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Food Banks are Running Low due to Increased Demand
It’s a great time to donate, I heard my local food bank was running low on supplies so I took over two bags of groceries only to find out the situation was even worse. What I had brought with me was ALL they had, they were out completely! So I put out the call on the local radio station to ask folks to give anything they could possibly spare. Contacted the local farmers next and was able to get donations of potatoes, squash, pears, pintos and navy beans. Picked apples from my parent’s orchard and took those over they are lovely organic apples that normal go to relatives that come to pick them, deer feed and my Mum’s applesauce. Looks like the deer might be on their own this year unless they come to pick their own by night. When I came back with a load of apples, already the situation there was looking better.
Watch for sales, use coupons for maybe things you wouldn’t normally use but are still a good buy, we can all help even if it is giving just a can or two. Grocery items I took with me this time were Kroger canned chunky soup which I found on sale again, rice-white and brown found marked down to 66 cents per bag, vac packed soy, rice and almond milks, lentils, bagged pasta, oatmeal, flour, a few energy bars and canned spaghetti sauce. I pick up one or two extra items a week when I buy groceries, more if I find a good sale and set them aside. When I can fill a few bags I make a drop off, this enables me to help as I can per week and it adds up fast. I like to think it makes a difference in someone’s life.
Fall is the time of year when I buy a few cases of vienna sausages for the homeless mission downstate where they help street people. Why canned vienna sausages? They come in a small pull tab can that can be carried in a pocket, they are rich in protein and fat which helps people keep warm in cold weather, require no heating to prepare and can be easily handed out by outreach workers who seek out those living outdoors in the Detroit area. Your local dollar store can most likely sell you two cans of them for a buck and they can save lives. See what you can spare.
Lights Out in Highland Park Michigan
In Highland Park, a small city near Detroit, even the street lights are being turned off to save money, raising concerns about crime and safety in one of Michigan’s poorest communities.
Over the past few months, DTE Energy crews have taken down about 1,300 light poles as part of a settlement with the city to cover $4 million in unpaid city utility bills dating back several years. About 500 street lights remain, including 200 newer models installed by the utility at intersections.
“It’s certainly a different level of lighting than residents have seen in the past,” said DTE spokesman Len Singer. But he said the DTE worked with Highland Park officials to come up with a level of service that the city can afford. The move, Singer says, will cut the city’s light bill from about $62,000 a month to $15,000.
This is sad news for Highland Park which once prospered as the site of the first Ford assembly plant and was once home to Chrysler but those days are over now. In the early 1900s Henry Ford chose the community as site for his first great factory. Built east of Woodward Avenue, the Ford plant marked the early emergence of the moving assembly line process for which Ford became famous. It was in Highland Park, in this “birthplace of mass production,” that Ford produced millions of Model T cars. And it was to Highland Park that tens of thousands of immigrants came for an unprecedented $5-a-day wage and a chance to enter the emerging middle class.
The Ford plant closed in the late 50s and Chrysler moved to Auburn Hills in 1995. The Chrysler move cost the city 25% of Highland Park’s tax base and 50% of the city’s budget, from which it has never recovered. Highland Park also had one of the first highways in the nation, the Davidson Freeway, which opened in 1944. It was a wonderful place to live and raise a family at one time with great local union wages. Now they are taking the street lights away, it’s very sad to see.
Michigan Governor Snyder Still Targeting Flint
Governor Rick Snyder Friday appointed a financial review team to examine the City of Flint’s finances under Public Act 4 of 2011, the Local Government and School District Financial Accountability Act. Based on a recommendation from State Treasurer Andy Dillon, Governor Snyder has asked the financial review team to report its findings within 30 days.
Review team members are:
Roger Fraser, Deputy State Treasurer (State Treasurer’s designee)
Doug Ringler, Director, Office of Internal Audit Services in the Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB Director’s designee)
Laura Argyle, VP of Finance and CFO for the Midland Center for the Arts (nominee of the Speaker of the House of Representatives)
Gene Dennis, former President and CEO of Universal Systems (nominee of Senate Majority Leader)
Darnell Earley, Saginaw City Manager (representing persons with relevant professional experience)
Robert L. Emerson, former State Budget Director (representing persons with relevant professional experience)
Brom Stibitz, Senior Policy Advisor in Department of Treasury (representing state officials with relevant professional experience)
Frederick Headen, Director of the Michigan Department of Treasury’s Local Government Services Bureau (representing state officials with relevant professional experience).
For more information about PA 4, visit the Local Government Fiscal Health page on the Department of Treasury’s Web site at http://www.michigan.gov/treasury.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is still rolling ahead with his plan to take over Flint, Michigan using the Emergency Financial Manager Law. Don’t yet know about the danger of the Emergency Financial Manager Law in Michigan? Here is a quick informative video to bring you up to speed below.
Michigan Salmon Season Has Started!
Oh yeah! It’s that time of year again when the salmon return to Michigan rivers and streams.
