History for April 22

History for April 22 - On-This-Day.com

Earth Day. See www.earthday.org/International Mother Earth Day (United Nations)

National Jelly Bean Day

Happy Birthday!  Glen Campbell, Jack Nicholson

Birth Anniversaries: Queen Isabella I (Spain) 1451, Nikolai Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin) 1870 - Russian premier (1917-1924), J. Robert Oppenheimer 1904 - Physicist, designed and built the first atomic bomb 

1509 - Henry VIII ascended to the throne of England upon the death of his father Henry VII. 


1861 - Robert E. Lee was named commander of Virginia forces. 






1864 - The U.S. Congress passed legislation that allowed the inscription "In God We Trust" to be included on one-cent and two-cent coins. 


1889 - At noon, the Oklahoma land rush officially started as thousands of Americans raced for new, unclaimed land. 


1915 - At the Second Battle Ypres the Germans became the first country to use poison gas. 


1930 - The U.S., Britain and Japan signed the London Naval Treaty, which regulated submarine warfare and limited shipbuilding. 






1952 - An atomic test conducted in Nevada was the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television. 


1970 - The first "Earth Day" was observed by millions of Americans. 


1987 - The American Physical Society said that the "Star Wars" missile system was "highly questionable" and would take ten years to research. 






1993 - The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, DC. 


2000 - Elian Gonzalez was reunited with his father. He had to be taken from his Miami relatives by U.S. agents in a predawn raid. 

Judge says ordinary tools actually are ‘weapons’

Judge says ordinary tools actually are ‘weapons’:

"Ordinary tools, such as pliers, screwdrivers and wrenches, are “weapons” and so a Chicago school was correct to punish a teacher who brought them to class for a visual aid, according to a new court decision."

Britain Urged to Pull Out of EU, Restore Its Sovereignty | CNS News

Britain Urged to Pull Out of EU, Restore Its Sovereignty | CNS News:

“Absolutely remarkable that a proud and independent country – the Mother of Parliament some people say – got into a position where now 70 percent of our laws – 70 percent of our sovereignty – is actually surrendered to – if pooled -- with 28 other countries,” Stanbury said."

Holi crapoly! These people really are morons!!-------This one graphic explains everything wrong with the liberal gun debate

This one graphic explains everything wrong with the liberal gun debate | Rare:

"Liberals love to talk about how people shouldn’t have guns, but they are missing one important thing: knowledge about guns.

In a new infographic from Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group Everytown.org, an image with a bullet coming out of the chamber in tact.

 “Who is faster than a speeding bullet?” the infographic asks.

“Nobody.”

 People on social media were quick to point out the blunder."

Should be funny.... but it's really frightening-------Communist Karl Marx Endorsed by Obama as the Next President?

Duncan on Mexican Women Who Cross U.S. Border to Give Birth: ‘These Are Our Kids’ | CNS News

Duncan on Mexican Women Who Cross U.S. Border to Give Birth: ‘These Are Our Kids’ | CNS News: " Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited an elementary school in Columbus, N.M. last year where 75 percent of the students live in Mexico but are being educated in the United States because their mothers crossed the border to seek medical help, and their birth here makes them U.S. citizens."

Their district dissolved, Buena Vista residents must repay $6.6 million in school debts

Their district dissolved, Buena Vista residents must repay $6.6 million in school debts | MLive.com
BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP, MI — Buena Vista Township businesses and residents will repay the defunct school district's debts for at least two years.

Although the Saginaw County district has been closed since July 2013, it still has $6.5 million in debt. The district has a projected deficit of $4.05 million and $2.5 million remaining on a bond voters passed in 2005. All that money must be repaid to the state.

Next year, district residents also must decide whether renew a tax on businesses and secondary homes to keep whittling away at the deficit. 

“It’s going to be a tough sell to renew a millage for a school district that doesn’t exist,” said Chris Frank, Saginaw Intermediate School District assistant director of finance and business operations.

If voters reject the millage, he said, the Michigan Treasury could tax all residents in the jurisdiction of the former school district to complete the debt collection. The state islegally required to collect the money the Buena Vista School District borrowed.

Buena Vista School District dissolved in July 2013 at the order of the Michigan Legislature after a financial crisis left it unable to pay teachers.

