What could possibly go wrong?------Fair housing focus of upcoming forums in Muskegon, Muskegon Heights

Fair housing focus of upcoming forums in Muskegon, Muskegon Heights | MLive.com:
"MUSKEGON, MI -- Have you been having trouble getting a bank to finance a home mortgage? Have you been denied an application to rent a home?
Local authorities want to hear about these and other types of housing struggles, and may be able to provide help at an upcoming fair housing forum.
The forum will be 4-5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, at the indoor market at the Muskegon Farmer's Market, 242 W. Western Ave.
The city's community and neighborhood services office is hosting the event, but anyone from Muskegon County is encouraged to participate.
Muskegon Heights also will host a fair housing forum at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, at Muskegon Heights City Hall, 2724 Peck St."

‘We’ll Tear This Godd**n Country Up!’: Farrakhan’s Fiery Rant Just Days Before Grand Jury Announcement Seems to Justify Ferguson Violence | Video | TheBlaze.com

‘We’ll Tear This Godd**n Country Up!’: Farrakhan’s Fiery Rant Just Days Before Grand Jury Announcement Seems to Justify Ferguson Violence | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"In one clip from the speech, Farrakhan said that what he sees happening in Ferguson, Missouri, following former police officer Darren Wilson’s killing of Brown is unprecedented, with men, woman and children continuing to protest for over 100 days.

Speaking of young people in particular, he said that they will not back down, appearing to justify the use of violence and telling the audience to teach their babies “how to throw the bottle if they can,” according to CBS Radio."

Brave, smart man!-----Federal funds could be available for police body cameras, but Michigan lawmaker says no thanks

Federal funds could be available for police body cameras, but Michigan lawmaker says no thanks | MLive.com:
"State Rep. Tom McMilllin, R-Rochester Hills, said Monday he was glad Obama and White House officials agreed that having body cameras for police is a good idea.
But, he’d rather see the states themselves pay for their own purchases.
“Frankly, the feds have put me and my kids in enough debt, I wouldn’t want them adding to it,” McMillin said.
“Them providing body cameras to state and local police officers in Michigan isn’t a proper role of the federal government, in my opinion. 
We could figure out how to pay for it here in Michigan.”
McMillin introduced a bill last month that would require all police officers in Michigan to wear body cameras."

Muskegon Prepares to Vote on Controversial Ordinance that will Ban City Residents from Growing and Selling Vegetables

Muskegon Prepares to Vote on Controversial Ordinance that will Ban City Residents from Growing and Selling Vegetables - Michigan Small Farm Council
Muskegon is a food desert, yet is preparing to pass an ordinance that will refuse to allow city residents to grow and sell vegetables.

Wayne Whitman from MDARD has agreed to attend a private meeting in Muskegon to discuss the proposed ordinance in the context of the Right to Farm Act at 2:30 pm on December 8th, with city staff and invited guests only.

The public will not be allowed to attend.

Joshua EldenBrady, resident of Muskegon, provides this overview:

Muskegon Hates Veggies Too
Joshua S. EldenBrady

Remember the headlines from Oak Park a few years back threatening a resident with jail for growing a vegetable garden in her yard?  “Oak Park Hates Veggies.”  Thankfully that is not the trend.  In recent years, cities across the state have been working to find a way to integrate urban farming as a new type of much need green space and cities across the country, some as large as San Francisco, are spending significant amount of money on tax credits to encourage property owners to keep some vacant lots as urban farms.

While legal hurdles exist, most cities have been working hard to encourage more green space and local food production.  Detroit is a prime example of a large city struggling with how to work with state law to craft a well formed local food policy.  Detroit spent several years carefully crafting an urban farming ordinance that welcomed local farms and gardens as a regulated use for many of the city’s numerous vacant properties.

It is this backdrop of progress that makes Muskegon Michigan stand in such sharp contrast.  In 2010, a group of citizens pushed for the city to formally allow community gardens (previously illegal) in the city.  This group worked with city staff to write a new ordinance.  The ordinance allowed for any individual or group of individual to grow produce anywhere in the city so long as certain conditions were met.  The version given to the work group encouraged those gardens to sell at the city farmers market.  Somewhere between a stakeholder meeting and the final version, that language was removed.