Michigan Salmon
What’s going on right now? Steelhead are starting their runs in the Manistee River, along with King Salmon staging in pools and are now in the upper river below Tippy Dam. Salmon also starting to swim up the Pere Marquette River. Bear Creek is a place to try if you are looking to avoid the crowds at Tippy Dam. If you are using a Fire Tiger Rapala to fish the Pere Marquette River be sure to tell “Phil” the Northern Pike that I said, “Hello” and will see him soon. Loved catching him over and over again last year…it was like Ground Hog’s Day only starring a Pike instead of a ground hog. Plan those fishing trips now! Hope you saved some time off!
McCotter drops long shot bid for GOP presidential nomination
No real shock but Thad McCotter of Michigan’s 11th district has dropped out of the GOP race for President. Thad suffered from poor name recognition and was frozen out of the debates which would have helped him gain traction. Heck, he’s not even that well known in Michigan! He’s a colorful character but not colorful enough to compete in the clown show of the current hopefuls. Thad hasn’t executed an innocent man or threatened to pull Michigan out of the union unless he gets his way. Thad hasn’t fostered a slew of teen girls or braved a fast food restaurant just for a photo op to show he’s a regular kind of guy. He has to try harder. I think is biggest motivation was wanting to win back his beloved 11th district seat that was redrawn after Detroit suffered still more population loss.
Now without a real Michigan hopeful I’ll have to fall back on cheering Mittens on to a loss which is also Thad’s back up plan. Good choice Thad, Mittens doesn’t have a real chance of beating Obama either but we can laugh while he tries. http://www.detnews.com/article/20110922/POLITICS03/109220448/McCotter-drops-out-of-race-for-GOP-presidential-nomination
Born Free!
Lots of fantastic scenery from the Upper Pennisula of Michigan in this Kid Rock Video!
Here Comes Trouble!
Michael Moore: I was the most hated man in America
In his 2003 Oscar acceptance speech, Michael Moore denounced President Bush and the invasion of Iraq. Overnight he became the most hated man in America. In an exclusive extract from his new book, Here Comes Trouble, he tells of the bomb threats, bodyguards and how he fought back. You can read an excerpt from his new book at the Guardian website.
Mike tells the story of the threats against him following his Oscar acceptance speech and the making of Farenheit 9-11. It’s a good read and done with his typical Michigander sense of humor. Check it out! Ummmm…a waist high deep pile of manure dumped in your driveway? Yep, that’s revenge Northern Michigan style. Hehehhehe. Good time to make a garden, Mike! That will show them!
$6,000 House Yep it is Possible
Really! You can buy a $6,000 house …the catch is….you have to move to Detroit or Flint Michigan to get one. Check out this video for an example of a house that really did sell for only $6,000.
Want to see the inside?
How about the $1 Hood? Yep there is one…any house or lot $1!
Or maybe you would like your own neighborhood? The current owner…a Black and White American Shorthair might trade it away for merely a few cans of tuna.
How about this idea? Japan now has people living in a dangerous area contaminated with radiation and no real place to move them to. I found room and it will create jobs cleaning up these areas but the neighborhoods are empty, schools…empty…factories closed but it’s there already.
Currently the cities of Detroit and Flint are flattening whole neighborhoods to return them to grassy fields planted with trees…as they have the money to do so but it’s slow going.
Great Mini-Documentary on Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law
Great Mini-Documentary on Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law!
Find it here via Eclectablog at the Daily Kos website : http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/08/1014555/-Great-mini-documentary-on-Michigans-odious-Emergency-Manager-Law-PLEASE-SHARE-WIDELY!
Got Food?
A new USDA survey has found that more than 17 million U.S. households had at least some trouble putting food on the table in 2010. Those 17 million homes account for nearly 50 million people, or more than 16 percent of the American population. Of the millions of households struggling to get enough to eat, almost 60 percent relied on one or more of the nation’s three largest nutritional assistance programs: food stamps, the National School Lunch Program, or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
Also worth noting: the USDA study omitted homeless families from its statistics, meaning that there are actually countless other hungry Americans we don’t even know about.
If that wasn’t sad enough…
Unless something gives, people who rely on the Salvation Army food pantry may only be able to get food every two months.
Muskegon Michigan Salvation Army Capt. Dan Sawka said requests for food assistance have more than doubled compared to last year. The pantry now allows a recipient to get a week’s worth of food every 30 days, he said.
From October 2010 to August 2011, the Salvation Army pantry has fielded 2,730 requests for food, Sawka said. In the previous fiscal year, it saw 1,389 cases.
Of this year’s cases, about 600 were people or families who had never needed food assistance before. That’s an 85 percent increase from last year’s first-time users, Sawka said.
Working people dying from lack of Dental care. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/insurance-24-year-dies-toothache/story?id=14438171
With the need for assistance even higher for the unemployed and working poor…Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder slashes aid for these people so he can give more tax cuts to big business and the rich. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/31/309214/snyder-tanf-corporate-taxes/
Are we letting America slip to the equal of the third-world nations? It’s shameful that all this is going on.
The Julianna Michigan Show 