The school district closed for two weeks in May 2013 as the state and Saginaw ISD scrambled to find a way to educate Buena Vista students and return enough funding to the district to complete the school year.

The state released up to $460,000 in the state per-pupil funding, allowing Buena Vista to provide classes to the about 300 students who remained.

Detroit Gives Pensioners a Sleight of Hand

Detroit Gives Pensioners a Sleight of Hand - Bloomberg View
Detroit Gives Pensioners a Sleight of Hand
Detroit doesn’t have any money. Rather, it doesn’t have enough money: It cannot both pay its debts and run the city. That’s why the city filed for bankruptcy some months back, over the outraged protests of pensioners who stand to lose a big chunk of their monthly checks.

No Longer Motor City

Today, those pensioners are breathing a little easier. The city seems to have struck a deal that will leave their pensions in better shape than previously feared. Instead of cutting those monthly checks by as much as a third, the city will trim them by less than 5 percent.

How did they make such a big change? In part by assuming higher investment returns:

The city initially factored in rates of 6.25 percent and 6.5 percent for the two funds, but eventually agreed that the funds could be presumed to do better -- 6.75 percent -- because of an improved outlook based on the funds’ 2013 performance as compared with 2012.

The city also promises lower or no cost-of-living adjustments, and less in the way of retiree health benefits. And the proceeds from a proposed deal, not yet agreed upon, to save the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection by soliciting a mix of state and private funds to pay off the pensioners.

Naturally, many other creditors are unhappy. And taxpayers should probably be wary, too. Raising the assumed rate of return on your pension funds is every government’s favorite way to lower its required pension contribution, but if the assumptions don’t pan out, the city will still be on the hook for the pensions -- or back in bankruptcy again. It’s particularly risky if you just had a nice big run-up in the stock market, which seems to promise untold future riches. That, of course, is usually when the market is preparing for a correction.

The Scientific Community Is Plagued by Western Self-Loathing – The 'Treason of the Intellectuals'

The Scientific Community Is Plagued by Western Self-Loathing – The 'Treason of the Intellectuals'
What stops the Earth from looking like Pluto is energy from the Sun.
The quantity and type of energy coming from the Sun varies over cycles that range up to 1,500 years long. 
The cycle we can see with our own eyes, in our own lifetimes, is the sunspot cycle that is normally eleven years long.
A decade ago there was a wide range of predictions from the solar physics community about how strong the current cycle, No 24, would be.
One list of 45 predictions ranged from a sunspot number of 50 at the low end to 190 at the high end. Strangely, the climate science community at the time had no interest in what the Sun might do.
The predictions at the low end were correct.
It has become established—for those who are willing to look at the evidence—that climate will very closely follow our colder Sun.
Climate is no longer a mystery to us. 
We can predict forward up to two solar cycles, that is about twenty-two years into the future. 
When models of solar activity are further refined, we may be able to predict climate forward beyond a hundred years.

WeMOG-Wed. April 23

Come join us for a hike in the Grand River Ravines North and South Parks on Wednesday April 23.   

Meet at 1 p.m. at the parking lot of the South Park, and when we've finished there, we'll take a short drive to the North Park.   

Both are short walks, less than 2 miles, I think.    

It is a bit muddy, so wear appropriate footwear.   

Here is a link to more information about the parks: http://www.miottawa.org/Parks/fillmore.htm

Directions: 

From the North, take I-96 East to the Coopersville exit 16, (68th St.) go south past M-45 to Fillmore St.  Go East on Fillmore to just past 40th St.  You'll see a red barn on the left with a small parking area.  We will meet there.   The address is 3991 Fillmore St. Georgetown Township 49428 if you want to plug it in to your GPS. 

Google maps says it takes 30 minutes from the intersection of US31 and I-96.   

From the East, take M-45 West to 48th St, go south to Fillmore, then East to the Red Barn parking area.  

 From the South, take US31 North to M-45, go East to 68th St., then South to Fillmore, then East to the Red Barn parking area just East of 40th St.   

After we walk the South Park, it is a 5 minute drive to the North park.  

This one has a really nice view of the river.  

