July 23, 2009

Fool Me Once Shame On You, Fool Me 43 Million Times ....

iWon Sports News
Former Detroit Red Wings star Sergei Fedorov says a man entrusted to manage his money during the past 11 years swindled him out of $43 million.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Wayne County Circuit Court, Fedorov says Joseph Zada of Grosse Pointe Shores also broke a promise to repay him $60 million by April 20.

The suit says Zada "acting in concert with others" and "intentionally lied to Fedorov" whenever he asked about the money.

Goodbye A2 News

USATODAY.com
After 174 years, the last edition of The Ann Arbor News rolled off the presses Thursday with a three-word headline: "Farewell, Ann Arbor."

The only general circulation daily newspaper in this college town has gone out of business. It is being replaced by AnnArbor.com, an online news site that will produce a print edition twice a week, on Thursday and Sunday.

The 12-page front section of the News was dedicated to the history of the paper and the transition to AnnArbor.com, which is also owned by Advance Publications. That site goes live Friday.


July 7, 2009

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

I have been away from the hometown for quite a while but I really enjoy catching up on current events around the city. It's a lot like reading the funnies.

Detroit News
Former City Councilwoman Monica Conyers today blamed her desire to help neighbors on her current troubles.

"My biggest problem is helping people," Conyers told viewers on WHPR-TV (Channel 33.) "This whole situation has gotten to the point where I don't want to help people. That's a sad situation. ... If they're going to turn around and lie about people, if they're going to lie on me, I don't want to help people."

The comments on her live show, "Ask the Councilwoman," were the first in public since Conyers resigned Monday after pleading guilty to a five-year felony on claims she accepted two payments of $3,000 to switch her vote in 2007 on a $1.2 billion sludge-hauling contract.

If Conyers took the dough to help "people", I have two questions....
why'd she take so little and why'd she take a plea?

July 5, 2009

From The My Michigan Connection Blogroll

Yes. Once again it has been a while since I last posted. I am working today on refreshing the page, cleaning up the blogroll, etc.

Here's what's happening with the Michigan bloggers -

At Akindele Unleashed, a post entitled Building Independent Minds discusses the need to reject the dogma of our political parties and reassert the value and judgement of our independent minds and actions.
Independence will come from our minds when we realize that (1) no political party will come in and save us and (2) we have to save ourselves. The Democratic Party and their policies have not done anything to enhance urban communities to move them into the 21st century and the Republican Party still think that they can win elections without coming into the urban communities. It is a sad day when Democrats can run on conservative principles in rural Michigan and win elections but Republicans will not even open the discussion on an urban execution plan to even forge relationships in urban areas.


For Detroit Red Wings fans, Matt Saler at On The Wings looks for the silver lining with recent changes in the Wings locker room.
Also, most of us would consider this good news: it looks like Samuelsson’s priced himself out of returning.

All in all, this is comparatively great news after the pretty crappy events of the first day of free agency (even though I wasn’t a fan of keeping him, losing Hossa to Chicago wasn’t exactly a highlight of the off-season). The summer could have gone even further south had Hudler and Leino played the Wings tougher in negotiations, but it looks like things are headed to a good conclusion.

Matt, I'm not sure I agree with you about Samuelsson though.

Programming note: Christine Barry is working upgrade her site. Be sure to check it out soon.

There more happening in Alaska than just the Sarah Palin resignation.....
Here's former Michigan boy Buford T Porcupine, aka Todd Katke, sharing his pics from his beloved Denali National Park.
Rise and shine trail buddies, it's 4:00am in Denali National Park. On the road patrolling by 4:30am. Once again this year I was offered another opportunity to camp and ride along with a old friend (a video photographer) on a film permit. A solid week of scouting for wildlife along the 90+ mile road that runs out to Wonder Lake. On a typical day, we rose at 4:00am and were on the road by 4:30am drinking our coffee and having dash board muffins to go. As sleep was optional, we put in 20 hour days. Some mornings we might encounter brown bears right alongside the road early in our day. Other mornings maybe a little later in the day. Maybe catching a red fox running with morning breakfast, heading for the den at the Polychrome Pass overlook area.


Karen De Coster notes the latest spectator sport...Competitive Eating.
It’s sad that Americans delight at watching people shove food into their mouth while it dribbles down their chin, cheering them on. How did this ever get to be entertainment? 68 freakin’ hot dogs in 10 minutes. Juvenile males who delight in making themselves sick in front of an audience. Americans are bored people, I tell ya.

Along the same line as Karen writes, I cannot help but wonder at how pathetic has it gotten that we are fixated by the latest news about what drug combination killed Michael Jackson but completely missed all the fine print contained in that abomination known as the Cap & Trade Bill.

In case some have forgotten, Dr. Sanity posted a copy of the Declaration of Independence. While everything else seems to be going to Hell, let us all hope that we can reassert the rights illuminated in this document and emerge on the other side with our values intact.

Closing this post brings us back to more stories about food ...
Mid-Michigan Foodie writes about a conspiracy in the making - Strawberry shortage.
Today we were looking for strawberries; lots of strawberries; about 12 quarts, to be exact, mostly for freezing.

I knew of one small you-pick operation near the Midland County line, but we didn't have time to pick our own. After a fruitless (pardon the pun) Internet search of strawberry growers in our area we settled on buying ours from Buckeye Market, a venerable produce grower/seller east of Gladwin; while they don't grow their own strawberries, they do sell Michigan berries, and they have a local reputation for quality.

When we got to the store, we found lots of summer people provisioning for the long weekend...but no strawberries. A shipment from Traverse City was due to arrive at noon, I was told. I left my number and asked for a call when the berries were in.