News

Here's a copy of the President's "Win the Future" speech at Northern Michigan University today:

Hello, Marquette!  It is good to be in the U.P.  It is good to be at Northern Michigan University! 

So, I have to say, I think some folks on my staff have it out for me.  Not because it’s 10 degrees here – I can handle that.  It’s because for the second time in two weeks, not long after my Bears went down, they’ve sent me to a town with a bunch of Green Bay Packer fans, even if we are in Michigan.  But I congratulate all the fans here, and we’ll see the Packers at the White House.

Of course, I haven’t come to Marquette to talk about winning the Super Bowl.  I’ve come here because it’s towns like this where the jobs and businesses of tomorrow will take root.  It’s towns like this where our economic future will be won.

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Update 12:40 p.m.:

We will carry the live feed of President Obama's speech in Marquette on our website at 1pm.

Update 12:01 p.m.:

Governor Snyder has released the following statement about President Obama's trip to Marquette:

“All Michiganders can take great pride in the national recognition earned by Northern Michigan University and the communities of Marquette County.  Their partnership to expand high-speed wireless internet services through NMU’s WiMAX network wisely recognizes the critical need to enhance online availability in the 21st century.  This cutting-edge approach benefits students and families while providing an essential tool that drives business development.

“At the state level, we are working aggressively to provide additional online and self-service alternatives for Michigan residents.  Expanding wireless capabilities in the Upper Peninsula complements our efforts and provides welcome conveniences to U.P. customers.  The President is right to highlight this initiative as a model of cooperation and innovation.  We welcome the President to Michigan and look forward to him sharing this Upper Peninsula success story across America.  We also applaud NMU and the Marquette area as they get their well-deserved attention on the national stage.  They are outstanding ambassadors for the Upper Peninsula and our entire state.”

Update: 10:58 a.m.:

Marquette, Michigan?? Wish we were going to Hawaii instead....

President Obama and his entourage of staff are flying aboard Air Force 1 to Marquette (Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is making his final flight).

The White House press corps is traveling along and they're not looking forward to the extreme cold temps.

Here's a "pool report" from the press:

Marine One touched down at Andrews approx 9:35 am. POTUS, wearing overcoat but no hat or gloves, on AF1 5 minutes later, followed by staff including Jarrett , Sutphen, Mastromonaco, and Gibbs, making his final flight as press secretary.

AF1 rolling, with a flight time of just over 2 hrs from Andrews to Marquette, where the temp is said to be in single digits with a wind chill of -19. Pool fondly remembering travel pool in Hawaii just over a month ago.

7:12 a.m.

President Barack Obama will visit the city of Marquette in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula today. The President will visit Northern Michigan University to promote his administration’s National Wireless Initiative.

It’s a program the President first announced during last month’s State of the Union Address.

The initiative would bring high speed wireless internet access to 98 percent of the nation’s population within five years.

Some say it’s a lofty goal, considering such technology is only now being built in major cities.

The initiative is part of the White House’s new focus on innovation and competitiveness as a way to “win the future.”

Budget schmudget.

The real debate in this state is over how we self-identify.

The Michigander vs. Michiganian debate rears up every so often.

We last heard about it during last fall's gubernatorial race.

Democratic candidate Virg Bernero preferred Michiganian, while Republican candidate Rick Snyder preferred Michigander (my spell check likes neither, by the way).

Snyder grabbed the victory and told the crowd to drop all the divisive labels... except one. From MLive:

Snyder told his victory party in Detroit that it was time to "drop the labels" of party, ideology and geography. "There is only one label that matters and that label is Michigander."

Survey says

The Lansing-based PR firm Resch Strategies decided to feel the state's pulse on this question. They contacted 600 Michiganians/Michiganders at the end of January and asked them, "Do you consider yourself a (ROTATE:  Michigander or a Michiganian)"?

The results:

• 58% said Michigander
• 12% said Michiganian
• 7% said both
• 11% said neither
• 12% didn’t know

Online Poll (warning, extremely scientific)

We thought we'd try to gauge your preference:

Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager of the Detroit Public Schools, came to Lansing yesterday to ask for something he has to know he’s probably never going to get.

