These are the actual safety/arming plugs from the "Little Boy" atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. On the day that President Obama signed the historical nuclear arms reduction pact with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, I was eating birthday cake at the Ford Museum while looking at a thermonuclear warhead. Very surreal. More pictures from the museum's "America and the Cold War" exhibit here.For your reading pleasure:
The Freep takes am extensive look at 16 Michigan Green Leaders in advance of an inaugural award ceremony to be held this Thursday, highlighting educators, activists and business people who are leading the state toward an "Earth-friendly future". Governor Granholm talks about the state's new green economy in a special op-ed here.
Rick Haglund points out once again that Michigan is on the brink of economic recovery, citing recent statements from Comerica's chief economist Dana Johnson. Key words:
Johnson dismissed claims that Michigan's problems have been a result of high taxes and uncompetitive business costs.
"The thing that has really held back the state was the restructuring of the auto sector," he said. "There was a huge loss of market share by the Detroit companies, and their bad performance spilled over into a bad performance by the rest of the economy."
Remember that next time a Republican says otherwise. Haglund has more about the deliberate lie misconception that high taxes are the cause Michigan's problems on his blog.
On that note, Mlive kicks off a new "Michigan 10.0" series on our tax structure and budget today. Peter Luke has a primer of frequently asked questions to get things started.
Auto analyst Erich Merkle also sees a strong recovery in the works for 2010, but he's not as optimistic about Michigan as Dana Johnson is. Let's prove him wrong.
The Pontiac Silverdome is back in business, hosting a Monster Truck show last night, and preparing for World Cup soccer match in May. Workers are cleaning up five years of dust in the stadium; repairing, replacing, and reopening concessions. Read about the preparations here.
Pure Michigan returns to the cable airwaves the first week in May. After the Legislature refused to fund a full campaign, Travel Michigan decided to put the now reduced amount into a national spring/summer buy. Eliminated due to the cuts will be regional TV spots, in-state billboards, and no new television ads produced for the 2011 campaign. Ads for California and Illinois have been running all the time lately; surprising considering they both have a bigger budget deficit than we do. Guess they understand the importance of bringing in new revenue...
The summer of 2010 is shaping up for Michigan to be the "hot spot" for making movies, provided the chatter about cutting our film incentives stops. Now. Before you scare everyone away. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Cassis.
An All-Star, full-court press was put on Friday to encourage lawmakers to get moving on approving legislation for a new bridge from Detroit to Canada. Granholm, Bing, Patterson, Blanchard, Gaffney, plus officials from Canada all got together to say, "Yeah, we're looking at you, Alan Cropsey. Let's go." Brooks has some "documents" or something that will get Bishop to get Cropsey to give up his obstruction. So once again, the Senate Republicans are stopping us from creating new jobs - this time the number is in the tens of thousands. We don't even have to get into the danger of only having one bridge at one of the nation's busiest international crossings.
NBC's "Dateline" will feature Detroit in a special entitled "America Now: City of Heartbreak and Hope", tonight at 7PM. The Freep has a preview here.
Enjoy your Sunday...