Six O'Clock News - Pure Michigan Goes Nationwide Edition

Short edition today - terrible sinus headache, I think it's the dry air/bitter cold. Warm coming soon!

Keeping with the "Press titles that make you want to cry with joy" theme from yesterday, make sure you check out Peter Luke's "Tax cuts have left Michigan unable to invest in itself". In it, Peter points out that even Dick Headlee looks like a liberal when you crunch the numbers: after years of tax cuts, Michigan government will collect only half of what his original collection plan was. So, it's not that we "spend" too much, it's that we lowered our price too far. Government as a loss leader has not worked out very well.

Erik Prince runs out of places to put his money, steps down from Blackwater/Xe. "I've fleeced the taxpayer for all I can under this guise. I have to find a new one now", said the brother-of-the-Betsy. And I don't know about you, but I'm really curious as to what this other "classified" contract is that they mention in this story. Maybe best that we don't know. Step slowly away from the black ops folks.

Feeding people is probably the best "stimulus" that there is. Schauer's office estimates that Michigan will see $5.9 million for its food banks; the Food Bank of South Central Michigan, for example, will see $82,000 for food purchases, and they are extremely grateful. As are the hungry children.

More stimulus news - Michigan health care clinics will receive $2.6 million. This will treat up to 13,890 low-income Michigan residents, and help to relieve pressure on hospital emergency rooms. 60% of Michigan hospitals went in the red after the meltdown of the third and fourth quarter last year; unpaid/uninsured care being cited as the main culprit.

The "You're With Us or You're With the Terrorists Party of Schiavo" is now calling for "states rights" and mumbling about "revolution", all because Obama wants to help Americans through the greatest economic crisis of our lifetimes. Our own wingiest-of-wingnuts Paul Opsommer rates a mention. How embarrassing for us.

Pure Michigan goes nationwide. That will help make up for the "crazy" vibes our Republicans send out. 15 cable channels will carry our ads starting this month; before now the campaign was limited to the Midwest. Tourism is No. 3 on our income-generator list - $18 billion a year, employing 192,000 workers. Four new ads will appear alongside the ones we already know - and I believe this is one of them.



I don't remember a TV ad that featured Saginaw Valley before, do you? Enjoy - and vacation at home this year.