Six O'Clock News - Leftover Stuff Edition
GM. Bankrupt. That's bad. Real bad. Team Obama will be in town next week to talk about it.
Honda and Mazda join the list of car companies seeking government aid. Is that everyone now? Ford is restructing their debt, don't be surprised if they join the party by the time this is over.
MI House Republican laugh out loud moment: The House passed a bill yesterday raising the dropout age to 18. Wingnut Paul Opsommer demands to know how the Democrats intend to pay for it. Yes, the people that repeatedly cut taxes but won't cut the budget, and call for more spending with their transparency websites or whatever, are suddenly concerned about fiscal responsibility... but only from those on the other side of the aisle.
"Rep. Paul OPSOMMER (R-DeWitt) questioned whether the measure could be enforced and, if so, what money stream had the bill sponsor identified to pay for the enforcement.
ISOKIYAR.
Sen. Deb Cherry is still out there fighting for seniors. Don't the Senate Republicans want to make sure the elderly are protected?
Students are filling the seats at the Center for Film Studies locations across the Detroit area. Mort Meisner, the Huntington Woods-based executive director and president of the film school, has recruited professionals from all over the region and expects to train 500 students this year for jobs that pay up to $30 and hour. He envisions 20,000 to 32,000 jobs in the Michigan film industry over the next five years.
Cobo update: Cockrel vetoes, Conyers calls for special session to try to override veto. But that may not be legal, and gives Cockrel's veto legitimacy, which the council will go to court to fight. Maybe. Whatever. I hope the rumors of people working on this out of the spotlight are true.
Numbers coming out of the 2009 Michigan Wind Energy Conference are encouraging. Last year, the US surpassed Germany to become the largest market for installed wind turbines. Total investments in wind energy projects in the US grew from $700 million in 2007 to nearly $18 billion last year (wow). The expansion in domestic capacity added 70 new manufacturing plants and 35,000 jobs. Business is picking up in Michigan:
Michigan now has more than 35 companies supplying components or services to the wind energy industry, a number that is quickly growing, said Dan Radomski, vice president for industry services for Detroit-based NextEnergy.
"I don't think there's another industry out there that has had the growth in manufacturing operations in the U.S. that wind energy has had," he said.
Pretty good for a "fad", eh Dick?