He wants the legislature to give what amounts to a loan guarantee to the company that insured the schools’ last round of borrowing. If that firm, Assured Guaranty Municipal Corporation, doesn’t get that assurance, it may block the schools from borrowing more money? Why? Because it worries DPS will go bankrupt.

Which would leave Assured Guaranty holding the bag. And it’s a pretty unpleasant bag, The schools are hemorrhaging money and students. Bobb came in two years ago, full of confident promises to eliminate the deficit. But it has only gotten worse.

Assured Guaranty insured a loan for a little over a quarter of a billion dollars the schools borrowed in 2005. Now, the schools need more. They have a new deficit of $327 million dollars.

That’s more than half their entire general fund budget. To make ends meet, Bobb says he needs to borrow $219 million next month.

 Many in Michigan’s Arab-American community are celebrating the possible resignation of Egyptian president  Hosni Mubarak.   NPR is reporting that Mubarak will announce his resignation this evening.  

The City of Grand Rapids is working to revive its urban forest. Lindsey Smith visited the committee in charge of the effort to find out how things are going.

Three things to know about trees in Grand Rapids:

1. The committee values the 61,000 trees within the city’s boundaries at $71 million.  (How'd they get that number?  It's based on the benefits trees provide: capturing storm water runoff, increasing property values, improving air quality and reducing heating and cooling costs for nearby buildings.)
2. In 2010, more than 1,500 trees were planted in Grand Rapids.
3. This year they’re working to add a wider variety of native trees - to better protect the urban forest from new pests and disease.  (i.e. things like the uber-destructive emerald ash borer)

Lindsey talked with Dottie Clune, the committee chair.  She says the importance of trees is often overlooked - especially these days with tight city budgets.

“We know that for every dollar we spent on the municipal urban forestry program we received $3.60 in benefits. That’s a pretty good return on investment.”

The U.S. Forest Service has to consider making 70,000 acres off limits to firearm hunting and snowmobiling in the Huron-Manistee National Forest. That’s about seven percent of the Huron-Manistee.

It’s doing this because the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Service to do so... and that’s because of a lawsuit brought by a guy named Kurt Meister. Meister is an attorney, representing himself in the case. He’s trying to get areas that are already designated as non-motorized set aside for quiet recreation. 

“There ought to be some place in the forest where you can go cross-country skiing or snow-shoeing or kayaking or hiking or ride your horse without having to listen to the noise of other people and the guns and machines they use.”

This week, the Michigan House and Senate are discussing three resolutions. Those resolutions express opposition to any potential ban on hunting and snowmobiling in the Huron-Manistee. The resolutions couldn’t stop the federal agency – but it's basically a show of hands against a ban.

The resolutions are:

• House Concurrent Resolution 2: sponsored by State Rep. Bruce Rendon (R-Lake City) - Passed the House Committee on Natural Resources, Outdoor Recreation and Tourism on Tuesday
• House Resolution 17: sponsored by State Rep. Peter Pettalia (R-Alpena) - Passed the House Committee on Natural Resources, Outdoor Recreation and Tourism on Tuesday
• Senate Resolution 6: sponsored by State Senator Goeff Hansen (R-Hart) - Being considered today in the Senate Committee on Outdoor Recreation and Tourism

Many reports that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is stepping down. You can follow live blogging on this story from NPR's The Two Way:

Breaking news from Egypt: President Hosni Mubarak is expected to address his nation tonight (local time), and the leader of his political party says Mubarak may step down. The story is developing and there are conflicting reports about what Mubarak may or may not say. We will pass along information from major news outlets and NPR staff in Cairo.

(10:45 a.m. ET: The story is moving quickly, so we're switching to a live-blog approach. Our updates will flow into the box below automatically. If you look below the box, you can read our original post and two earlier updates.)

Michigan College students needing food aid will now have a harder time getting it. The state Department of Human Services will take bridge cards away from college students who don’t meet federal guidelines for food assistance.

Some lawmakers say many students who don’t really need the benefits are abusing the program.

Ingham County has the highest number of college students receiving food assistance through the Bridge card program. Michigan State University is in Ingham County.

Nate Smith-Tyge is the Director of the MSU student food bank, a service only for MSU students.