 If you have questions, do not reply to this email, as I will not see it.  Contact me at rlists@charter.net  or 616-846-3661 

I will cancel by 11 a.m. if the weather is not cooperative. 

Nati Watters

New York Times Columnist: Obama Has a ‘Manhood Problem’ in the Middle East | Video | TheBlaze.com

New York Times Columnist: Obama Has a ‘Manhood Problem’ in the Middle East | Video | TheBlaze.com: "“[L]et’s face it,” he said. “Obama, whether deservedly or not, does have a — I’ll say it crudely, but a manhood problem in the Middle East. Is he tough enough to stand up to somebody like Assad, somebody like Putin?”"

Union POWER!!!-------REQUIRE companies give workers' personal info to unions?

REQUIRE companies give workers' personal info to unions? | The Daily Caller:

The Obama administration is poised to change regulations to allow for union “ambush elections” in which workers have less time to decide whether or not to join a union — and in which workers’ phone numbers and home addresses are provided to unions.






The administration’s National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) proposed rules would allow for union elections — in which workers at a company vote whether or not to unionize — to be held 10 days after a petition is filed. And what, exactly, would be happening to the unions during those 10 days? The new rules require employers to disclose workers’ personal information, including phone numbers, home addresses, and information about when they work their shifts.
Insiders close to the situation believe the new rules will almost certainly go into effect with few or no fundamental changes."

Snow day provision in Michigan budget bill will ease winter's effect on schedules

Snow day provision in Michigan budget bill will ease winter's effect on schedules | MLive.com

LANSING -- A provision tucked into the revised School Aid funding measure signed by Gov. Rick Snyder last Friday gives schools more flexibility in how they deal with days missed because of snow and bone-chilling temperatures this winter.

The supplemental budget bill, which passed the legislature in late March, includes a provision which gives districts the option to hold classes for only 174 days if they had more than that amount originally scheduled.

The provision still requires schools to offer a minimum of 1,098 hours of instruction even if they forgo making up the additional scheduled days. State law mandates the number of hours schools must be in session in order to be eligible for state aid payments.

WeMOG Tue. April 22

Monthly Meeting

Russ'

April 22, 2014

Meeting starts at 12:30 p.m.

New time for our monthly meeting is 12:30 pm, April 22, at the Russ' in Grand Haven 

We will be planning May Activities. Bring ideas for May activities. 

We can play dominos after meeting. Bring dominos. We have the room from 12:30 to 3:30 

Those going to Boyarthy's Lodge June 4-6 at Walahalla, please come for a short meeting after our April meeting. 

Directions: Russ' is on US-31 between Taylor and Robins Rd. on the west side.

 Questions: Bonnie at 616-550-3670 or bsbonbon@gmail.com 

Your WeMOG Member

Bonnie Spoelhof 

Fuyao Automotive to invest $15.3M at Orion Twp. facility

Fuyao Automotive to invest $15.3M at Orion Twp. facility | The Detroit News:
"Fuyao Automotive North America has plans to invest $15.3 million to add equipment and more than 100 jobs to its Orion Township facility.
Fuyao, a subsidiary of Fuyao Glass Industry Group, an international manufacturer of automotive glass, will add equipment to manufacture auto glass assembly parts.
The Orion Township facility currently provides warehousing, repackaging and inspection for auto glass suppliers.
The project will receive a $1 million Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund, Gov. Rick Snyder’s office said Thursday.
Orion Township plans to offer a property tax abatement."

WeMOG Tomorrow!

Time to burn off those

Cadbury Creme Eggs, Peeps & Robin's Eggs*

Meet at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, April 21

 in the parking lot of the

USS SILVERSIDES Submarine Museum
1346 Bluff Street
Muskegon, MI 49441 

(near Pere Marquette Park

See map and directions below)

Walk along the Lake Michigan Channel,

See the Lighthouses and

maybe all the way to the

Norman Kruse Dog Beach,

depending on our Post-Easter stamina!

Option for coffee, beverages & food

afterwards at

Mango's Bar & Grille

Be Careful Where You Complain About Government – The FBI Is Listening

Be Careful Where You Complain About Government – The FBI Is Listening:
"According to recent reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigations is picking up where the IRS left off in targeting patriotic Americans. If a recent encounter described by a South Carolina gun merchant is any indication, federal agents are now beginning to literally treat advocates of limited government as terrorists."