At the start of 2013, one large non-profit operations (McLaughlin Grows Urban Farm) existed in Muskegon selling produce through CSA shares and through several local venues.  During the year, one new operation (operated by individuals as sole proprietors) and one expanding operation (a community garden with new grant funding to sell door to door in a low income neighborhood) applied to the city for permits for new operations.  Suddenly the city government that had encouraged sales at the work group in 2010 took a very different tone. 

Since the language encouraging sales had been removed from the final version of the community gardening ordinance, the city said that no one was allowed to sell.  The Zoning Board of Appeals stated that they could not allow a farming operation because it might spread to other areas of the city and farming in the city was “unacceptable.”  The city management (staff and previous city manager) and legal counsel stated that the city would not even consider allowing urban farming of any kind because that was not the direction the city wanted to go and Right to Farm made it impossible.  A similar sentient was echoed in 2014 by the Planning Commission as well as by several members of the City Commission.

The truly bizarre part is the nature of the opposition.
READ THE REST!

Lawmakers Want to Resuscitate Wind Tax Credit

Lawmakers Want to Resuscitate Wind Tax Credit:

"As the lame-duck Congress limps to the finish line, billions of dollars in federal energy subsidies could be up for grabs.

The perennial procrastination has solar and wind-power lobbyists scrambling for tax credits. Last week, lawmakers reached a deal on a $440 billion tax package only to have President Obama threaten a veto. The package would have resuscitated the wind tax credit that expired last year."

NYC Officials Misspent Nearly $200 Million Of Sandy Relief Funds

NYC Officials Misspent Nearly $200 Million Of Sandy Relief Funds | The Daily Caller:
"A recent government audit has found that New York City officials misspent $183 million in Hurricane Sandy relief funds, using the money to cover salaries and fringe benefits for hospital employees — some of whom weren’t even working.
The funds, dispersed as part of a $4.2 billion disaster relief package passed in 2013, were given to the city-run nonprofit Health and Hospitals Corporation. 
In its own words, HHC operates the “public safetynet healthcare system of New York City.”"

Meebee they're lower cuz their ain't as many cars left to carjack?-------Detroit Carjackings Down Significantly, But Still Far Too Many

Detroit Carjackings Down Significantly, But Still Far Too Many –  Deadline Detroit:
"The good news: 
Carjackings are down significantly in Detroit.
The bad news:
There's still far too many.
Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press reports that six years ago, the city had 1,231 carjackings — more than three a day.
Last year, the number dropped to 701.
Still, Baldas points out that the 701 was still the highest known number of carjackings for any major city in the country."

‘We Don’t Give a S*%! About That’: Lawsuit Exposes Relaxed Deportation Rules at DHS | TheBlaze.com

‘We Don’t Give a S*%! About That’: Lawsuit Exposes Relaxed Deportation Rules at DHS | TheBlaze.com:

"According to Goodlatte’s letter, Vroom’s lawsuit at one point alleged that DHS told employees to “ignore the law they were sworn to uphold and routinely release and dismiss cases for entire classes of criminal aliens.” That includes drunk drivers, deferred action applicants, and illegal immigrants who tried to vote.

It said that Jim Stolley, a manager of Field Legal Operations within OPLA, said “We don’t give a s*%! about that, let it go,” when asked about removing aliens with drunk driving convictions."

Why we need more than ANC/NBC/CBS/NPR/PBS/NYT/AP------Instapundit

Instapundit:

ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO IGNORE:
Also no coverage at the New York Times of the arrest of Obama bundler Terry Bean for child rape. It’s like they have an agenda to distort the news for partisan reasons or something.
Posted at 6:56 pm by Glenn Reynolds 

AT THE NEW YORK TIMES, zero results in a search for Zemir Begic, the man beaten to death with hammers by “youths” in St. Louis. Posted at 4:43 pm by Glenn Reynolds  

Eric Holder’s Speech on New Racial Profiling Guidelines Interrupted by Protesters — but His Response Gets a Standing Ovation | Video | TheBlaze.com

Eric Holder’s Speech on New Racial Profiling Guidelines Interrupted by Protesters — but His Response Gets a Standing Ovation | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"Speaking at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta – the church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that he will soon unveil long-planned Justice Department guidance aimed at ending racial profiling."