"We’ve seen an increase in the number of people we serve over the past couple of years. You can pretty much tie it directly to the economic downturn we’ve experienced here in Michigan. We do a distribution every other Wednesday, we’ll serve between 275 and 300 people, and that includes students and their dependents."

Allegations of abuse of the program have been largely unsubstantiated. Smth-Tyge says,

"I’d say that there probably is abuse, but I don’t think that you should let the outliers indicate how you determine policy. There is a real demand. We see it on our campus and I’ve talked to people trying to start food-banks from as far away as Schoolcraft Community College in Livonia to people at Grand Valley State and I think there is a real food demand for people as they attend college."

The State Department of Human Services says an unknown number of students will become ineligible for food aid April 15th.

- Sarah Alvarez, Michigan Radio Newsroom

Analysts expected a big jump in home foreclosures in Michigan in January.  But the jump didn’t materialize.

 Home foreclosures slowed last fall in Michigan and around the country as banks dealt with a scandal about robo-signings.   Essentially mortgage lenders signing foreclosure documents without checking to make sure what they were signing was accurate or truthful.  Foreclosures were expected to spike this month.  But they didn’t.  Realty Trac reports Michigan saw only a 4% increase in foreclosure filings in January.   Nationally only a one  percent increase.

Presidential Visit

President Obama will visit Northern Michigan University in Marquette today. He’ll be in the Upper Peninsula to promote his administration’s National Wireless Initiative. The program, first announced during last month’s State of the Union Address, would bring high speed wireless internet access to 98 percent of the nation’s population within five years. The initiative is part of the White House’s new focus on innovation and competitiveness as a way to, “win the future.”

Snyder to Outline Budget Next Week

Governor Rick Snyder will unveil his budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins October 1st, next Thursday, February 17th. The state faces a projected $1.8 billion dollar budget deficit for the next fiscal year. “Snyder says he plans to ask lawmakers to wipe out billions in business tax exemptions… Lt. Gov. Brian Calley told the Holland Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday that the administration is counting on $2 billion from such cuts,” The Associated Press reports.

Profit-Sharing Check Going Out to GM Workers

Some 45,000 General Motors’ workers are expected to receive profit-sharing checks from the automaker. The company will release the amount of the checks soon, Mark Brush reports. It’s being reported the checks will be at least $3000 each. Other automakers are also sharing the wealth: Ford announced profit-sharing checks of more than $5000 and Chrysler is giving its workers $750.

Though the sun might come out for a bit today, it is going to be a cold one around the state. Temperatures will be in the teens. However, with the wind chill, it'll feel as cold as 11 below in some parts of the region. Meanwhile, a wind chill advisory is in effect for parts of Southeast Michigan until 11 a.m. this morning.

Tonight: Cloudy skies with a chance of flurries. Lows ranging from negative 3 degrees to 10 above... with wind chills down to 10 below.

Tomorrow: A  mix of sun and clouds with a chance of snow. Highs in the low to mid 20's.

Governor Rick Snyder's budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins October 1st will be released next Thursday, February 17th. The state currently faces a projected $1.8 billion budget deficit for the new fiscal year. Snyder says he plans to ask lawmakers to do away with billions in business tax exemptions, according to the Associated Press. The AP reports:

Snyder has said he plans to review tax credits to see which are worth keeping, but hadn't said how many would be eliminated.

Lt. Gov. Brian Calley told the Holland Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday that the administration is counting on $2 billion from such cuts.

Calley also says the budget proposal will be like an "atomic bomb" going off in Lansing, a comment that drew criticism from Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel.

Wurfel said Wednesday that Calley's comments were an "extremely unfortunate choice of words."

She also denied Calley's claim that Snyder plans to present an all-cuts budget.

The DSO talks have apparently hit another roadblock according to the Associated Press:

Striking Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians have rejected the latest contract proposal from orchestra management. A musician speaking Wednesday on the condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to speak for the union told The Associated Press the offer was rejected but more talks are possible. Management officials submitted the proposal last Friday. It included a stipulation the musicians must respond by this Friday. Management spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt wouldn't confirm the rejection but says a statement is expected to be released later Wednesday. Teams representing management and musicians met in late January, but those talks collapsed as they accused each other of not adhering to a three-year, $36 million proposal made in December by then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. The walkout began Oct. 4.