Behind the Headlines

Mike at the Erie Hiker promises to blog what he can about the Obama campaign stop in Monroe. Be sure to stop over to his site and read his postings.

Michelle Swartz will be covering the event for The Monroe Evening News. Stories will be in our print edition Tuesday (Monday’s paper is an morning edition); and on monroenews.com in the meantime.

– Paula Wethington

Update: Charles Slat got the assignment, not Michelle! Here’s his report:

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080901/BREAKINGNEWS/809019997

It’s 10:40 a.m. Sunday Aug. 30 in Monroe, Mich. Tickets at the local Democratic Party office will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis starting at noon for a presidential campaign visit Monday by Barack Obama. (Story at monroenews.com)

I was just driving through downtown — and made a point to drive down Washington St. to see how many were lining up.

That line is HUGE already, and growing! When I drove past, the line had already snaked around the corner of Front and Washington Sts.

– Paula Wethington

By Charles Slat
Don Gonyea is a Monroe native and Washington correspondent for National Public Radio.
His reports have been heard almost daily on the public broadcasting network and he’ll soon be with the Obama campaign as it wends its way to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
But there may be a homecoming in it for him.
He told The Evening News Wednesday that the campaign will be concentrating on swing states between now and the election. Michigan is a swing state, of course, and Mr. Gonyea predicts a few visits by the Obama campaign.
“Maybe he’ll give a speech by the Custer statute in Monroe,” Mr. Gonyea joked. “Can you see 75,000 people in St. Mary’s Park?”
We’ll try to catch up with Mr. Gonyea between now and Election Day to get the perspectives of a hometown boy who might soon be reporting closer to home.

By Charles Slat
Downtown Monroe will look a little different this holiday season.
That’s because the Downtown Development Authority will use light-emitting diode (LED) Christmas lights to deck the halls instead of the traditional lights that have adorned the downtown in the past.
DDA director Andrea Jones says the lights will give the downtown a different look and save about 90 percent of the energy that traditional lights would use.
‘Bout time considering that Santa’s sleigh has made use of wind power for decades.

When you want good music, ya call Ray Parker Jr.
Probably best known for his theme to the “Ghostbusters” movies, Mr. Parker played the River Raisin Jazz Festival on Sunday and the crowd went crazy when he broke into his signature piece.
“That was the highlight of my seven years of jazz festivals,” said John Patterson, president of the Monroe County Convention & Tourism Bureau, which organized the event. “When that huge crowd yelled `Ghostbusters.’ It was an awesome moment. It sounded just like the record, and everybody’s face lit up.”
As he was checking out of the Hotel Sterling in downtown Monroe Monday morning, however, he set the record straight about the lyrics of the song. It’s not “Who ya gonna call?” or “Who ya goin’ to call?”
“Those lyrics are nowhere in the song,” Mr. Parker said. “It’s who ya gon call?” That colloquialism is lost on most listeners, he explained.
Mr. Parker, by the way, is still collecting royalties on that song and the music will be used again on an upcoming release of a Ghostbusters video game.
Part of his performance Sunday, included a rendition of “Shaft,” a tribute to composer Isaac Hayes, who died last week.
Mr. Parker said he enjoyed his gig in Monroe. Having most recently played Chicago and a number of European cities, he was looking forward to returned to his Detroit hometown for a couple of weeks.
He said he never had stopped in Monroe before and just viewed it as a place on the way to Cedar Point.
“I think the whole city’s wonderful,” he said. “It seems like the whole town is involved” in the festival.

By Charles Slat
CHICAGO — This is what political campaigning is all about.
Sen. John McCain’s visit to DTE Energy’s Fermi 2 nuclear plant was a media event designed to, well, attract media coverage.
Attending a journalism educator’s conference here, I guess I was a little surprised to see McCain’s photo on Page One of USA Today, which was delivered to my hotel room. A tiny photo of McCain standing behind a podium with Fermi’s cooling towers in the background graced the front page with a tinier caption explaining how he was touting nuclear power.
Inside was a larger article with two photos, one with McCain chatting with DTE Energy boss Anthony F. Earley in the Fermi control room.
The Chicago TV news stations also were playing up the story with some stock footage of nuclear plants and B-roll of McCain wearing a DTE Energy hardhat standing beside the Fermi generator.
Some of the reports said the Fermi 2 plant was meant to replace one that had a near-meltdown.
Well, not exactly, but this campaign stuff is more about face-time than substance and accuracy.
Bottom line: We all knew McCain was a strong supporter of nuclear power. There was little news here beyond Monroe County, but the candidate scored heavily on national face-time.
And that’s how campaigning works in the information age.

I’m a Funky Winkerbean comic strip fan. It’s a bit hard to keep up with the plot here in Monroe, with only the Sunday strip in The Monroe Evening News. It’s even more confusing these days with a jump ahead in the timeline of the story that started a few months ago — readers are still getting used to what favorite characters are doing.

So here’s the backstory for Aug. 10.

The woman you see in the first box is Lisa Moore. She died last fall of cancer.

Before she died, she and her husband Les sat down with a camcorder so Lisa could record messages to be shown in the future to their young daughter.

Today’s comic strip shows one of those video messages. There was a strip awhile back in which we saw Lisa do this recording session.

Way back in the story line, Lisa got pregnant in high school. Les was one of her best friends, and stood by her during the ordeal. That baby was given up for adoption. Les and Lisa started dating after a high school reunion, got married, and had one daughter, Summer.

Summer is now watching this video as a teenager, hearing her mom explain what happened during her high school years.

– Paula Wethington

The Michigan Voter Information Center will allow you to check if you are registered to vote, provide the location of your voting place and show you a ballot in advance.

– Paula Wethington

Monroe County, Mich., has a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m. today Friday Aug. 1. There is the potential for winds up to 60 mph and hail up to one inch in diameter.

National Weather Service - Detroit.

– Paula Wethington