Earth ‘Serially Doomed’: UN Issues New 15 Year Climate Tipping Point – But UN Issued Tipping Points in 1982 & Another 10-Year Tipping Point in 1989! | Climate Depot:
"In 1982, the UN issued a two decade tipping point. 
UN official Mostafa Tolba, executive director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP), warned on May 11, 1982, the “world faces an ecological disaster as final as nuclear war within a couple of decades unless governments act now.” 
According to Tolba in 1982, lack of action would bring “by the turn of the century, an environmental catastrophe which will witness devastation as complete, as irreversible as any nuclear holocaust.”"

Earth ‘Serially Doomed’: UN Issues New 15 Year Climate Tipping Point – But UN Issued Tipping Points in 1982 & Another 10-Year Tipping Point in 1989!

Climate Depot Factsheet on Inconvenient History of Global Warming 'Tipping Points' -- Hours, Days, Months, Years, Millennium -- Earth 'Serially Doomed'

It's difficult to keep up whether it is hours, days, months or 1000 years. Here are few recent examples of others predicting "tipping points" of various duration.

HOURS: Flashback March 2009: 'We have hours' to prevent climate disaster -- Declares Elizabeth May of Canadian Green Party

Days: Flashback Oct. 2009: UK's Gordon Brown warns of global warming 'catastrophe'; Only '50 days to save world'

Months: Prince Charles claimed a 96-month tipping point in July 2009

Years: 2009: NASA’s James Hansen Declared Obama Only First Term to Save The Planet! — ‘On Jan. 17, 2009 Hansen declared Obama only ‘has four years to save Earth’ or Flashback Oct .2009: WWF: 'Five years to save world'

Decades: 1982: UN official Mostafa Tolba, executive director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP), warned on May 11, 1982, the 'world faces an ecological disaster as final as nuclear war within a couple of decades unless governments act now.'

Millennium: Flashback June 2010: 1000 years delay: Green Guru James Lovelock: Climate change may not happen as fast as we thought, and we may have 1,000 years to sort it out'

It is becoming obvious that the only authentic climate "tipping point" we can rely is this one:

Flashback 2007: New Zealand Scientist on Global Warming: 'It's All Going to be a Joke in 5 Years'

History for April 21

History for April 21 - On-This-Day.com:

Boston Marathon—118^th running. See www.baa.org

White House Easter Egg Roll. Since 1810.

Birth anniversary of Charlotte Brontë (1816-55).

Birth anniversary of naturalist, explorer and conservationist John Muir (1838-1914).

150th birth anniversary of sociologist and philosopher Max Weber (1864-1920).

Happy Birthday, Queen Elizabeth II!

And Happy Birthday! Patti Lupone, Andi MacDowell, Elaine May

1789 - John Adams was sworn in as the first U.S. Vice President. 


1836 - General Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. This battle decided the independence of Texas. 


1862 - The U.S. Congress established the U.S. Mint in Denver, CO. 





1898 - The Spanish-American War began. 


1918 - German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron," was shot down and killed during World War I. 


1943 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt announced that several Doolittle pilots had been executed by the Japanese. 


1967 - Svetlana Alliluyeva (Svetlana Stalina) defected in New York City. She was the daughter of Joseph Stalin. 

1984 - In France, it was announced that doctors had found virus believed to cause AIDS. 

1986 - Geraldo Rivera opened a vault that belonged to Al Capone at the Lexington Hotel in Chicago. Nothing of interest was found inside. 

Popular Teacher Suspended for ‘Research and Development of Imitation Weapons’

Popular Teacher Suspended for ‘Research and Development of Imitation Weapons’:
"The Los Angeles Times reports that Schiller, who teaches at the Cortines School of Visual & Performing Arts, in Los Angeles, California, is in hot water because two of his students turned in science projects designed to shoot little projectiles. One of the projects used compressed air, the other consisted of a tube surrounded by a coil and was powered by a standard AA battery.

Sounds pretty cool, and very ingenious. But an unnamed school employee caught sight of one of these devices and “raised concerns.” Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District then reportedly accused Schiller of “supervising the building, research and development of imitation weapons.” And now he’s been suspended."