History for December 2

History for December 2 - On-This-Day.com:
George Seurat 1859, Charles Ringling 1862, Maria Callas 1923 


Alexander M. Haig 1924, Edwin Meese III 1931, Aaron Rodgers 1983 - Football player 


1804 - Napoleon was crowned emperor of France at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. 


1823 - U.S. President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere. 


1901 - Gillette patented the KC Gillette Razor. It was first razor to feature a permanent handle and disposable double-edge razor blades. 


1927 - The Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model A automobile. It was the successor to the Model T. 


1939 - New York's La Guardia Airport began operations as an airliner from Chicago landed at 12:01 a.m. 


1942 - A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated by Dr. Enrico Fermi and his staff at the University of Chicago. 


1961 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared in a nationally broadcast speech that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that he was going to lead Cuba to communism. 


1969 - The Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191 people flew from Seattle, WA, to New York City, NY. Most of the passengers were reporters and photographers. 


1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Barney Clark. He lived 112 days with the device. The operation was the first of its kind. 


1990 - The Midwest section of the U.S. prepared for a massive earthquake predicted by Iben Browning. Nothing happened. 


1993 - Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin. 


1994 - The U.S. government agreed not to seek a recall of allegedly fire-prone General Motors pickup trucks. Instead a deal was made with GM under which the company would spend more than $51 million on safety and research. 


1997 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of telephone fund-raising by President Clinton and Vice President Gore. It was concluded that they had not violated election laws. 


2001 - Enron Corp. filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. The filing came five days after Dynegy walked away from a $8.4 billion buyout. It was the largest bankruptcy in U.S.history. 

You Won’t Believe What Ferguson Protestors and Obama Just Did

You Won’t Believe What Ferguson Protestors and Obama Just Did:

"Also in attendance was tax cheat Al Sharpton and not in attendance was a single person from the Ferguson Police Department. What Obama is trying to do is create a top down government, instead of leaving governing to individual communities."

After More Than a Year, This Is the White House’s Response to a Petition to Declare the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group | TheBlaze.com

After More Than a Year, This Is the White House’s Response to a Petition to Declare the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group | TheBlaze.com:

"After more than a year, the White House finally responded to an online petition asking that the Muslim Brotherhood be declared a terrorist organization, and the answer is no.

“We have not seen credible evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood has renounced its decades-long commitment to non-violence,” the White House said in response to a “We the People” petition that garnered 213,146 signatures — more than twice the 100,000-signature threshold to trigger a response."


How much worse does it have to get before Americans realize our enemy is inside our government? 

Prisoners get millions from IRS in bogus refund claims, watchdog finds | Fox News

Prisoners get millions from IRS in bogus refund claims, watchdog finds | Fox News:

"According to the report, more than 137,000 phony tax returns were filed in 2012 using a prisoner’s Social Security number to the tune of $1 billion. While many of the fake refunds were flagged and prevented by the agency, the IRS issued $70 million in bogus refunds.

This was a significant increase from 2007, when more than 37,000 fake tax returns were filed for amounts equaling $166 million."

How Miriam Carey’s U-turn at a White House checkpoint led to her death

How Miriam Carey’s U-turn at a White House checkpoint led to her death | The Washington Post
Do you remember Miriam Carey? 
Her remarkably public death at 34 mesmerized us for a couple of news cycles.
Then we moved on pretty quickly.
I had to look up her name when I first started puzzling over this case.
The main thing I remembered was that incredible video — the one showing the two-door black Infiniti surrounded by Secret Service officers with guns drawn near the Capitol Reflecting Pool.
The car looks trapped.
Suddenly the driver backs into a squad car and accelerates away.
There’s the sound of gunfire while tourists take cover on the West Lawn.
The Infiniti reappears, making a loop around a traffic circle, and proceeds up Constitution Avenue to what would be the fatal encounter outside the Hart Building.

What an afternoon. We were told that Carey “rammed” White House and Capitol “barriers.”
That she tried to breach two security perimeters.
That she had mental problems.

District Police Chief Cathy Lanier said federal officers acted “heroically.”
The House of Representatives offered a standing ovation.

It was easy to call this a tragedy and turn the page.

