decide casino locales, emergency manager law on 2012 ballot
Sheesh. We’ve already seen a ton of dueling political TV ads already, and we’re not even into summer — which officially begins this year on June 20, the day with the most sunlight in the year. Regardless of the season, you might say we need a little more light shed on our political process. And […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child” — George Bernard Shaw, British playwright * Starting July 1, the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association fee, levied to cover medical costs from auto accidents as part ofMichigan’s auto no-fault insurance regime, will go up $30, to […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours” — John Locke, 17th century English philosopher * Propublica says the EPA has a report linking fracking chemicals to an instance of groundwater contamination in Wyoming. This has huge import for the state of Michigan, where hydrofracturing, […]