Behind the Headlines

By Paula Wethington

Monroe’s sister city visitors from Hofu, Japan, arrived last week. The five students are staying with local host families until Aug. 14. The chaperones flew home Sunday.

My family has been involved with Monroe’s sister city program hosted by the Monroe International Friendship Association since we hosted one of the Japanese students in 2001. So the summer student exchange season is always a fun time of year for us.

One of this year’s Hofu chaperones, Makiko Fujimoto, is a public information officer at Hofu City Hall. She and I chatted quite a bit during her stay since our jobs are in similar fields.

Makiko told me she had a deadline to meet in Japan this week. As soon as she got back to the office on Monday, she was expected to write an article for the city newsletter about her trip and what the students are doing!

Here’s Makiko and I at one of the sister city social events on Saturday:

Play around with green-ness. See how many points you can rack up by riding the bus, your bike or walking - without actually doing anything.
Planet green game, sponsored by (*sigh*) Starbucks is kind of an interesting way news and/or issues are increasingly being dealt with - play a game, maybe learn something, and hopefully apply one or two of the gleaned points to your everyday life.
You can play it here: http://www.planetgreengame.com/

P.S. Green also used to be significant when worn on Wednesdays and/or in the form of M & Ms. Does anyone else remember this?

Here are the 2007 NCPERS Conference expenses, as obtained through a FOIA to the Monroe County Employee Pension Board. There is an information request in for the City Pension Board expenses also.
The information was provided by Deb Elmore, retirement specialist and the person in charge of expense reports. Each of the attendees had a $890 registration fee for the conference. Hotel costs were $1,716.40 for each participant (7 nights at $245.20 a night).
The costs that varied were airline - ranging from $643.73 to $705.10. And the rest of the money reportedly spent on meals, shuttles and airport parking.
Clayton Charron, total cost: $3,311.50 - Mr. Charron’s expenses include only registration, airfare of $705.10 and hotel. He did not put in for any additional reimbursements.

Nancy Colpaert, total cost: $3,319.49 - airfare $643.73; meals $69.36.

Deb Elmore, total cost $3,476.25 - airfare $661.09; meals $134.76; airport parking $56; and airport shuttle $18.

Pamela Jones, total cost $3,336.25 - airfare $690.60; meals $0; mileage to airport 50 miles at 48.5 cents for $24.25; shuttle from airport $15.00.

Henry Lievens, total cost $890 - paid for own airfare, hotel and meals; reimbursed only for cost of registration.

Charles Londo, total cost $3,448.75 - airfare $691.10; meals 133.25; shuttle $18.00.

James Morgan, total cost $3,276.50 - Mr. Morgan’s expenses include only airfare of $670.10, hotel and registration fee. He did not put in for any additional reimbursements.

William Sisk, total cost of $890 - Mr. Sisk reimbursed the retirement system for airfare and hotel on 7/20/07. Paid for meals; he was reimbursed only for cost of registration.

David Thompson, total cost $3,353.93 - airfare $670.10; meals $77.43.

Grand total for county: $25,302.67

“I’m sorry,” said person to surly reporter. “We’ll quit laughing. We know how much you hate laughter.”

(Which, by the way, caused more laughter. Said surly reporter joining in.)

Walkability is a buzzword in many communities today.

Whether you easily can walk from one place to another determines how easy it is to live in a town and whether it’s being afflicted by sprawl.

Here’s a cool Web site that let’s you plug in an address and it then gauges walkability based on proximity to restaurants, bookstores and other amenities.

I plugged in an E. Front St. address in downtown Monroe and found the walkability factor was very good. Check it out using your own address.

Said one person:
“Crank up the old propaganda machine…”

Update: The story of Margaret Stevens, the woman whose golf cart was nabbed, seemed to reach all kinds of different people. Margaret’s daughter, Kathleen, originally wrote a letter to the newspaper on what was lost during the burglary and we thought it would make a good story.

I liked the idea of doing the story because, while we often report on crimes that happen, it’s rare that we report on the other side of that unless the person is physically harmed. Even then, it’s usually just the straight facts, though occasionally we’ll get an in-depth perspective from a victim. So the end result was what I suspected would happen.

Kathy and Margaret were contacted by different people - all wanting to either offer sympathies and to tell them to keep faith or to offer them some sort of transportation for Margaret since she couldn’t get around as well without the golf cart.

Eventually a couple donors came up with another golf cart. A year older than the original, but just as zippy and just as liberating than the one that was stolen. Though they had to go through the ordeal, they ended up with their faith in people reinvigorated.

Read more about it soon in the MEN.

Hello there.
That headline was taken from the Onion. For awhile now I’ve been pushing for something similar in the MEN. Just a section or a story once a week - a spoof on actual news, either locally focused or not. Do you think there’s any room in a real newspaper for fake or mock news?

What would really be fun is to have one fake story a day and see if readers can pick out which one it is. Imagine the possibilities.

And, by the way, The Onion now has video on its web site, which is where the monkey story was filed. Hilarity will ensue.

