Friday Coffee Talk/Open Thread

by: BZP

Fri Oct 12, 2007 at 07:26:47 AM EDT

First off, we have another new ENDA BlogAd from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force... yay!

Second, Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize... double yay! Now, onto the links.

• LSJ: Record 'em: Senate censorship on votes makes mockery of accountability. Mike Bishop, Mr. Censorship.
• Oakland Press: Michigan shouldn't need bathroom bill, but it does. This should make LibearalLucy happy: "The bill appears to be reasonable and considers both customer and business concerns. While in some respects we don't need another "bill" on the books, it probably wouldn't hurt to have this one."
• AP: State Reps Agree... 70 with No Helmet is Cool. Sorry, but this is dumb.
• DFP: Thousands may have to retake part of MEAP after newspaper leak. So is this. Here's the statement from the Jackson Cit-Pat about the incident.
• DFP: Voters may decide on lifting stem cell ban. "Paperwork creating the Stem Cell Research Ballot Question Committee was filed last week with the Secretary of State. But the director of an affiliated organization said Thursday no decision has been made about whether to mount what would almost certainly become a multimillion-dollar campaign to overturn the state?s ban on research involving the destruction of human embryos."
• Rep. Bart Stupack: We Need A Food Safety System Capable of Combating Dangerous Food Imports. "Now more than ever, our country?s federal food safety system needs to be strong enough to protect the public health, our national security, and our economy."

• AA Biz Review: U-M VP: Universities belong in economic development. "U-M played a prominent, public role in the attraction of Google Inc. and Aerrnova Aerospace S.A. to Ann Arbor, Forrest said. But universities need the support of the state to maintain efforts to stay involved in local economies."
• AA Biz Review: Process Innovators: NanoBio Corp. Here's a perfect example of a university project spinning off into a successful business: "NanoBio spun out of the University of Michigan in 2000. The technology initially was developed at the university, where it received funding from the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency."
• Michigan Future: UM publishes important breast cancer discovery. "The University of Michigan this week announced that its researchers played a key role in identifying a gene linked to breast cancer. The gene was discovered based on the work of a multi-center international study." In related news, an Ann Arbor-based company just received a "multimillion-dollar grant from the National Cancer Institute to foster the development of a cancer profiling database as a tool for biopharmaceutical R&D."

• Western MI Biz Review: GM-UAW pact spotlights health care. "This is a situation where GM is able to really tip the balance a little bit in terms of their competitiveness, and now GM's U.S. operations are sitting in a much better position than they were before," said Michael Robinet, vice president of global vehicle forecasts for CSM Worldwide. "This was really what GM needed to give them just that much more momentum in the market."
• Tom Walsh: Gettelfinger has to flex workers' muscle. "When all this is over," [David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research] said, "we'll look at Ron Gettelfinger and say this is an amazing guy to have pulled all this off, when you consider the Delphi, and the new Chrysler ownership and everything else."
• AP: Teamsters union seeks to organize Soaring Eagle Casino. "The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, which owns and operate Soaring Eagle, may take the position that the [National Labor Relations Board] has no jurisdiction. But the federal agency has maintained since 1984 that the right to organize and bargain collectively applies to American Indian casino employees."

• AP: Clinton defends decision to stay on Mich. primary ballot. "It?s clear, this election they?re having is not going to count for anything," Clinton said today during an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio?s call-in program, "The Exchange." "But I just personally did not want to set up a situation where the Republicans are going to be campaigning between now and whenever, and then after the nomination, we have to go in and repair the damage to be ready to win Michigan in 2008."
• Michigan Messenger: Michigan primary will go on as planned, say party officials. Let's hope this is true: "There is still the possibility that Democrats will also hold a separate presidential caucus on Feb. 9 to officially pick a nominee from the complete list of candidates."
• Media Mouse: Hoekstra Admits Close Ties With Blackwater's Erik Prince. "Hoekstra told the Press that his connection goes "way back," explaining that he attended the same Central Avenue Christian Reformed Church as the Prince family, that Erik Prince is related to Hoekstra's best friend from high school, and that Prince is friends with Hoesktra's in-district director, Bill Huizenga. Hoekstra says that he has talked to Prince regularly, stating "I've called him, and he's called me."