Except that some of what little we thought we knew hasn’t held up. 
The part about ramming White House barriers and trying to breach two security perimeters? 
Not exactly true.

Business survey: Michigan should spend to aid Detroit recovery

Business survey: Michigan should spend to aid Detroit recovery | Crain's Detroit Business:
Businesspeople think Michigan needs to open the purse strings and help fund infrastructure, job training and aid for a post-bankruptcy Detroit if the state wants them to benefit more from the economic recovery. 
....Ciura also placed top priority on state assistance to Detroit in its recovery after its plan of adjustment to exit an $18 billion bankruptcy takes effect next week. 
So did 38 percent of respondents in the survey, and 79 percent said it was at least somewhat important. 

13 Facts About Ferguson the Media Will Never Tell You

13 Facts About Ferguson the Media Will Never Tell You:

"According to protesters who erupted in violence after a grand jury declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., this was the case of a white policeman shooting an unarmed black teenager with his hands in the air in a community plagued by racial tension."

Bragging rights: See where Michigan cities rank on 'best of' lists

Bragging rights: See where Michigan cities rank on 'best of' lists | MLive.com

African-American Journalist says “The Issue Here is Black Criminality, Not the Behavior of Cops” - Eagle Rising

African-American Journalist says “The Issue Here is Black Criminality, Not the Behavior of Cops” - Eagle Rising:

"Jason Riley is an accomplished journalist with the Wall Street Journal and on Tuesday he made some major waves with what may go down as the most Un-PC comment ever told.

Riley was on Fox News speaking with Megyn Kelly when he said,"

Utilities' report warns of energy shortage: Consumers, DTE urge building new power plants

Utilities' report warns of energy shortage: Consumers, DTE urge building new power plants | Crain's Detroit Business:
Michigan's two largest utilities -- Consumers Energy and DTE Energy Co. -- are mounting a major public relations effort to make legislators and electric customers aware that a shortage of power generation reserve could occur in Michigan and the Midwest starting in 2016.
The public education campaign began last month with the release of a utility-commissioned report by Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants Inc. called Electric Reliability in Michigan: The Challenge Ahead.
The use of the word "reliability" in the report surprised some experts because that word generally is used by state regulators -- and even DTE and Consumers themselves -- to describe the frequency and duration of power failures caused by storms. 
But utility representatives said that because of the planned retirement of nine coal-fired power plants in Michigan over the next two years, reliability now also means the ability of power companies to provide adequate electricity to customers at peak demand. 

Robot Proves Antarctic Ice Thicker than Thought

Robot Proves Antarctic Ice Thicker than Thought:

"On Monday, the team responsible for the study asserted in the journal Nature Geoscience, "We suggest that thick ice in the near-coastal and interior pack may be under-represented in existing in situ assessments of Antarctic sea ice and hence, on average, Antarctic sea ice may be thicker than previously thought." SeaBED traversed both east and west Antarctica, taking measurements across 50 hectares and finding ice as much as 16 m"

Oh lordy, we bad! (specially in Detroit!)-----The 5 Worst States for LGBT People

The 5 Worst States for LGBT People | Rolling Stone

5. Michigan

States like Tennessee and North Dakota present strong cases for inclusion as the last spot on this list. Tennessee is one of the eight "Don't Say Gay" states, as well as ranking high in income inequality and poverty and low in public support for same-sex marriage. Gay Tennesseans are also less likely to know someone like them, as the state has the fourth-smallest percentage of LGBT citizens. It's got nothing on North Dakota, where only 1.7 percent of the population identifies as LGBT, the lowest in the nation. 

Protests in front of the federal court in Detroit, Michigan on February 25th, 2014. (Photo: Courtney Sacco/Corbis)

But we're going with Michigan. While having more gays than those others, the state has a disproportionately high hate crime rate, with one survey ranking Michigan as high assecond in the nation. These incidents largely target transgender women of color. In 2013, Detroit resident Coko Williams was fatally shot after her throat had been slashed. The previous year, police found the mutilated torso of 19-year-old Michelle Hillard; Michigan Live reports another woman was "burned so badly she couldn't be identified for 11 days." An attack on a lesbian couple in April further highlighted the inadequacy of the state's laws in prosecuting hate crimes.