By Paula Wethington

My sisters and I are long-time Funky Winkerbean comic strip fans. The Monroe Evening News runs the Sunday strip but not the daily, so I have to go to some effort to keep up with the story line.

Anyway, yesterday, one of my sisters asked “Is Lisa terminal?” And we all knew which Lisa she was talking about (Funky Winkerbean’s Lisa Moore), since neither our sister Lisa or cousin Lisa are seriously ill.

I have been following the comic strip story line closely enough to tell her the answer was yes.

Well, from one of my other sisters, I found out us fans are watching the details unfold for a plot line that was determined awhile back. Go to Funky’s site and you’ll see both a news article and blog from the author hinting at what’s in the future for one of his most popular characters.

CNNMoney.com created a list of the top 100 small cities to live in based on a combination of economic opportunities, schools, safe streets, things to do and sense of community.

Based on those criteria, the #1 small town was Middleton, Wis.

Michigan had three cities:

#37- Plymouth Township

#55- Farmington

#59- Saline

What would be your top 5? What criteria would you use to judge?

Since a coworker was just singing “Do you know the muffin man…” that’s all I could come up with.
But this is about Ozone. Even with the intense heat and glaring sun of the last few days, no Ozone Action days were called. SEMCOG explains why:

Heat wave, but no Ozone Action days

“Although Southeast Michigan is in the midst of the summer’s first intense heat wave, no Ozone Action days have been called in Southeast Michigan. Why?

According to SEMCOG, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, the good news is that the air in Southeast Michigan is cleaner! Even though it’s been hot, favorable winds have been mixing with clean air from the U.S. and Canadian border region, not allowing the air to become stagnant and produce the high levels of harmful ozone.

Historically, this time of year is the worst for ozone. In previous years, projected 90-degree temperatures, especially during this time of the summer, was a nearly certain call for an Ozone Action day. However, as pollution levels have been dropping over the past few years and changing the atmospheric chemistry, Ozone Action days are less of a “given.”
State meteorologists expect a cold front making its way through the state will keep pollution levels in the “good” range the rest of the week. No Ozone Action days will be called through Friday, July 13.

Air monitors in Southeast Michigan show that we’re in compliance with the national ozone standard. Last year marked the third straight year in which we’ve had no ozone violations. We need to continue our good habits.

Beginning this year, all gasoline sold in Southeast Michigan from June 1-September 15 will be lower vapor pressure. This fuel is less volatile than conventional gasoline and reduces evaporative emissions. It will help keep the air cleaner.

The region has had one Ozone Action day so far this summer on June 18. Last summer, two Ozone Action days were called. The average number of Ozone Action days per season is 10. In 2004, just one Ozone Action day was called; the highest was 25 in 1999.”Hmmm. Lower vapor pressure? What’s that all about? I’ll look into it.

Actually, I just put that header because with the new feed on Monroetalks.com I feel pressure to make the titles a little more intriguing.

Existentialist question of the day: If you were doomed to repeat one life, would you choose to repeat the life you’re living right now?

As a reporter I often find myself hobnobbing with people who may not be at the high points in their lives - sometimes it has to do with cops/corrections, other times it’s scandals and still others it has to do with
injustices or inequities in the world. I’m often tempted to ask the aforementioned question, but part of me feels like it’s not fair.
The simple act of asking questions already leads to self examination. What would a question like this do?

Let me know. Would it be fair to ask? How would you answer?

U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell was in town the other day to commend the local Ducks Unlimited chapter for its help in raising money to help expand the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, which Rep. Dingell enabled through legislation.

Ducks Unlimited calls itself a conservation group, which it is. But that doesn’t mean they want to necessarily conserve ducks. They work to create habitat so ducks can make more ducks and hunters can bag more ducks.

Rep. Dingell, an avid hunter himself, put the whole thing in a little better perspective during his comments to the group about his relationship with ducks. “While I like to shoot them, I also just like watching them and knowing that they’re there,” he said.

So will 7-7-07 be a lucky day for people or is it just all hype?

I’m still undecided on how I feel about the superstition. Should I consider it to be a lucky day and go play the lottery or should I just let it go on by like any other day.
What do you think? What are your plans for the day? Gambling? Attending weddings? Or just hanging back and let the day slide by?

Should school within an intermediate school district be united under a common calendar?

The Michigan State Senate passed legislation last week saying they should and I agree.

After speaking with Monroe County Intermediate School District Superintendent Don Spencer, it would be much easier for schools to share programs such as foreign languages using the common calendar.

However, under this legislation, schools who are on trimesters would be exempt from the common calendar- which means half of the districts in Monroe County, beginning next year, would be exempt.

What do you think? Is this a good idea?

Another point Mr. Spencer addressed was the length of the school year. Should Michigan schools change back to the 180 day minimum?

Mr. Spencer told me students in other parts of the world go to school for much longer than 180 days. For example, Japanese students go to school for more than 230 days.

Do you like the current system of 1,098 minimum instruction hours or should their be a set number of days like it used to be?