This wave of anti-LGBT violence is part of the reason why Detroit was named the most dangerous city in the nation for gay travelers, and the survey also cited the metro area's dwindling number of gay bars and high poverty rate...

Retail Disaster: Holiday Sales Crater by 11%, Online Spend Declines: NRF Blames Shopping Fiasco On "Stronger Economy"

Retail Disaster: Holiday Sales Crater by 11%, Online Spend Declines: NRF Blames Shopping Fiasco On "Stronger Economy" | Zero Hedge
Last year was bad. 
This year is an outright disaster.

As we reported earlier using ShopperTrak data, the first two days of the holiday shopping season were already showing a -0.5% decline across bricks-and-mortar stores, following a "cash for clunkers"-like jump in early promotions which pulled demand forward with little follow through in the remaining shopping days. 

However, not even we predicted the shocker just released from the National Retail Federation (NRF), the traditionally cheery industry organization, which just reported absolutely abysmal numbers:
sales during the four-day Thanksgiving holiday period crashed by a whopping 11% from $57.4 billion to $50.9 billion, confirming what everyone but the Fed knows by now:
the US middle class is being obliterated, and that key driver of 70% of US economic growth is in the worst shape it has been since the Lehman collapse, courtesy of 6 years of Fed's ruinous central planning. 

...Also did we mention the NRF is perpetually cheery and always desperate to put a metric ton of lipstick on a pig? 
Well, hold on to your hats folks:

He also attributed the declines to better online offerings and an improving economy where “people don’t feel the same psychological need to rush out and get the great deal that weekend, particularly if they expected to be  more deals,” he said.

Whatever Happened to Inflation?

Whatever Happened to Inflation? - Reason.com
In recent years, U.S. federal deficits have declined from more than $1.2 trillion to less than $600 billion. 
This is not because the government has made hard choices to raise revenue or cut spending but because rising asset prices have resulted in greater tax receipts from the wealthy. 
Yet this windfall can only last until the next meaningful correction in asset prices. 
If tax revenues fall, growing federal deficits would compel the Fed to print the difference. 
In that case, foreign banks would need to buy even more dollars to maintain their currency valuations. 
If they lose the will to keep pace, the dollar would lose relative value. 
A weaker dollar could be the spark that finally ignites significant CPI inflation in the United States.

Story to watch: Teens beat motorist to death with hammers in St. Louis | Twitchy

Story to watch: Teens beat motorist to death with hammers in St. Louis | Twitchy:

"A 32-year-old man was beaten to death with hammers by at least two teens early Sunday morning on Itaska Street.

The victim was identified as Zemir Begic, 32, of the 4200 block of Miami Street. He had injuries to his head, abdomen, face and mouth. He was taken to St. Louis University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead."

Who Boycotts Wal-Mart?

Who Boycotts Wal-Mart? | National Review Online:
Social-justice warriors who are too enlightened to let their poor neighbors pay lower prices. 
...Ironically, the anti-Wal-Mart crusaders want to make life worse for people who are literally counting pennies as they shop for necessities. 
Study after study has shown that Wal-Mart has meaningfully reduced prices: 3.1 percent overall, by one estimate — with a whopping 9.1 percent cut to the price of groceries. 
That comes to about $2,300 a year per household, savings that accrue overwhelmingly to people of modest incomes, not to celebrity activists and Ivy League social-justice crusaders.

Ultimately, these campaigns are exercises in tribal affiliation. 
The Rolex tribe, and those who aspire to be aligned with it, signal their status by sneering at the Timex tribe — or by condescending to it as they purport to act on its behalf, as though poor people were too stupid to know where to find the best deal on a can of beans. 
Or call it the Trader Joe’s tribe vs. the Wal-Mart tribe, the Prius tribe vs. the F-150 tribe.

How Much Obamanomics Has Cost Us

How Much Obamanomics Has Cost Us:

"What has been the price tag for the audacious Obamanomics experiment? How much has it all cost — the bailouts, the debt, the stimulus plans, the printing of cheap money, Obamacare and all the rest?"

WOW: Look at how much Walmart pays their employees when there is NO MINIMUM WAGE laws

WOW: Look at how much Walmart pays their employees when there is NO MINIMUM WAGE laws